John B. McLendon Jr. (April 5, 1915 – October 8, 1999) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach who is recognized as the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

basketball coach at a predominantly white university and the first African American head coach in any professional sport. He was a major contributor to the development of modern basketball and coached on both the college and professional levels during his career. He has been enshrined three times in the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

, and also inducted into the

National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to men's college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the Nation ...

Early life

McClendon was born in

Hiawatha, Kansas Hiawatha (Chiwere language, Ioway: ''Hári Wáta'' pronounced ) is the largest city and county seat of Brown County, Kansas, Brown County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was ...

. McLendon Jr. was part

and part

Delaware Indian The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Dela ...

from his mother's side.Aaron Barnhart
''Black Magic'': Only the lines were white
, TV Barn, March 14, 2008. Retrieved on Jan. 20, 2010. His mother died in the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, H1N1 subtype of the influenz ...

which would lead to the temporary break-up of his family. McClendon and his younger brother were sent to be with his Delaware Indian grandparents on a ranch near

Trinidad, Colorado Trinidad is the List of cities and towns in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of and the List of cities and towns in Colorado, most populous municipality in Las Animas County, Colorado, United Stat ...

while his older sister was sent to be with an aunt in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, and his younger sister was sent to be with other relatives, but would end up with a foster family on a ranch in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

. McClendon would not see his younger sister again for 45 years, but the rest of the family were reunited after his father remarried in 1921. The family settled in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

, where McClendon would first go to Dunbar Elementary School and later Sumner High School. He became enamored with the sport of basketball while on a field trip from Dunbar Elementary to the new Northeast Junior High School in Kansas City, Kansas, where he saw his first official basketball court. He soon became an all-around athlete at Sumner High School and chose basketball as his favorite sport, although he failed to make the basketball team at Sumner. Instead, he lettered in gymnastics and was the basketball team manager.

College

After high school, McClendon first attended Kansas City Kansas Junior College where he finally made the basketball team. The team went undefeated, although he only played sparingly. After one year at Kansas City Kansas Junior College he then transferred to the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

, where he learned the intricacies of basketball from the sport's inventor,

James Naismith James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Scottish-Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United State ...

, who was the athletic director at the school. However, McLendon was not permitted to actually play college basketball, as the KU varsity team was segregated and would not suit up its first black player until 1951. He graduated with a master's degree in physical education from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

in 1937.

Career

He went on to become a successful high school and college coach, at schools such as North Carolina College for Negroes (now

North Carolina Central University North Carolina Central University (NCCU or NC Central) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliati ...

), Hampton Institute (now University), Tennessee A&I (now

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

), Kentucky State College (now University) and

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

. In his early years, his teams were restricted to playing only against other all-black teams. However, while coaching at North Carolina College for Negroes, McLendon participated in "The Secret Game", a match against a team from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, which was the first collegiate basketball contest where blacks and whites competed on the same floor. He led the Eagles to eight CIAA Championships (1941, 1943–44, 1946–47, 1949–50, 1952). McLendon's teams were credited with increasing the pace of the game of basketball from the slow tempo of its early years to the faster tempo that prevails today. At Cleveland State, he was the first African American head coach of a predominantly white university. He was a three-time winner of the NAIA Coach of the Year award and won three consecutive NAIA championships at Tennessee State, making him the first college basketball coach ever to have won three consecutive national titles. McLendon also coached professionally on two occasions. Cleveland Pipers General Manager Mike Cleary hired him in 1962 to be the head coach of the American Basketball League team which was owned by

George Steinbrenner George Michael Steinbrenner III (July 4, 1930July 13, 2010) was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010. He was the longest-serving own ...

. McLendon's hiring made history, as he became the first African American head coach in professional sports. In his, and the Pipers', only season in the ABL, partway through the season he quit or was fired (sources differ). McLendon was replaced as coach by

Bill Sharman William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926 – October 25, 2013) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what was then consider ...

of the recently defunct

Los Angeles Jets The Los Angeles Jets were an American basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, founded by Jack Blanck and Len Corbosiero, that was a member of the American Basketball League in the league's 1961–62 season. History The American Basketb ...

of the ABL; under Sharman, the team completed the season and won the league championship. McLendon went on to coach the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

Denver Rockets Denver ( ) is a consolidated city and county, the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Western United States, in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains east of ...

(which later became the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

) in 1969, although he was fired after the team started the season 9–19. Despite the fact that he was only 54 when dismissed, this was the last college or professional head coaching job in his career. McLendon's contributions to the game of basketball include the invention of the

fast break Fast break is an offensive strategy in basketball and handball. In a fast break, a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible, so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up. The ...

full-court press A full-court press is a basketball term for a defensive style in which the defense applies pressure to the offensive team the entire length of the court before and after the inbound pass. Pressure may be applied man-to-man, or via a zone press us ...

and

four corners offense The four corners offense, also known as the four corner stall or the four corners delay offense, is an offensive strategy for stalling in basketball, primarily used in college basketball and high school basketball before the shot clock was institu ...

Recognition

McLendon was inducted into the

in 1979 as a contributor. He was, however, selected in 2007 for the second entering class of the

for his coaching achievements. He was also inducted into the Cleveland State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, where his wife Joanna accepted the award on his behalf. On April 4, 2016, McLendon was announced as an inductee of the Naismith Hall again, this time as a coach. He was formally inducted in this role on September 9 of that year. A biography of John B. McLendon, ''Breaking Through: John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer'', by Milton S. Katz, was published in 2007. McLendon's coaching legacy is also chronicled in the documentary ''Black Magic'', which originally aired as a two-part series on ESPN in March 2008. The

National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is a professional non-profit organization for college and university athletic directors in the United States. NACDA boasts a membership of more than 6,100 individuals and more tha ...

sponsors the John McLendon Minority Scholarship Foundation, which offers postgraduate scholarships to minority students studying athletics administration. The foundation was formed under the directorship of Mike Cleary, who hired McLendon as head coach of the Cleveland Pipers in 1962 as the first African American head coach in professional sports. Beginning in 2016, a first-round game in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament involving an

HBCU Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

team would be known as the Coach John Mclendon Classic. The tradition continued through the tournament's end in 2019. Eracism then took ownership of the event and relaunched it in 2021. It has been held annually ever since. He was the 2021 recipient of the NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award.

John McLendon Classic

Beginning in 2023, an annual College Basketball game will be hosted by Kansas to support the John McClendon Initiative. In the first edition, the Jayhawks will host North Carolina Central.

Head coaching record

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McLendon, John 1915 births 1999 deaths African-American basketball coaches American Basketball League (1961–62) coaches American men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Kansas Cleveland State Vikings men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Denver Rockets head coaches Hampton Pirates basketball coaches Kentucky State Thorobreds basketball coaches Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees North Carolina Central Eagles men's basketball coaches People from Hiawatha, Kansas Tennessee State Tigers basketball coaches University of Kansas alumni 20th-century African-American sportsmen