Earl Lloyd

October 31, 1950

I was listening to Freddie Coleman on ESPN Radio late on Thursday night when he mentioned the passing of Earl Lloyd. For those who don’t remember him – because he always downplayed the accomplishment – Earl Lloyd was the Jackie Robinson of NBA basketball.

On October 31, 1950, in the season opener between the Washington Capitols and the Rochester Royals, in Rochester, rookie Earl “The Big Cat” Lloyd came off the bench to score six points for the Caps in a 78-70 losing effort. That made the 6-5, 200-pound forward out of West Virginia State the first black man to play in an NBA game.

Lloyd played in just seven games that season and scored just 43 points and the Washington Capitols folded operations in January after going 10-and-25 and dropped out of the NBA. Earl Lloyd also dropped out of the NBA – but for a different reason: the Army came calling.

While Lloyd sat out a season serving his tour of duty at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, the Syracuse Nationals claimed him off waivers. After being discharged before the 1952-53 season, Lloyd started playing for the Nats and spent six seasons in Syracuse. He finished his career with two seasons in Detroit playing for the Pistons.

Make no mistake about it, Earl Lloyd was not a star. But he was an effective role player who excelled on the defensive end of the court. His best season was in 1954-55 when he played in all 72 games, grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game, and averaged 10.2 ppg.

By the way, the Nats were NBA champions that year – beating the Boston Celtics 3-to-1 to win the Eastern Division crown and then topping the Fort Wayne Pistons 4-to-3 in the Finals. He and teammate Justin Tucker thus became the first black players to play on an NBA championship team.

The year before, Lloyd collected two dubious distinctions:

He committed the most personal fouls.
He led the league in disqualifications.

Eleven years after Earl Lloyd retired as a player – that year being 1972 – the Pistons hired him as an assistant coach – which made him the first black coach in the NBA.