1955 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks Basketball Team

1955 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks Basketball Team

Row 1: J. Brown, Patton, W. Brown, Robertson, Milton

Row 2: Coach Ray Crowe, Burnley, Hampton, Merriweather, Manager Douglas, Scott, Mitchell

In 1955, the United States of America was a far different place than the country we know today. Few American households had televisions; the interstate highway system was just beginning construction; downtown shopping areas were thriving; and Jim Crow was flourishing in cities like Gary and Indianapolis. African Americans were told where and where not they could enjoy dining out. They had separate areas in movie theaters (or even entirely separate theaters). They were confined to certain neighborhoods of their cities. They were subjected to racial slurs and humiliation.

It was in December of that year that Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat on a Montgomery bus, launching one of the first high-profile protests of the Civil Rights Movement.

Earlier that year, however, two groups of African-American high school athletes came together, for the first time in American history, to compete in a state championship basketball game. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. The athletic abilities and talents displayed on March 19, 1955, in the Butler Fieldhouse in Indianapolis truly marked a milestone in basketball history and changed basketball forever. On the surface, one might be tempted to limit the impact of this game to its record-setting athletic statistics. Certainly, Roosevelt's Dick Barnett, with his fade-away jump shot, and Attucks' Oscar Robertson's talent on both sides of the court were awe-inspiring performances; and, of course, this meeting of the Panthers and Tigers represented one of the most significant moments in a state so passionate for basketball.

Yet, the real impact of that night resonated well beyond the basketball court, for it served as one of the earliest events in the nation to chip away at Jim Crow and further equality and justice for all Americans.

Although the Indianapolis Crispus Attucks High School Tigers soundly defeated the Gary Roosevelt High School Panthers 97-74, the score does not reflect that players on both teams gave it their all, as champions do. They, and most others who were there that night, didn't realize their efforts would impact the larger American society - but indeed it would. Coaches of all-white teams awakened to the fact that black athletes could, and did, help their teams become better. League officials and sports writers started to accept the fact that African-American players and teams could compete equally with, and even surpass, white players and teams. In short, athletic abilities did not depend on skin color.

That realization went far beyond sports, perhaps unconsciously at the time and for some time afterward. In essence, the 1955 championship teams demonstrated that blacks and whites could, and should, be treated and regarded as equals in every phase of American Life.

The teams were nominated by Charles M. Hughes of the Gary Chamber of Commerce, assisted by Stephen G. McShane of the Calumet Regional Archives, IUN.