INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The basketball season tips off in the Kanawha Valley this Friday with a growing tradition in the Earl Lloyd Classic at West Virginia State University.
The weekend of hoops recognizes State alum Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to appear in an NBA game. Yellowjackets head men’s basketball coach Bryan Poore said Lloyd was both a spectacular player and a tremendous friend.
“He was just a special human being, more so than just being a special human being. He was a diamond. I was thankful that I got to spend a lot of time with him,” he said.
The annual event brings West Virginia State and one of its Mountain East Conference opponents together with two teams from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the conference Lloyd competed in while at State. The university was part of the CIAA, made up entirely of historically black colleges and universities, from 1942 to 1955.
“This year we have Livingstone and Claflin University coming in from the CIAA, and then Glenville State is going to be there from the Mountain East, so on Friday games will be at 5:30 and 7:30 and then Saturday at 2 and 4. We play the late games on both of those days,” Poore said.
Lloyd was one of three African-Americans selected in the 1950 NBA Draft, along with Chuck Cooper and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, and because of the league’s schedule, was the first to take the floor with the Washington Capitols on October 31 of that year. With a ten-year playing career, as well as stints as a coach and scout, Lloyd was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
Poore said despite all of his accomplishments, Lloyd’s humility through it all is what shined through.
“Nowhere in his home was one picture, one ball, one trophy, one book, one anything displayed that ever told you he played basketball, let alone that he’s in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and that he’s the first black player to ever play in the NBA. Nothing was displayed in his home. That’s how humble this guy was,” he said.
Lloyd died in 2015, but his legacy continues to live on through the Earl Lloyd Classic, in physical form through a statue on WVSU’s campus, and through the stories of those who knew him. Poore takes every opportunity that he can to tell someone about Earl Lloyd.
“Every phone call I have with a recruit, that’s one of the first topics I bring up because I want to educate the young,” he said. “It’s crazy because I ask all of them, ‘Who’s the first African-American to ever play in the NBA?’ Not one has ever got it right—not one, ever. That tells you that the story needs to be told.”
The Earl Lloyd Classic tips off at West Virginia State’s Walker Convocation Center on Friday at 5:30 when Glenville State plays Claflin, followed by West Virginia State against Livingstone.