Learning to Win

‘Black Athletes in White Men's Games’: Race, Sport and American National Pastimes

“…By the late 1930s, however, basketball in the African American community at both the interscholastic and intercollegiate levels was transitioning from what historian Pamela Grundy terms a 'character-building exercise into a major spectator event'. 43 This transition, evidenced more broadly by the introduction of basketball at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and creation of the National Invitational Tournament in 1938 and National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament the following year, would produce even more enthusiasm for the sport, lead to new rules and accompany changes in playing styles and foreshadow the modern era in which education among black males was superseded by the singular pursuit of athletic glory and professional contracts. 44 Black college football was equally important in generating enthusiasm behind segregated walls.…”