Recalling the pioneers who broke the basketball color line in the Big Seven

These truly brave, courageous men and pioneers were the first African-American basketball players in the Big Seven. They should be greatly commended for their outstanding efforts in breaking the color line and setting the foundation for future black players to he recruited in the Big Seven, Big Eight, and now Big 12. I have tremendous respect, love and admiration for all these historic players.

Here is a look at each of the Big 7’s first African-American players. I also write about Nebraska’s Wilbur Wood, who played at the school from 1907-10 in the Missouri Valley Conference as NU’s first African-American player and just the second black to play college basketball at a predominately white institution.

This project was extensively researched and a true labor of love! These pioneers MUST NEVER BE FORGOTTEN!

Kansas

LaVannes Squires broke the color line in KU basketball and the Big Seven (along with K-State’s Gene Wilson) under coach Phog Allen in 1951-52. A 6-1 guard from Wichita East High School (he played for former KU star Ralph Miller), he averaged 1.0 points in 33 games. A true winner, consummate team player and tireless worker, Squires played on the 1952 national championship team and the national title runner-up squad.

Squires graduated with a business degree in the top-10 percent of his class and worked for the “Look” Magazine Subscription Office in Des Moines as a junior accountant. He eventually became manager of the accounting department of the magazine office before entering the banking profession. The former Jayhawk eventually served as the president of the Bank of Finance. According to his Wikipedia page, he was instrumental in fixing "the bank to make it more fiscally sound and able to abide to business policies. The bank had 1,300 stockholders, which for the first time on August 29, 1974 received their first check that represented the first share paid by the Bank to its holders. He started as the Chief Executive at Bank of Finance in 1964; employed 68 employees when the bank was ranked at number seven in “Black Enterprise: Top 100” in 1975. The “Black Enterprise” list in June 1975 was the third time that the magazine had compiled a list of the 100 largest 'black-owned and/or black managed businesses in the United States.' Despite the original growing pains the bank had to endure in order to become a good business, it still prides itself on the ideal to fill in the economic gaps that existed in the black community. The Bank of Finance had provided financial assistance for the 'creation of medical centers, day care centers, homes for the aged, and a greater number of multiple-unit housing complexes.' They return the money to the local community that they earn from the businesses in the form of payroll purchases.”

Now, age 88, Squires lives in Pasadena, California.

Colorado

Billy Lewis was Colorado's first black player in 1957-58. A 6-3 guard, he averaged 3.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in three seasons. Lewis shot 29.1 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from the free throw line in 67 games. Lewis, who scored a career-high 21 points against Nebraska, was also a high jumper on CU's track and field team.

After receiving  his law degree from Howard University, he worked for IBM, opened a private practice in Denver before returning to Washington, D.C., to serve as general counsel for the District of Columbia Board of Election and Ethics.

Nebraska

Wilbur Wood was actually NU's first black player before World War I. He played from 1907-10 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The first Husker three-year lettermen, Wood helped Nebraska earn three straight runner-up finishes in the MVC. 

Herschell Turner and Wilson Fitzpatrick were NU's first black players in the Big Seven in 1957-58. Turner, who hailed from Indianapolis, led Nebraska in rebounding three straight years as just a 6-2 guard. He was also the team's leading scorer all three years and the first Husker to score 1,000 points, while named a Helms All-American and first-team All-Big Eight selection in 1960. He played in the East-West college All-Star game and participated in the 1960 Olympic trials that produced what most observers believe is the greatest U.S team ever.

Turner, who was named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary team in 1971, was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals in the 6th round (5th pick, 45th overall) of the 1960 NBA draft. An All-ABL second-team selection in 1962, he played for the Anaheim Amigos and Pittsburgh Pipers of the ABA during the 1967–68 season while also competing for the Harlem Globetrotters.

After his pro career ended, he became an exhibited painter.

Turner had a celebrated high school career as well, the runner-up to future Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson as the Indiana high school player of the year his senior season. Turner, who was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991, enjoyed a record-setting career at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, acclaimed as one of the city’s greatest players of all time. He ended his prep career with the single-season and career scoring record, named all-city and all-section.

A forward, Fitzpatrick played just one season at Nebraska and averaged 11.5 points and 6.7 rebounds in 23 games while shooting 39.4 percent from the field and 48.5 percent at the charity stripe.

Oklahoma

Harold "Buddy" Hudson and Joe Lee Thompson, who were high school teammates, broke the color line at OU in 1958-59. Hudson, a transfer from Oklahoma Baptist, averaged 5.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in two seasons (49 games). The 6-2 forward shot 34.9 percent from the field and 63.6 percent at the free throw line.

He worked in school districts in Oklahoma City and Kansas City.

A forward, Thompson averaged 2.5 points and 1.6 rebounds per game in three seasons (38 games). He shot 29.9 percent from the field and 57.4 percent at the free throw line.

Missouri

Al Abram made his debut in 1956-67, which happened to be Wilt Chamberlain’s first season at KU. A star player, Abram led MU in scoring (16.1 ppg), rebounding (8.9 rpg) and field goal shooting (45 percent) in 1958-59. Facing racism and discrimination, Abram was forced to stay in a dorm room at nearby Texas Southern on a road trip to play Rice in Houston.

