Earl Lloyd

[gw67]

I’m sure that all posters on this board know that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball but I suspect that very few know that Earl Lloyd was the first African American to play in the NBA. He played at West Virginia State and was drafted by the Washington Caps in 1950 and later played for the Syracuse Nationals. I vaguely remember him as a husky forward who was a rebounder and defensive player in the mold of Jungle Jim Loscutoff.

Earl was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. In a nice gesture, the city plans to name the new gymnasium in the local high school after him.

gw67

[Indoor66]

I’m sure that all posters on this board know that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball but I suspect that very few know that Earl Lloyd was the first African American to play in the NBA. He played at West Virginia State and was drafted by the Washington Caps in 1950 and later played for the Syracuse Nationals. I vaguely remember him as a husky forward who was a rebounder and defensive player in the mold of Jungle Jim Loscutoff.

Earl was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. In a nice gesture, the city plans to name the new gymnasium in the local high school after him.

gw67

Do you mean that he was the enforcer for the Nats?

[gw67]

Indoor66 - I can barely remember to take the trash out every Tuesday so my recollections from 50 years ago may be a little fuzzy (A few weeks ago, we were posting about changes to the game and I pictured Chet Forte in my mind and typed Robin Freeman). I believe that the finesse players on the Syracuse teams were Dolph Schayes, Johnny Kerr and Larry Costello. I'm sure there were others but I draw a blank. Lloyd was a husky inside player who used his body to get rebounds and muscle players on defense. There wasn't a lot of finesse in his game.

I note that there were two other African Americans, Sweetwater Clifton and Chuck Cooper, who entered the NBA the same year as Lloyd but played later. I don't recall seeing either play a live game on TV but I recall seeing NY Knicks highlights from Madison Square Garden with Marty Glickman announcing and Clifton was often featured. Glickman, by the way, was a great basketball play-by-play man.

gw67

[Indoor66]

Indoor66 - I can barely remember to take the trash out every Tuesday so my recollections from 50 years ago may be a little fuzzy (A few weeks ago, we were posting about changes to the game and I pictured Chet Forte in my mind and typed Robin Freeman). I believe that the finesse players on the Syracuse teams were Dolph Schayes, Johnny Kerr and Larry Costello. I'm sure there were others but I draw a blank. Lloyd was a husky inside player who used his body to get rebounds and muscle players on defense. There wasn't a lot of finesse in his game.

I note that there were two other Afican Americans, Sweetwater Clifton and Chuck Cooper, who entered the NBA the same year as Lloyd but played later. I don't recall seeing either play a live game on TV but I recall seeing NY Knicks highlights from Madison Square Garden with Marty Glickman announcing and Clifton was often featured. Glickman, by the way, was a great basketball play-by-play man.

gw67

Understand that memory issue too well!! :) I was referring to Jungle Jim being the enforcer and that during that period every team had someone they put in to "cool off" one of the opposition via physical play.

Jim Loscutoff
James Loscutoff Jr. (Jim, Jungle Jim, Loscy)


Position: F
Height: 6'5" Weight: 220 lbs.
Born: February 4, 1930 in San Francisco, CA
High School: Grant Tech in Oakland, CA
College: University of Oregon


Drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the 1955 NBA draft.


I remember a game on TV when the rim was bent down in the course of play. They brought out a measuring stick and it was about 2 or so inches low at the front edge. Off they went to get a ladder. Luskutoff went to the bench and grabbed a chair. He stood on the chair and bent the rim up to the required height and the Garden fans went nuts. Auerebach even smiled.