{"id":6810,"date":"2021-11-29T09:51:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T14:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=6810"},"modified":"2021-12-07T16:30:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T21:30:12","slug":"the-night-charlie-lee-made-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/fall-2021\/the-night-charlie-lee-made-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The Night Charlie Lee Made History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In December 1961, the 溏心vlog免费B站 men\u2019s basketball team played at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Ga. The team\u2019s leading scorer, Charlie Lee, didn\u2019t know it at the time, but he was making history as the first Black player to participate in a college game in the state of Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bob Herzog<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nearly 60 years later, pioneer Rhody basketball player Charlie Lee remembers the mystery as much as the history.

Lee became the first Black player to participate in a college basketball game in the state of Georgia when he and his 溏心vlog免费B站 teammates faced tiny Oglethorpe University in Atlanta before an overflow crowd on Dec. 29, 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oglethorpe, with an enrollment of only 350, surprisingly defeated the bigger school from up north, 64-47, with Black fans\u2014also attending a college basketball game in Georgia for the first time\u2014among those in the crowd that gave Lee a standing ovation as the Rams walked off the court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee, the team\u2019s leading scorer in his junior season but playing that night on a sprained ankle, was held to only 7 points. He appreciated the crowd\u2019s gesture but only much later was he able to appreciate his role and the significance of the moment. Why? Because, according to Lee, he didn\u2019t know he had just made history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never knew that it was the first time that ever occurred in Georgia. It never entered my mind. No one told me,\u201d Lee, 81, says in a telephone interview from his home in Raleigh, N.C. \u201cFor some reason the athletic director and the coach never mentioned to me that when we played Oglethorpe in Atlanta, this was going to be a historic event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the University felt the need to protect Lee and his teammates because of the racial conditions that existed in the South in those days and did not want to put undue pressure on the young student-athletes. The reasons for the silence were never made public. But even though Lee said he didn\u2019t know he would be breaking a color barrier in the game, he and the other Rams knew of the segregation that existed then. The point was made strongly the night before the game when a friend of some 溏心vlog免费B站 players who lived in Atlanta spoke to the team in the Oglethorpe dormitory where they were staying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe mentioned we were going to catch a bus to go downtown, and he said, \u2018You\u2019ll see the white people sitting in the front and the Black people sitting in the back,\u2019\u201d Ron Rothstein \u201964 recalls by phone from his home in Miami. Rothstein, 78, was the Rams\u2019 sophomore point guard that season, and eventually coached in the NBA for 22 seasons, including four as a head coach. He earned three NBA championship rings as an assistant with the Miami Heat, for whom he stills works as a TV analyst. \u201c\u2018The white people will stand in the front rather than sit in the empty seats in the back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For some today, it may be hard to believe that was the case as recently as 1961. In fact, the first 溏心vlog免费B站 player to board the bus, Danny Nilsson \u201964, seeing that there were no empty seats in the front, calmly walked to the back of the bus and sat down among the Black riders. The other four players followed. \u201cBlond hair, blue eyes, milky white skin. That was Danny,\u201d remembers Rothstein. \u201cYou should have seen the looks. But nothing happened. We just got looks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rothstein says the players\u2019 friend also told them about something more sinister than seating arrangements on public transportation. \u201cHe said to make sure someone watches the parking lot. If you see buses coming in, it\u2019s the Ku Klux Klan and there\u2019s going to be a problem,\u201d Rothstein says. \u201cWe told the last guy on the bench, who never played, that when we were warming up, \u2018You\u2019re going to be in the lobby until the game starts. If there are buses coming in, you better let us know.\u2019\u201d There were no buses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recalling the Oglethorpe game, Lee says, \u201cThere were no incidents before, during, or after the game. No derogatory remarks by the players or the fans, none whatsoever. But I didn\u2019t have the kind of performance that I wanted, and we lost the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lee (foreground) on the court at Oglethorpe University on Dec. 29, 1961.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Connie and Charlie Lee at their home in Raleigh, N.C.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lee says he did not learn of his role as a trailblazer until his mother sent him an article a month later from Jet<\/em> magazine. \u201cThe magazine said it was the first time an intercollegiate sporting event was integrated in the state of Georgia. That was it. That\u2019s how I found out,\u201d Lee says. \u201cSo I didn\u2019t think of myself as a pioneer. Being from the Northeast, it was no big deal playing an integrated basketball game. We did it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee did not see the Sports Illustrated<\/em> item in the weekly magazine\u2019s Jan. 8, 1962, edition that read, \u201cBefore a packed house in Atlanta, Charlie Lee of Rhode Island made history. The Negro Ram star competed in the first non-segregated collegiate athletic contest in Georgia, possibly opening the way for the acceptance of Negro players on southern teams. Oglethorpe, the host team, beat the Yankee Conference champions 64-47.\u201d \u201cOf course, I feel a sense of pride, but there is a little bit of frustration and anger,\u201d Lee admits. \u201cI was upset that they never told me before or after. Why didn\u2019t they say anything to me? You know something? Nobody made a big deal about that back then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the media once again helped to shine a light on Lee\u2019s accomplishment some years later when The Providence Journal<\/em> published an article about race and college basketball, highlighting the importance of Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) and its all-Black starting team defeating mighty all-white Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA Tournament championship game. \u201cThe paper, says Lee, \u201ctold the story of the all-Black team from Texas that made history, and wrote, \u2018What about Charlie Lee?