Game Changer

A basketball story from the early days, on this day of the national championship game.

Coy, John. Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game. Illustrated by Randy DuBurke. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 2015.  

It was a matchup of teams from the Duke Medical School, a white team, and the North Carolina College of Negroes, organized by their coach, John McLendon, an African American. In the days of the Jim Crow south, it was a dangerous move, which is why it had to be held in secret, early on a Sunday morning. The players were hesitant at first, but soon the black team broke into their fast-break style, something new to the Duke players. The black team won, 88-44. Then they played another game, “shirts and skins,” with players from both schools on each team, an illegal action in those days when the KKK was active in the Carolinas. Basketball aficionados now consider it a landmark game because the white teams began to adopt the faster game played by the black teams. John McLendon is now in the Basketball Hall of Fame.   

http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_bks&q=Game+Changer%3A+John+McLendon+and+the+Secret+Game&fq=dt%3Abks