StreetBall

StreetBall

The views expressed in this Op-Ed do not reflect that of Loop 21.

A few days ago when I said I didn’t see what was so special about Jeremy Lin, I was accused of being a hater. Never mind that I’d watched nearly every Knicks game this season and that I was cheering Lin on to the Knicks’ third straight win at the time. “He went to Harvard!” one friend exclaimed. “And he can play ball!” another added. I agreed, then pointed out that those were two characteristics Lin shared with the other members of the Harvard basketball team.

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I am, by no means, downplaying Jeremy Lin’s talent as a basketball player; it’s no easy feat scoring 20-plus points in a professional basketball game or helping your team capture a 5-game winning streak. Nor am I diminishing his Harvard pedigree; it’s very competitive to get an Ivy League education. But it has been done before - and arguably at a time when it was much more difficult for African-Americans to get into Ivy League schools and when some teams still had no cultural diversity.

Columbia University graduate Jim McMillan scored 22 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists when he was added to the Lakers' starting lineup in the 1971-’72 season, and he was playing with future Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich at the time. With McMillan in the starting lineup, the Lakers then went on to win their next 33 games - the longest winning streak in NBA history.

Jim McMillan isn’t the only one. There are many Black Ivy League graduates who excelled in professional leagues. A few, like Bo Roberson, were great at multiple sports - he’s the only person to earn an Ivy League degree, a doctorate, an Olympic medal for track and field, and play professional football in the NFL. And others, like Fritz Pollard - the first African-American to play in the Rosebowl in 1916 and the first Black NFL coach - overcame numerous obstacles and never got the full recognition they deserved.

Maybe it’s this knowledge that has left me a little skeptical about the “hero” title currently being bestowed upon Jeremy Lin for “saving” the Knicks. Or maybe it’s because I’m a marketer and I know that a witty nickname, while great for newspaper headlines, doesn’t change history. Or maybe I just think that with the low college enrollment rates of Black males, and some athletes even graduating without knowing how to read, we need all the positive stories we can get.

Either way, the next time I’m cheering for the Knicks and Jeremy Lin, I’ll think of the Black Ivy Leaguers who helped pave the way for another minority Harvard graduate to play professional basketball.

Special thanks to Ivy50.com for the wealth of information they provide on Black Ivy League athletes.