And Colored boys who are talented and aspire to become great ball players should not lose ambition and hang back because of their race or color: They should take on new courage by reading here; that the most youthful and hopeful things (the grass and leaves) in the world, are Colored, and no one who looks “green” with hate and envy is able to stop Dame Nature each spring from stepping boldly out and, without apologies to men of any race, drapping the woods and fields with her colored shades of green.
With Howard and Loendi it was the same; G. Gilmore to them did dribble much fame. Sure in quick shooting and true in his pass He often proved himself in a peerless class.
All basketball folks his death do regret, But none of those people will soon forget His gliding ways up and down the floor, And the side-line cry, “Here comes Gilmore!” --_Harrison._
Among Colored schools, Hampton, Howard and Lincoln form the big basket-ball right-angle triangle whose three angles each year are usually so constantly and rapidly twisted and turned to equal elevations of degrees, that it is not until the end of the season, when the three-sided affair finally settles on a steady foundation, that the spectators are really able to see and tell the base of this triangle from its hypothenuse and altitude.
Johnny Johnson, the Colored right-forward on the Columbia University varsity basketball team, in playing against the teams of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania and other big colleges, in nearly every case scored the majority of points for his college team. His playing against these colleges was so brainy, spectacular and effective that it caused the leading white sport pages to give him glowing compliments relative to his being one of the best basketball players in the country.
In several large cities Colored athletes have organized and wonderfully developed some of the swiftest and most efficient basketball teams in America. Among the leading teams are: Dr. Johnson’s Forty Club of Chicago, Cum Posey’s Loendi Club of Pittsburgh, Chas. Bradford’s St. Christopher Club of New York, Manager Accoe’s A. C. Lightning Five of Brooklyn, C. Cain’s Vandals, of Atlantic City, “Babe” Thomas’ Alpha Big Five of New York, Douglas’ Spartan Braves of New York, Moss’ Center Five of Toledo, Ohio, All-Scholastics of Harrisburg, the Alcoes of Washington, D.C., the Athenians of Baltimore and the Pioneers of Cleveland, Ohio.