Black Athlete in West Virginia

Bob Barnett is a professor emeritus at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, where he taught classes in and researched sport history for 35 years and served as chair of the Division of Exercise Science, Sport and Recreation. He was inducted into the West Virginia All Black Schools Sports and Academic Hall of Fame in 2010 for his groundbreaking research on the West Virginia black high school’s basketball tournament. Dana Brooks is the dean and professor emeritus in the College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. He was at West Virginia University for 41 years and was a former president of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (2009-2010). His research interest focus on the African American athletes’ experience. Ronald Althouse is a professor emeritus in the department of sociology and anthropology at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia where he was the director of the survey research center. He contributed to the literature on athletic participation.

“The Black Athlete in West Virginia is an original and significant contribution to the history of African Americans and school sports, and is especially valuable as it is first such work that covers one state, all the relevant sports, and in both high schools and colleges. This laudable one-state exploration allows the authors to show how West Virginia’s race relations, in particular, presented so many divergences from the norm that occurred in other states. It is voluminously researched, including interviews going back to the 1980s.”—Robert Pruter, author of The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control, 1880-1930

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction by Bob BarnettPart I. School and College Segregation in West Virginia, 1863–19541. African Americans in West Virginia, 1860–19692. Intercollegiate Sports in the Black Colleges, 1900–19543. The First Black State High School Basketball Tournament in the United States, 1925–19444. Earl Lloyd and the Golden Age of West Virginia State University Basketball, 1945–19545. The Legacy of Black High School BasketballPart II. The Integration of West Virginia’s High Schools and Colleges, 1954–19646. Integrating Small Colleges7. From Hal Greer to Randy Moss: The Integration of Marshall University Sports8. Two Historically Black Colleges Join the White Intercollegiate Conference9. Black High Schools in the White Basketball Tournament, 1957–196910. From Dick Leftridge to Major Harris: A Call for Sports Advocacy at WVUEpilogueAppendix: Pioneers in the Integration of College Sports in West VirginiaChapter NotesBibliographyIndex