\u2019 That\u2019s when it came to the forefront for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a chuckle, Lee repeats, \u201cWhat about Charlie Lee! When you\u2019re young and na\u00efve, it doesn\u2019t dawn on you. But as the years pass by, it does. You don\u2019t realize the magnitude of what just happened, and the historical perspective associated with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the mild-mannered Lee, a native of Englewood, N.J., who is happily retired after a long career working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, it took until this past winter to share his place in history with his family. But only after an inquiry from his wife, Connie, whose church, the Church of God of Prophecy in Robbins, N.C., was organizing a project for Black History Month in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe church was doing articles about certain events that occurred in our lifetime. She was asked to think about a significant achievement in Black history, so I said, \u2018Tell them about your husband!\u2019\u201d Lee says with a laugh. \u201cI told her the story and she had no idea. I never talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee, who played for 溏心vlog免费B站 from 1960\u201363 and averaged 16 points and six rebounds per game during his varsity career, still laughing, describes his wife\u2019s reaction. \u201cShe was aghast. She said, \u2018Oh, wow!\u2019 and she rushed to share the story with the rest of the family. Some of my nieces and nephews said to me, \u2018You\u2019re famous!\u2019 I just laughed and said, \u2018You know, it happened a long time ago.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the impact and memories linger. \u201cWhen I told my grandson about it, he got kind of wide-eyed,\u201d Lee says. \u201cHe was ecstatic when he heard my story, and he went right out and shared it with his friends. He\u2019s 6 feet, 6 inches tall and played ball at Fayetteville State. He coached a little AAU basketball and he told some of his coaching friends. That made me feel good; gave me a sense of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ron Rothstein \u201964 at work as a TV analyst for the Miami Heat. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Rothstein (#10) playing against Providence College in the 1960s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The events of that winter also gave Lee and his teammates some firsthand, eye-opening experiences about race relations in the South in the early 1960s. A week after their game in Atlanta, the Rams flew to Miami for a game against the University of Miami, where Lee recalls spending much of his time soaking his sprained ankle in a whirlpool. They stayed at the Lombardy Inn Hotel in Miami Beach, and were given most of the week off to enjoy themselves. \u201cIt turns out that even in Miami, they had racial restrictions back then,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That became quite evident the first night in Florida. \u201cA bunch of us go out to eat, including Charlie,\u201d Rothstein recalls. \u201cWe go walking down the street and everybody\u2019s looking at us. Well, we\u2019re a basketball team. Everybody\u2019s 6-foot-3 or bigger\u2014except me (Rothstein is 5-foot-8). So it\u2019s not unusual to get stares. We go out and we\u2019re walking around town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 contingent was unaware that the stares from locals had little to do with seeing a group of tall basketball players. \u201cWell into the 1980s, there was a law on the books in Miami Beach that Blacks weren\u2019t allowed on the streets after sundown,\u201d Rothstein says. \u201cWe go to a place called Wolfies. It was like a Jewish deli\u2014it was a popular spot. We walk in. All the heads turn. We thought it was because we\u2019re a basketball team, but the truth was, nobody ever saw a Black guy in Wolfies at night. It was different times. Everybody\u2019s looking at Charlie. But we don\u2019t know that. We were very na\u00efve. We had no understanding. We found that out after the fact. But nothing bad happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee says he was unaware that his saga had been told by Rothstein during a postgame segment called \u201cSpeak the Truth\u201d last season on a Miami Heat TV broadcast. \u201cWith all that went on in the nation with the racial strife, they asked each of the broadcasters for a story that concerns racism,\u201d Rothstein says. \u201cThat segment on Charlie was part of a postgame show, and it eventually got to YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Lee reflects on those events from 60 years ago, he is touched by the solidarity shown by his teammates on the streets of Atlanta and Miami and by Rothstein\u2019s airing and sharing of those moments. \u201cThe thing I remember about that Miami incident is how upset my teammates were,\u201d Lee says. \u201cOf course it makes me feel good that they had my back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee, choked up, adds, \u201cProbably the most emotional thing for me is the fact that a former teammate [Rothstein] who had a lot of success in the NBA remembered me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Rothstein\u2019s revelation started a serendipitous chain reaction. Lee and his family got to watch the segment on YouTube and bask in the afterglow of a slice of history that Lee himself could not enjoy the first time around. And Rothstein got to reconnect with a teammate he had lost touch with years ago and did not even know was still alive. The two shared a long, emotional telephone conversation this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t live in Charlie\u2019s skin, so how could I really know how he felt?\u201d Rothstein asks. \u201cWe never gave it a real thought\u2014about race. It was basketball. You go out and play. There weren\u2019t that many Black players then, certainly not like today, but it\u2019s not like I never played against Black players \u2026 I don\u2019t know if proud is the right word, but I was always glad I took part. It was constructive history, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is history that still resonates today. \u201cThere is a mix of emotions that comes with learning about Charlie Lee breaking the color barrier for the state of Georgia,\u201d says Shane Donaldson \u201999, 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s current assistant athletic director, media relations. \u201cOn one hand, it is a point of pride for the University to have a direct connection to such a significant moment in Georgia’s history. On the other hand, it was only 60 years ago. Charlie Lee, his 溏心vlog免费B站 teammates, and the Oglethorpe community took a significant first step, but given the social unrest we continue to see in the country today, there is clearly still work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Lee, the game against Oglethorpe provides a historical footnote to a successful college basketball career that he now can proudly share with his family and friends. He says he is not an intense college basketball fan, despite living close to bluebloods Duke and North Carolina, but pays attention during the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s when watching March Madness on TV that Lee allows himself to rewind his 溏心vlog免费B站 playing days. \u201cYou know, I played against some Hall of Famers. I\u2019ll have a conversation with friends and I\u2019ll say, \u2018I remember playing against Rick Barry at Miami. I remember playing against Lenny Wilkens at Providence College\u2014and they had a center named John Thompson.\u2019 When I look back, I realize I had a pretty interesting career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One that made a little history along the way. \u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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