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    Sweetwater: A Biography of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton
    Sweetwater: A Biography of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton
    Sweetwater: A Biography of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton
    Ebook67 pages57 minutes

    Sweetwater: A Biography of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton

    By Frank Foster

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    About this ebook

    When Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey decided to break the “color line” and integrate major league baseball in the 1940s, he spent years doing exhaustive background research and interviewing players. This role could not just go to an extraordinary athlete, but one of immense character as well

    Things went down with integration in the National Basketball Association a bit differently. The NBA had only formed in 1946, and was still sorting out franchises and struggling for recognition on April 25, 1950 when the basketball owners sat down for the annual player draft. When the second round began, Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown selected an African-American All-American guard out of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh named Chuck Cooper.
    A few weeks after the draft, the New York Knickerbockers made a deal to purchase the contract of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton from the Harlem Globetrotters; he became the second African-American to sign an NBA contract on May 24. So, the 1950-51 National Basketball Association season tipped off with three African-Americans on active rosters.

    While Robinson became one of America's greatest heroes, the stories of the black pioneers who broke down the NBA color barrier went untold. Jackie Robinson was recognized by his sport by being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible to appear on the ballot in 1962. Not so for Clifton. He was not inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame until the Class of 2014, more than 50 years after he converted his last NBA hook shot and a quarter century after his death.

    Clifton’s incredible journey and story is told in this biography.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookCaps
    Release dateJul 7, 2014
    ISBN9781310537189
    Sweetwater: A Biography of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton

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      Book preview

      Sweetwater - Frank Foster

      LifeCaps Presents:

      Sweetwater

      A Biography of Nathaniel Sweetwater Clifton

      By Frank Foster

      © 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc./LifeCaps

      Published at SmashWords

      www.bookcaps.com

      About LifeCaps

      LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCaps™ Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly (www.bookcaps.com) to see our newest books.

      Introduction

      When Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey decided to break the color line and integrate major league baseball in the 1940s, he spent years doing exhaustive background research and interviewing players. This role could not just go to an extraordinary athlete, but one of immense character as well. He finally settled on Jackie Robinson, an ex-UCLA athlete and World War II veteran. Robinson had been a football and track star in college, baseball was his worst sport. He struggled through one season on the Bruin baseball team, hitting only .097. Once Robinson was his man, Rickey carefully orchestrated the events leading up to his historic debut in a Dodgers uniform on April 15, 1947. Robinson's entering major league baseball has been hailed as one of the most significant social moments of the 20th century.

      Things went down with integration in the National Basketball Association a bit differently. The NBA had only formed in 1946, and was still sorting out franchises and struggling for recognition on April 25, 1950 when the basketball owners sat down for the annual player draft. When the second round began, Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown selected an All-American guard out of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh named Chuck Cooper. Attempting to be helpful, another owner pointed out, Walter, don't you know he's a colored boy? Brown piped up, I don't give a damn if he's striped, plaid, or polka dot! Boston takes Chuck Cooper of Dusquesne!

      Just like that, the color line in the NBA was broken. Later in the draft, the Washington Capitols picked Earl Lloyd of West Virginia State University in the ninth round and guard Harold Hunter from North Carolina College in the tenth round. Hunter signed a contract the next day to become the first official African-American NBA player, but he was not talented enough to make the team coming out of training camp, and never played an NBA game. He would, however, go on to become a successful college coach and guided the United States Men's Olympic basketball team on a tour of the Soviet Union and Europe, the first African-American to coach an international basketball squad.

      A few weeks after the draft, the New York Knickerbockers made a deal to purchase the contract of Nathaniel Sweetwater Clifton from the Harlem Globetrotters; he became the second African-American to sign an NBA contract on May 24. So, the 1950-51 National Basketball Association season tipped off with three African-Americans on active rosters. By dint of the schedule, Lloyd became the first to play, coming off the bench in the second half for the Capitols against the Rochester Royals on Halloween night. Lloyd tallied six points and pulled down ten rebounds to help pull Washington to a 78-70 win.

      Just three years after Jackie Robinson's debut stopped the presses, George Beahon, who was covering the game for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, did not see it worth mentioning in his game account that the first black player had appeared on an NBA court. Cooper debuted the next night for Boston and Clifton played his first game for New York on November 4, 1950. Race was not a storyline in either contest. For that matter, the Boston papers had never mentioned Cooper's race when he was the first African-American drafted.

      While Robinson became one of America's greatest heroes, the stories of the black pioneers who broke down the NBA color barrier went untold. Even as professional basketball grew to rival baseball's popularity in the 1980s, there were no sportswriters hunting down their trails to do where are they now stories, no biographies to illuminate their importance. The parallels between Robinson's life and Clifton's life were particularly striking. Both were born in the rural south and moved away to a big city with their families as boys; both went to college where they were multi-sport stars; both served in the military and both came to their sports via the professional Negro leagues and made their debuts at the age of 28. Finally, both became All-Stars in their respective sports.

      Jackie Robinson was recognized by his sport by being elected

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