Garrett changed IU's course
- Thread starter snowling
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Just to give some perspective, the first Afro-American college basketball player in Indiana was Dave DeJernett, who was from Washington, IN, and played at Indiana Central College (now, University of Indianapolis) in 1931-35. He started a stream of black ball players to ICC, which included the legendary Ray Crowe and, his brother, George Crowe. Ray went on to become the coach of Crispus Attucks, which won the state championship in 1955 and 1956. George played Major League baseball. Their coach at ICC was Harry Good, who, eventually became the head BB coach at IU and, later, at Nebraska.
Because of these athletes, in the late 1930's and 40's, Indiana Central was ranked in the top ten among basketball teams in the entire country--before there were any college divisions. Harry Good was the person primarily responsible for bringing Afro-American athletes into Indiana college basketball.
Indianapolis Crispus Attucks' last state high school championship was in 1959. Their coach--Bill Garrett.
And, Dave DeJernett is worth a google.
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Contrast this history with that of our neighbors to the south that had their first black player while I was at IU in 1970. Tom Payne began to play for UK as the first black player there.
Thanks to Texas Western. As Larry Bird said, "It's a black man's game, and it always will be."
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