NOT SO.
The third African American basketball player at KU was a 6-foot-2, 160-pound forward from Northeast High School in Philadelphia named Robert “Bob” Lockley. Born in Saluda, Va., Wilson grew up in the “City of Brotherly Love” and attended Kansas on a basketball scholarship. KU sports publicity director Don Pierce described Lockley in the 1955-56 KU Media Guide as “Philadelphia sophomore who could become one of greatest jumpers in Kansas basketball history. Better than average defensive ability and attains aggressiveness to bid for playing time.”
Wilson played in eight games that 1955-56 season (KU went 14-9 in Allen’s last year as head coach), posting nine points (1.1 ppg) on 4 of 10 field goal shooting and 1 of 4 at the free throw line, while grabbing 11 rebounds (1.4 rpg). The 1956 Jayhawker Yearbook wrote about Lockley in previewing next year’s team: “Bob Lockley and John Cleland, two promising juniors-to-be, who were used often the last campaign, will have to be rated as highly potential material.”
Lockley, though, never played another game at Kansas. He died on Nov. 25, 2015 at age 85, according to his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia Daily News.
“Robert, age 85, passed away peacefully … He attended Northeast High School and the University of Kansas where he played basketball with the renowned Jayhawks. Robert was a faithful gov't. employee for 37 years. He is survived by his current wife Raquel, former wife, Patricia, son Robert Jr. daughters Robin and Ashley and many grands and great-grands.”
Lockley was one of two Black players on KU’s team with King, the 6-foot-2 junior guard who ranked second on the team in scoring behind Dallas Dobbs (academically ineligible second semester) with 14.0 points per game. Looking back at my 1988 KU senior honors thesis on Racial Participation and Integration in Kansas Men’s Basketball: 1952-1975, only 28 percent of the country’s basketball teams had Blacks on their roster in 1954 with 1.6 the average number of Blacks on integrated squads. From this data, KU was certainly far ahead of the national average with 72 percent of the country’s teams having no Black players.
We cannot forget about Robert “Bob” Lockley. He might not have the name recognition of LaVannes Squires and, of course, the Big Dipper, but he was a heroic figure who helped blaze the trail for Wilt and other Black players like fellow Philadelphians Wayne Hightower, Al Correll, and Ralph Heyward to follow at KU. Yes, Hightower, Correll and Heyward chose KU primarily due to Wilt, but it was Lockley who started it all from Philadelphia. And one can only imagine the deep racism and prejudice Lockley endured in being the third African American player at Kansas during the infested segregation in the mid-1950s in Lawrence and throughout America.
Sending much love to Robert’s family and all who knew this courageous pioneer.
