KU News Release

KU oral history workshop features first black college basketball players

Valinda Littlefield

LAWRENCE — Educators, historians, journalists and others will hear personal stories from some the first black college basketball players, Native Americans in tribal schools and other Americans whose racial, ethnic and cultural experiences were forged in the U.S. educational system during the ninth annual oral history workshop sponsored by the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas.

“Beyond These Hallowed Halls — Educating America” will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, March 28, at the Kansas Union ballroom. Registration information is on the Hall Center's Web site.

At the workshop, former New York Times sportswriter and author Barry Jacobs, former KU All-American basketball player Bud Stallworth and KU associate athletics director Paul Buskirk will discuss the integration of basketball in colleges and universities in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Theresa Milk

Jacobs is author of “Across the Line — Profiles in Basketball Courage: Tales of the First Black Players in the ACC and Southeastern Conferences.” In the book, black athletes now in their 50s and 60s recount fearing for their safety on campuses, being excluded from awards banquets held in places not open to blacks and enduring racial slurs from other team members. His other books include “The World According to Dean,” “Golden Glory: The First 50 Years of the ACC,” “Coach K’s Little Blue Book” and “Three Paths to Glory.”

Stallworth, who earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at KU in 1978, is budget manager for KU’s Design and Construction Management office. He was captain of KU’s 1972 basketball team and perhaps is best known for dropping 50 points on the University of Missouri team in 1972 — a KU record for points in a conference game. Later that year, Stallworth was a first-round draft choice for the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics and the ABA’s Denver Rockets. He played for the Supersonics from 1972 to 1974 and for the New Orleans Jazz from 1974 to 1977.

Theresa Milk, who teaches English at Haskell Indian Nations University, will discuss Native Americans educated in tribal schools. Valinda Littlefield, who teaches history at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, will discuss African-American women educators in the South.

Additional sessions will focus on Japanese-American education in internment camps; Jewish immigrant teachers and their students at historically black colleges and universities in the 1930s; prison inmate education; technology for collecting oral histories; and urban education with research focused on teachers in Kansas City, Kan., public schools.

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.