October 31, 1950: The NBA's 1st Black Player

Earl Lloyd

October 31, 1950: The Rochester Royals defeat the Washington Capitols, 78-70, at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester. (It was demolished in the late 1950s.) Arnie Risen scores 20 for the home team, as they begin a season that will bring their 1st NBA Championship.

They had previously won the title in the National Basketball League in 1945. They will become the Cincinnati Royals in 1957, the Kansas City Kings in 1972, and the Sacramento Kings in 1985. Their long-term future in Sacramento is now settled, as they've opened a new arena.

Earl Lloyd, a forward wearing Number 11, scores 2 baskets and 2 free throws for the Capitols, for a total of 6 points. It doesn't sound like much, but his mere presence in the game makes him the NBA's 1st black player.

Chuck Cooper had been the 1st black player drafted, by the Boston Celtics. But, the way the schedule worked out, Earl beat him to the court by 1 day. Chuck should not be confused with another early black star, Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, who played for the New York Renaissance (a.k.a. the Rens) in the 1930s. 

Chuck Cooper

Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, formerly of the Rens and the Harlem Globetrotters, had been the 1st black player actually signed to a contract, by the New York Knicks, but Earl beat him to the court by 4 days. So, in a way, the NBA had 3 "Jackie Robinsons."

Nat Clifton

Earl Lloyd was born on April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. His hometown team, having fired coach Red Auerbach in 1949, was 10-25 on January 9, 1951, and folded, leaving the nation's capital without an NBA team for the next 22 years. Lloyd was then drafted, and served in the Korean War.

Discharged in 1952, "the Big Cat" (also the nickname of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Mize, then wrapping up his career with the Yankees) played for the Syracuse Nationals until 1958, and the Detroit Pistons from then until his retirement in 1960. He averaged 8.4 points per game in his 9 NBA seasons. The Pistons then hired him as a scout.

In 1968, they named him the 1st black assistant coach in the NBA. In 1972, they named him the 2nd black head coach, after Bill Russell of the Celtics, and the 1st non-playing black head coach. But the Pistons were awful then, and his career coaching record was just 22-55.

He worked for the Detroit school system, helping students find jobs, then did the same thing for a company run by Pistons Hall-of-Famer Dave Bing. He retired to Tennessee. In 2003, the Basketball Hall of Fame elected him as a "contributor," for his historical prominence.

In 2007, T.C. Williams High School, the integrated Alexandria school into which his former all-black school, Parker-Gray, had been consolidated (a tale told, with considerable dramatic license taken, in the football-themed film Remember the Titans), named their new gym's court after him. He was also elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, and died on February 26, 2015, a few weeks short of his 87th birthday.

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October 31, 1950 was a Tuesday. This was the only game played in the NBA on that Halloween Night. Baseball season had ended 24 days earlier, with the New York Yankees sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. Football was in midweek. And no NHL games were scheduled. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

And comedian and actor John Candy was born on this day.

April 13, 1949: Mikan the Conqueror

George Mikan. "MPLS" means "Minneapolis."

April 13, 1949: The Minneapolis Lakers win the Championship of the Basketball Association of America, in their 1st season in the league. The following season, following a merger with the NBA, the National Basketball League, it will be renamed the NBA: The National Basketball Association.
 
The Lakers were coached by John Kundla, and led on the court by center George Mikan. At 6-foot-10, he might not have been the tallest man in basketball, but he was the biggest in terms of impact. He dominated the game so much in the NBA's 1st 10 years of play that the marquee at the old Madison Square Garden, advertising his upcoming game there, didn't read, "KNICKS V/S LAKERS," it read, "GEO MIKAN V/S KNICKS."

No, I'm not making that up:

Big George got top billing over the home team.

 
The native of Joliet, Illinois had led DePaul University of Chicago to the 1945 NIT Championship, and the Lakers to the NBL title in 1948. They joined the BAA immediately, and, in the 1949 Finals, beat the Washington Capitols, 4 games to 2. The last game was at home, at the Minneapolis Auditorium, and the Lakers won it, 77-56.
 
The Capitols' coach left in the off-season, in a dispute with team owner Mike Uline. That dispute changed the history of the sport. The former Washington boss was hired by another NBA team, and never lost another Finals to the Lakers as a head coach, winning 5 of them. It would be 8-0 before he lost one as a general manager. His name was Arnold "Red" Auerbach. 

The Capitols played 2 more seasons, and went out of business. The city didn't win an NBA Championship until the Bullets in 1978. Indeed, the city didn't even make the Finals in any sport again for 23 years, until the Redskins won the 1972 NFC Championship Game before losing Super Bowl VII.

