Oscar Robertson was a pressure of nature in school at Cincinnati — the staff misplaced 9 video games whole in his three seasons. He averaged 33.8 factors per sport in school and gained the nationwide scoring title every of his three years, led Cincy to 2 Closing Fours, and his senior 12 months was named Faculty Participant of the Yr.
In 1958, all that earned Cincinnati an invitation to one of many largest in-season tournaments of the time — the Dixie Basic in North Carolina. Nonetheless, that event featured all-white groups from North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest, and NC State (plus different groups from across the nation) within the nonetheless segregated South. Robertson recounted among the racism he confronted earlier than that event — together with a loss of life menace from the Klu Klux Klan — in an look on the All The Smoke podcast.
Oscar Robertson defied loss of life threats & discrimination all through his profession ⁰⁰“I get a telegram. It says, ‘For those who exit and play we’re gonna shoot you.’… I’ll always remember that so long as I dwell.”⁰ALL THE SMOKE with The Huge O is LIVE: pic.twitter.com/mx4EERLnXj
— All of the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) September 19, 2024
“We have been gonna play within the Dixie Basic. I knew nothing in regards to the Dixie Basic. So I get a telegram that claims, in case you exit and play, they go to shoot me. So I gave it to the coach. In a while that day, I get a knock on my door. Here is a white child from Alabama, some Alabama fraternity, who needed to come and get an autograph from me. What do you assume I did? I autographed it for him. I always remember that so long as I dwell. I imply to be sincere, I used to be born in Tennessee. I by no means actually thought that a lot in regards to the Klan to start with… I by no means thought that a lot about guys that threatened me. I imply, it wasn’t the one time I used to be threatened, by the best way I have to inform you, however they did not hassle me. I imply, I simply did not take into consideration being shot, I simply I simply did not assume that it was gonna do it.”
Robertson confronted loads of racism throughout that event, in keeping with these who researched the subject, together with having cash and sizzling canine thrown at him, being known as the “n-word,” and rather more. Robertson was not alone on this, that 1958 Dixie Basic (Matt Barnes had it off by a 12 months on the pod) additionally featured Michigan State star and future four-time NBA All-Star Johnny Inexperienced, who acquired a lot of the identical therapy.
Robertson and Inexperienced dealt with the scenario with nothing however class.
It could be one other half a decade earlier than these colleges alongside the Tobacco Highway would combine their basketball groups.
