And props to Daniel Troccoli for his bravery in the face of a very real physical threat. No surprise that Minnesota knows how to handle ICE!

Referees are another loser here. In basketball’s earliest days, many a ref was chased by a mob for allegedly fixing a game. With everything going online, the threat from disgruntled fans may not be as immediate, but the move from the physical to the digital could lead to even more permanent harm.

sad to say, it's still not enough to get that block

One early visionary who saw the link b/w sports stadiums and media was Pat Sullivan, whose family founded the Patriots. His roles with the team included stadium manager and GM. When he left, he started Game Creek Video, which owns a fleet of production trucks that help televise major sports events.

And he didn’t stop there. He continued in pro basketball another 25 years, and by the time he retired, he had integrated every important role in the game, including franchise owner at a time when the KKK was making a comeback. He is far more than a footnote, which is why the HOF snub is so shocking!

As he wrote in an Around the Town column after Lew’s death in 1963: “Bucky was a Negro and in those days they didn’t like to see Negroes playing on white teams and many is the time the fans refused to let him play — not in this city though … He was a great favorite.”

Fred Dobens, who went on to become the Nashua Dodgers’ president, assured them Black players would be welcome in the city. He knew because he played at halftime of Bucky Lew’s games there in early 1920s.

It’s a little-known fact that basketball’s 1st Black pro assisted the Dodgers in reintegrating major league baseball.

After Robinson had so much trouble in Florida, they struggled to find a city to host their 1st integrated farm team in the US until they reached a newspaperman in Nashua, NH.

Interesting shot - there are literally 6 people within 5 feet of the hoop!

Gerry Finn, the Springfield Union reporter who interviewed Lew just before it opened its doors, asked way back in 1958: “When they’re handing out memberships in the Basketball Hall of Fame, how about a vote for Bucky Lew? Is there anyone in the hall who can say he doesn’t deserve it?”

If the NBA recognized 1949 as their actual first year, they could say they were an integrated league from the start, since as Elias points out, Leroy Chollet played for Syracuse then. But starting in 1946 makes them a segregated league, one that rebuilt the color wall Bucky Lew tore down in 1902!

Albert Spalding was involved in what is likely the first instance of a corporation receiving naming rights to a stadium. The Lowell Tigers’ Fred Lake called his new baseball field “Spalding Park” after the sporting goods company. The price? Two dozen baseballs, roughly $30 at the time.

for more on Lew's full career and his assist to Jackie Robinson, here's the article from Genevieve DiNatale's NewsLinkLive, it's the source of the image, the link may have been lost in the initial post... tinyurl.com/2rv4c2pp