The Lakers also had forwards Jim Pollard and Arnie Ferrin. Later, they would have forward Vern Mikkelsen and Clyde Lovellette, and guard Slater Martin. All except Ferrin (unfairly so), along with Kundla, have been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. They won titles in 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954 – 6 league titles in 7 years, 5 in 6 if you only count the NBA.

The Minneapolis Auditorium

Mikan was the only Minneapolis Laker named to the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams, although Kundla was also named to the 10, then 15, Greatest Coaches on those anniversaries.

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April 13, 1949 was a Wednesday. Baseball season started 5 days later. Football was out of season. Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals was played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1. The Leafs completed the sweep 3 days later.

January 30, 1948: The Assassination of Mohandas Gandhi

January 30, 1948: Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose use of nonviolent resistance to British rule helped to establish the independence of India just 5 months earlier, is assassinated in the national capital of New Dehli. He was 78 years old.

Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of Birla House, the home of a friend, Ghanshyam Birla, a prominent Indian businessman. At 5:17 PM, Gandhi left with his grandnieces, on the way to address a prayer meeting, when Nathuram Godse, a 37-year-old writer, fired three bullets into his chest from a pistol at close range.

Nathuram Godse

According to some accounts, Gandhi died instantly. In other accounts, such as one prepared by an eyewitness journalist, Gandhi was carried into the Birla House, into a bedroom. There he died, about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed his countrymen over All-India Radio:

Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you, or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more.

Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.

Godse, a Hindu nationalist with links to the right-wing extremist group Hindu Mahasabha, made no attempt to escape. Several other conspirators were soon arrested as well. They were tried in court at Delhi's Red Fort. At his trial, Godse did not deny the charges, nor express any remorse.

According to Claude Markovits, a French historian noted for his studies of colonial India, Godse stated that he killed Gandhi because of his complacence towards Muslims, holding Gandhi responsible for the frenzy of violence and sufferings during the subcontinent's partition into Pakistan and India. Godse accused Gandhi of subjectivism, and of acting as if only he had a monopoly of the truth. Godse was found guilty and, despite pleas from 2 of Gandhi's sons for commutation of his sentence to life, was executed by hanging at the Ambala Central Jail in Punjab on November 15, 1949.

Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. Over 1 million people joined the 5-mile-long funeral procession that took over 5 hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where he was assassinated, and another 1 million watched the procession pass by. Gandhi's body was transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of his body. The engine of the vehicle was not used; instead, 4 drag-ropes held by 50 people each pulled the vehicle.

All Indian-owned establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of people from all faiths and denominations and Indians from all over Britain converged at India House in London.

Gandhi's assassination dramatically changed the political landscape. According to Markovits, while Gandhi was alive, Pakistan's declaration that it was a "Muslim state" had led Indian groups to demand that India be declared a "Hindu state." Nehru used Gandhi's martyrdom as a political weapon to silence all advocates of Hindu nationalism as well as his political challengers. He linked Gandhi's assassination to politics of hatred and ill-will.

Nehru used the assassination to consolidate the authority of the new Indian state. Gandhi's death helped marshal support for the new government and legitimize the Congress Party's control, leveraged by the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions of grief for a man who had inspired them for decades.

In 1971, the Indian government bought Birla House, renamed it Gandhi Smriti, and made it a museum dedicated to his memory.

Temple to Gandhi's memory, at Gandhi Smirti,

showing his footsteps to the spot of his assassination.

Despite his nickname "The Mahatma" (meaning "Great Soul") also being given to the great baseball executive Branch Rickey (and I have no idea what he, a devout Methodist, thought of that), as far as I know, he had nothing to do with sports.

But in 1983, an article titled "Gandhi at the Bat" was printed in The New Yorker, taking place in 1933, 50 years earlier, a completely fictional story that featured him meeting Babe Ruth and "playing for the Yankees."

Gandhi and Nehru, friends, were the founding fathers of the modern Indian nation, which, despite its oppression by the British, came to love the British sports of cricket and field hockey, and now finally seems to be absorbing soccer as well.

Gandhi's wife, Kasturba, had died in 1944. They had 4 sons, and no daughters. Harilal, a lawyer like his father, died less than 5 months after him, from tuberculosis, just 59 years old. Manilal, a journalist, died of a stroke in 1956, at 63. Ramdas was the most involved of Gandhi's sons in the nation's freedom struggle, and, upon his request, Ramdas lit the funeral pyre. He lived until 1969, at 72. Devdas, also a journalist, died in 1957, at 57. The Mahatma's family continues, with Harilal having fathered 5 children, Manilal 3, Ramdas 3 and Devdas 4.

In 1982, Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley, the son of a Yorkshire mother and a Gujarati father. Both Attenborough and Kingsley were knighted.

