Basketball history

I grew up on the tail end of segregation seeing schools like Kentucky finally ending their practice of excluding black athletes. It's interesting how some of the country's best players ended up at northern schools like Marquette, California and UCLA. http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...rd_books_.html

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Originally Posted by TulsaWarrior

I grew up on the tail end of segregation seeing schools like Kentucky finally ending their practice of excluding black athletes. It's interesting how some of the country's best players ended up at northern schools like Marquette, California and UCLA. http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...rd_books_.html

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Now, I didn't start following MU until about 40 years ago, but from what I can gather, MU only had two southern African-American student athletes come in at the time of segregation. One would be Joe Thomas (Canton, Georgia) and the other I think was Len Jefferson (Selma, Alabama). Is this correct?

Len Jefferson was a starter but academic issues ended his career. He had such potential but was short changed by the K-12 education system in the south. Joe Thomas got here because of the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves connection. I remember taking the bus downtown and seeing him practicing his shot. Hours later when I was going home Joe was still out there shooting.