BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Earl Lloyd
| BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY |
Lloyd, right, shakes hands with Walter E. Gaskin in January 2006
| |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 3, 1928 Alexandria, Virginia[1] |
| Died | February 26, 2015 (aged 86) Crossville, Tennessee |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Listed weight | 225 lb (102 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Parker-Gray (Alexandria, Virginia) |
| College | West Virginia State (1946–1950) |
| NBA draft | 1950 / Round: 9 / Pick: 100th overall |
| Selected by the Washington Capitols | |
| Pro career | 1950–1960 |
| Position | Small forward |
| Number | 11, 8, 17 |
| Career history | |
| As player: | |
| 1950–1951 | Washington Capitols |
| 1952–1958 | Syracuse Nationals |
| 1958–1960 | Detroit Pistons |
| As coach: | |
| 1971–1972 | Detroit Pistons |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Career statistics | |
| Points | 4,682 (8.4 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 3,609 (6.4 rpg) |
| Assists | 810 (1.4 apg) |
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
| Basketball Hall of Fame | |
Earl Francis Lloyd (April 3, 1928 – February 26, 2015) was an American professional basketball player. He was the first black person to play in the National Basketball Association, in the 1950–51 NBA season.[2] Three other African Americans played in the same season: Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton, and Hank DeZonie.
Lloyd, a forward known for his defense, played collegiately at West Virginia State College, was selected in the ninth-round of the 1950 NBA draft by the Washington Capitols. On October 31, 1950, Lloyd became the first African American to play in anNBA game, against the Rochester Royals.
Lloyd led West Virginia State to two CIAA Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949. He was named All-Conference three times (1948–50) and was All-American twice, as named by the Pittsburgh Courier (1949–50). As a senior, he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, while leading West Virginia State to a second place finish in the CIAA Conference and Tournament Championship. In 1947-48, West Virginia State was the only undefeated team in the United States.
NBA career
Nicknamed "The Big Cat", Lloyd was one of three African-Americans to enter the NBA at the same time. It was only because of the order in which the teams' season openers fell that Lloyd was the first to actually play in a game in the NBA. The date was October 31, 1950, one day ahead of Cooper of the Boston Celtics and four days before Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton of theNew York Knicks. Lloyd played in over 560 games in nine seasons, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward averaged 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
Lloyd played in only seven games for the Washington Capitols before the team folded on January 9, 1951. He then went into the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before the Syracuse Nationals picked him up on waivers. He spent six seasons with Syracuse and two with the Detroit Pistons before retiring in 1960.
Lloyd retired ranked 43rd in career scoring with 4,682 points. In the 1953-54 season, Lloyd led the NBA in both personal fouls and disqualifications.[3] His best year was 1955, when he averaged 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds for Syracuse, which beat the Fort Wayne Pistons 4-3 for the NBA title. Lloyd and Jim Tucker were the first African-Americans to play on an NBA championship team.
Lloyd once said; "In 1950, basketball was like a babe in the woods; it didn't enjoy the notoriety that baseball enjoyed." Like Lloyd, Clifton and Cooper had solid but not spectacular careers.
According to Detroit News sportswriter Jerry Green, in 1965 Detroit Pistons General Manager Don Wattrick wanted to hire Lloyd as the team's head coach. It would have made Lloyd the first African-American head coach in American pro sports.Dave DeBusschere was instead named Pistons player–coach. From 1972 to 1973, Lloyd did coach the Pistons and was a scout for five seasons.
Personal
Lloyd and his wife, Charlita, have three sons,[4] and four grandchildren. Earl resided in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee, just outside of Crossville, until his death in February 2015.[5]
Honors
Lloyd was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
In 2003, Lloyd was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.[6]
On December 1, 2007, the newly constructed basketball court at T. C. Williams High School in Lloyd's home town of Alexandria, Virginia, was named in his honor. Lloyd actually attended Parker-Gray High School, as Alexandria's schools were racially-segregated at the time. T.C. Williams—the subject of the motion picture Remember the Titans—was created as a combined, desegregated school two decades later.[4]
In November 2009, Moon fixer: The Basketball Journey of Earl Lloyd, was released. Lloyd wrote this biography with Syracuse area writer, Sean Kirst.
In 2015 Lloyd, along with fellow basketball player Alonzo Mourning, was one of eight Virginians honored in the Library of Virginia's "Strong Men & Women in Virginia History" because of his contributions to the sport of basketball.[1]
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