by Chris Boucher
Harry “Bucky” Lew is going into the basketball hall of fame!
The American Basketball Hall of Fame based in Detroit has announced it will include Lew in this year’s class of inductees. While he has not (yet) been elected to the basketball hall people first think of, the Naismith one in Springfield, such absences are the reason for the existence of the new hall.
The ABHOF was founded by LaMont Robinson in 2019 to honor a wider array of players than are currently receiving recognition.
As Inside Lowell followers know, Lew started at the Lowell YMCA, then leveled up when he turned 18 and became basketball’s first Black professional after signing with a Lowell club in the New England League in 1902. Lew stayed in the game another 25 years, and by the time he stepped away in 1926, he had integrated the roles of player, coach, manager, referee, and franchise owner.
Two new discoveries may have put Lew over the top.
First, Lew started coaching college in 1903. While he has previously been recognized as coaching in 1922, that was actually his second stint at what is now the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He first coached there as his stellar rookie season as a pro was winding down—nearly two decades earlier.
Why is that significant?
It means he integrated both professional and college ball by the time he was nineteen. And he did so before the grandfather of Black basketball, Edwin Henderson, and the father of Black basketball, Bob Douglas, had even seen the game!
Second, more evidence has emerged of an even larger legacy, the assist he gave the Dodgers in integrating their organization.
While Jackie Robinson started in Canada, the Dodgers struggled to find a home for an integrated farm team in the United States until they reached Nashua Telegraph editor Fred Dobens, who assured them his city would welcome its Black players.
How did he know?
As a high school basketball star, Dobens’ team entertained crowds at halftime of Lew’s games in the 1920s. Dobens saw firsthand what a beloved figure he was and wrote about it decades later.
After Lew passed in October of 1963, Dobens wrote in his Around the Town column:
“Bucky was a Negro and in those days they didn’t like to see Negroes playing on white teams and many is the time the fans refused to let him play—not in this city though … He was a great favorite.”
The city welcomed Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella and they ultimately went on to unite with Robinson in Brooklyn. The winning ways of the Dodgers’ integrated organization led the rest of major league sports to soon follow. And Lew set it all in motion.
The Class of 2025 induction ceremony will be held on August 17 at the Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. A recording of the announcement of its members can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/1083749145?share=copy#t=0
Chris Boucher has written two books about Bucky Lew. The second of which, a straight nonfiction biography based on another year of research and featuring over 600 citations, is scheduled to be published by McFarland this fall. You can find out more at chrisboucher.net