Nehru's daughter, Indira, married a Member of Parliament, Feroze Gandhi. He was not related to the Mahatma: He had changed the spelling of his surname, Ghandy, in tribute. Indira Gandhi would become Prime Minister of India, as would her son Rajiv Gandhi. Both were, like Mohandas Gandhi, assassinated.

The comedy team of Key & Peele starred in a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, with Keegan-Michael Key playing Gandhi, and Jordan Peele playing Gandhi's most famous follower, Martin Luther King Jr. One would think they wouldn't have been rivals, but, as Gandhi, Key started with, "You want to battle wits? So who's the better pacifist? I fought the caste system, but you still cannot touch this!" And, as King, Peele said, "I admire the way you broke the British power, but I have a dream that, one day, you'll take a shower!"

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January 30, 1948 was a Friday. Aviation pioneer Orville Wright died on the same day, albeit of natural causes, at age 76, in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. His brother, Wilbur Wright, had died in 1912, only 45, from typhoid fever.

Baseball and football were out of season. And there were no NHL games scheduled for that day. But there were 2 games played in the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA a year and a half later:

* The Providence Steamrollers beat the Boston Celtics, 79-69 at the Boston Garden. The Steamrollers played 1 more season and folded. The Celtics survive to this day.

* And in another regional rivalry that didn't last, the Baltimore Bullets beat the Washington Capitols, 95-71 at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore. This version of the Bullets went out of business in 1954, and is not connected to the franchise now known as the Washington Wizards, who were the Baltimore Bullets from 1963 to 1973. These Bullets normally played at the Baltimore Coliseum, but used the Armory on this occasion. Built in 1901 and still standing, it hosted the 1912 Democratic National Convention that nominated Woodrow Wilson for President.

The Capitols went out of business in 1951, and while the American Basketball Association would have a Washington Capitols in the 1970-71 season, the District of Columbia didn't get another NBA team until 1973, when the Bullets moved down Interstate 95.

January 10, 1949: Snow In Southern California

January 10, 1949: The Blizzard of '49... in Southern California! As far as anyone knows, this is the 1st time snow has ever fallen on Los Angeles, and the 1st time on San Diego since 1850.

Actually, there is a scientific definition of "blizzard," and this storm did not meet it. A "blizzard" is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time, typically at least three or four hours. In other words, the amount of snowfall has nothing to do with it. Yet any major snowfall tends to get called a "blizzard," whether it meets the definition or not. And any snowfall in Southern California would feel like a "blizzard" to people living there who never lived anywhere else, and weren't used to it.

And, on January 10, 1949, a snowstorm hit Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. It was caused by a weather pattern that brought cold air from Canada and Alaska down to Southern California, where it met with a low-pressure system moving in from the Pacific Ocean.

The result was a snowstorm that dropped up to 4 inches of snow in some areas, and even more in some of the surrounding mountains. The snow caused widespread disruption and excitement, with schools closing, highways becoming blocked, and people flocking to parks and hillsides to play in the snow.

Many residents, especially those who had never experienced snow before, were thrilled by the novelty of the event, while others were less happy about the disruption to their daily lives.

The newspapers of the time reported extensively on the snowstorm, with headlines such as "Snowstorm Paralyzes Southland," "Southland Shivers Under Blanket of Snow," and "Record Snowfall Delights and Inconveniences Angelenos."

It was not unprecedented. It snowed in parts of Los Angeles in 1913, 1921, 1922, 1926 and 1944. But not since 1882, when the Los Angeles Herald was moved to print the headline, "How's That for Semi-Tropical?" had never been as widespread, or as deep, as it was in 1949.

Trace amounts of snow would fall on L.A. again in 1957 and 1962. I wonder what Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, used to the weather in New York, thought about that. At any rate, it hasn't happened since.

UPDATE: In 2025, when discussing Los Angeles weather and its effects that caused the devastating wildfires of the start of that year, Bill Pazeet, a climatologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, also addressed the city's long snow drought. He blamed it on the urban heat island effect -- paved surfaces are hotter than the natural ground -- and climate change.

Winter temperatures, particularly average daily lows, have risen dramatically over the past 75 years. While he said it's not impossible for it to snow again in Los Angeles, he thinks, based on prediction models, "by 2050, no way."

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January 10, 1949 was a Monday. Future heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. And no NHL games were scheduled. There was 1 game in the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA the next season: The Washington Capitols beat the Boston Celtics, 94-83 at the Boston Garden. The Caps would reach the BAA Finals, losing to the Minneapolis Lakers. Their coach would later coach the Celtics. His name was Arnold Jacob Auerbach, nicknamed Red even though his red hair was now mostly gone.