A 6-5 versatile player, Abram shot 40.9 percent from the field and 70.7 percent at the free throw line in 64 games. He averaged 11.0 points in four seasons.

Abram worked for the City of St. Louis and also the IRS.

Kansas State  

Gene Wilson was signed by KSU coach Jack Gardner and was eligible in 1951-52 as the first black player in the Big 7 (along with KU’s Squires). The 5-11 guard, whose career was interrupted due to military service, averaged 4.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in six games during 1954-55. He shot 33.3 percent from the field and 50.0 percent at the charity stripe.

Wilson, an Anderson, Indiana, native was part of a pipeline of Anderson players at KSU. Wilson’s high school teammates Dick Peck, Bob Rousey and Danny Schuyler preceded him to Manhattan. Their high school coach, Keith Lambert, was a K-State assistant before serving as head coach at Montana State.

Dick Burdette wrote in his book, “Jump, Johnny, Jump!” that Wilson turned down a scholarship offer to Washburn University in Topeka since it was too far from home. But he had a change of heart about moving away to Manhattan (58 miles west of Topeka) after talking to Lambert.

“Go on out there,” Lambert told Wilson. “I’ll be coming to Kansas State as an assistant coach your sophomore season.”

Wilson experienced his share of racial abuse competing at places like Missouri and Kansas. Burdette wrote that “the moment he checked into the lineup (in Lawrence), Phog Allen, the Jayhawks' legendary coach, jumped up and walked down to the end of the bend. Sitting there was KU’s only, and rarely used black player (Squires). 

“Phog Allen sent him into guard Gene. Three straight possessions, Gene’s teammates cleared out to one side of the floor. Three straight times, Gene streaked in for an easy basket. Phog Allen removed (Squires) and sent in a burly KU football player. He soon knocked Gene to the floor. Bob Rousey decked the football player with an overhand right. Neither player was ejected. The game continued. But not the violence.”

In addition to playing hoops at KSU, Wilson competed in track and field with football star Veryl Switzer and was friends with catcher Earl Woods, who was K-State’s first black baseball player in 1951. KSU also broke the color barrier in football in 1949 with Harold Robinson, the first African-American scholarship athlete in the Big Seven. Robinson later received a congratulatory letter from Jackie Robinson, who integrated major league baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

After his career in Manhattan, Wilson eventually spent a longtime career as a baseball umpire. As the Topeka Capitol Journal reported on June 14, 2013, Wilson was “one of the first black umpires to work many levels of baseball in northeast Kansas and beyond, Wilson was the consummate professional. So much so he wrote a manual for proper mechanics that was adopted at the national level by the American Legion. In addition, Wilson participated in numerous clinics that were often incorporated into certification requirements.'

“I was really serious about umpiring,” he said. “There were many things I considered important — mechanics, knowing the rules, being respectful. That really won over the fans. And, like anything else, as you go longer in something, the more you know."

He umpired from 1961 into the 1990s, and was enshrined in the inaugural class of the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame in June 2013. Wilson said he was inspired to be an umpire “to be around kids.”

“In Topeka there is quite a fantastic youth program. There have been several players come out of Topeka who went as far as the major leagues and lot of them got drafted. It all got created by those programs and I enjoyed being part of that.”

Iowa State

John Crawford was a tremendous player who became ISU’s first black player in 1955-56, one year before Chamberlain became eligible at KU. Crawford averaged 13.4 points and 9.7 rebounds in three seasons. An All-Big Seven conference selection, he led the team in rebounding all three seasons and in scoring his senior year (14.1 ppg).

A 6-5 forward, Crawford was an instrumental part of the greatest chapters in ISU history. He averaged 12.6 and 9.7 rebounds per game as a sophomore for the Cyclones, who won their first conference tournament title in school history with a 1955 Big Seven Conference Holiday Tournament championship. ISU beat highly favored KU to win the title. That propelled Iowa State to No. 7 in the national polls, the highest ranking in ISU history at the time. The 1955-56 team broke the school record with 18 wins.

As a junior, Crawford averaged a double-double (13.6 ppg, 10.2 rpg), and ISU was ranked as high as No. 3 after beating Chamberlain’s No. 1 ‘Hawks, 37-36. He tied a school record on Dec. 29, 1956 by making all 15 of his free throw attempts.

In his senior campaign, Crawford earned first-team All-Big Seven honors by averaging 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds. Crawford ended his magical three-year career as the school’s all-time leading rebounder with 658 caroms. His 9.7 career rebounding average ranks seventh all time in school history. He culminated his stellar career ranked second in scoring behind All-American Gary Thompson with 914 points.

Crawford, who was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006, died at age 77 in March 2014.

"John was the first African-American to play basketball at Iowa State, but we never saw it that way. He was just one of us," Thompson said in a statement at the time. "He was a tremendous teammate and a great player. I stayed in contact with John throughout the years. I will miss him dearly."

Crawford was a New York, N.Y.,  native who Cyclones.com described as having “incredible leaping ability.” The 6-5 dynamo led the city and was named MOP in the area at New York School of Printing. ISU coach Bill Strannigan, who “was about to make his mark as one of the greatest mentors in Iowa State history,” was instrumental in bringing Crawford from New York to Ames.

References:

collegehoopedia.com/players/pioneers-who-broke-color-barrier

sports-reference.com/cbb/players

Des Moines Register