Records, Restrictions, and Barriers: How John B. McLendon broke them all
By Meghan Rominger
Almost half of a century after its inception, basketball was evolving slowly.
Physically, the game was often stagnant and unexciting, lacking in aggression and rhythm. Culturally, it was even slower, as Black and white players were segregated and unable to compete with or against each other. On Thursday’s sports page in a 1937
Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, the editor slipped in a single-sentence reminder for local basketball fans: “There is still an unwritten law against colored basketball players in the Big Ten.”
What the game needed was courageous, sharp, and curious individuals to catalyze progress. Luckily, John B. McLendon answered the call.
Born in Hiawatha, Kansas in 1915, John “Coach Mac” McLendon knew from an early age that he wanted to focus his life’s pursuit on teaching physical education and coaching basketball. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Kansas, where he sought out the knowledge and mentorship of basketball’s creator, Dr. James Naismith.
With Naismith as his mentor, McLendon learned the intricacies of basketball and its rules, as well as Naismith’s aspirations for the future of the game. He also surmised that beyond the obvious, physical aspects of the game, he could use the sport to galvanize progress in society and create racial equality for Black Americans like himself.
“He certainly desired and fought strategically and brilliantly to be a successful basketball coach, but he had a larger purpose,” said Dr. Milton Katz, a professor at the Kansas City Art Institute and a longtime friend of McLendon’s. “I think early on he understood that one could use sports in the United States for social change.”
So, once he graduated from college — becoming the first Black student at KU to graduate with a degree in physical education — he set out to change the game of basketball with a more important goal than just pioneering the fast break.
From the 1940s through the 1960s, McLendon served as a head coach for seven different programs and organizations. During that span, he led his respective teams to hundreds of wins and several championships, revolutionizing every facet of basketball along the way.
“[McLendon’s] 1943-44 North Carolina College team was the best-scoring college basketball team in the nation,” recounted author and friend of McLendon, Dr. Scott Ellsworth. “Most scores in those days, college teams would score in the 50s — he's beating teams by the 80s and 90s.”
And just as he knew was necessary, McLendon made concerted efforts to change the social politics and segregation of basketball at every stop of his career.
In 1944, McLendon and his NCCC basketball team participated in what later became known as “the secret game,” one of the first integrated basketball games to take place in the still-segregated Jim Crow South. Coach Mac’s all-Black NCCC Eagles took on the all-white Duke Medical School basketball team, routing Duke in an 88-44 win.
In 1950, he pushed for more concrete advancements, petitioning the NCAA and NAIA to allow HBCU teams to participate in tournament play. While the NCAA initially said no — they believed Black teams and players weren’t competitive enough — the NAIA allowed HBCUs to begin participating in tournaments in 1953.
“He’s the one who integrated the [NAIA] tournament to allow the historically Black schools to participate,” said Katz. “But, after they participated in the NAIA and showed how brilliantly they played, then the NCAA allowed them to participate in their small college tournament.”
With his work and influence continuously opening doors for minorities — by the mid-1960s, college basketball had become fully integrated — McLendon took his insatiable curiosity and remarkable brilliance to the city of Cleveland.
In 1959, Coach Mac was hired by the Cleveland Pipers of the NIBL, becoming the first Black head coach in professional basketball. In 1966, Cleveland State University hired him as the men’s basketball head coach, breaking barriers again as his appointment made him the first Black head basketball coach at a predominately white institution.
“For [Cleveland State University] to have been the first to take that step says a lot about its campus leaders, it says a lot about our institution, and it's going to be forever remembered,” CSU men’s basketball head coach Dennis Gates said. “Because it did happen here in Cleveland, with one of the best coaches in the game of basketball.”
McLendon left his position at Cleveland State University in 1969 to take the head coaching job for the American Basketball Association’s Denver Rockets, but he made his way back to the university in 1991. Upon his return, he worked as an athletics department advisor and taught a course for which he was uniquely qualified: “History of Sports and the Role of Minorities in its Development.”
“There’s no Dennis Gates without a John McLendon,” Gates said. “He did not just set the tone and pace for black coaches. He changed and impacted all coaches of all races in different countries, as he was an ambassador for USA Basketball taking trips around the globe.”
Truly one-of-a-kind, McLendon’s dedication to rectifying injustices and joining others in the pursuit of a more equal society is nearly unrivaled; even now, 20 years after his passing, his legacy grows stronger every day.
In 1999, former president of NACDA Mike Cleary helped create the John McLendon Minority Scholarship Foundation — a non-profit organization that offers scholarships to minority students who are looking to pursue degrees in athletics administration.
“To integrate basketball, to integrate college athletics, to provide opportunities for those who came behind — Coach McLendon had a lot to do with that,” said Lee Reed, a board member for the John McLendon Foundation. “He just opened the door for so many of us to walk through, and that’s why we’re all committed to his legacy and having more people know what a great person he was.”
In 2016, McLendon was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach, becoming the first person to be inducted as both a coach and a contributor (for which he was inducted in 1979). The NCAA also honored McLendon recently, awarding him the 2021 Theodore Roosevelt award in January. The “Teddy”, which is considered the NCAA’s most prestigious award, is presented to an outstanding, distinguished recipient who exemplifies the ideals of collegiate athletics.
And in the summer of 2020, over 80 college coaches across the nation came together to create the John McLendon Leadership Initiative. The initiative provides minority students with opportunities to work and network in collegiate athletics, while also instilling McLendon’s most beloved values: integrity, education, leadership, and mentorship.
A rare, intelligent, and remarkable person, McLendon’s lifetime of work has and will continue to improve lives and bring about social change — which, according to Coach Mac, is what sports are truly about.
“McLendon constantly preached that we have to do this together. It's not us against them. It's not Black against white or vice versa,” said Katz. “It's us against inequality, and segregation, and injustice.”