trex_8063 wrote:penbeast0 wrote:Well the league only lasted one and a half years then the owner of the team cut a deal with the NBA to secretly switch leagues and when that fell through, he folded the team partway through and crashed the league. The owner was some guy named George Steinbrenner who presumably disappeared into the obscurity he so richly deserved.
Interesting. Never knew that about him either. I see the Pipers coach,
John McLendon, was the first black coach in professional basketball, too (I recall there was a discussion in another thread about who the first black coach was).
Probably not, depending what you count (said thread:
viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1906371).
He might have been the first black (basketball) pro major league (depending on what you count) coach to coach a white player though. The Dayton Rens were a version of the NY Rens (aka Big Five) who iirc were asked to step in to fill a gap left by another team (looked it up, it was mid-season: taking the place, and apparently record, of the Detroit Vagabond Kings) and were presumably still an all black squad.
Also it might be best to qualify him as their "first" coach (one might have assumed one season was only enough time for one). Bill Sharman (ABL, ABA and NBA title winning coach) was in charge by the time they won it all.