JOHN B. McLENDON, JR.
Basketball Legend
1915 - 1999

Head Basketball Coach
North Carolina Central, Hampton, Tennessee State, Kentucky State
Career Record: 523-165
HBCU Ranking: 7th
National Championships: NAIA 1957, 1958, 1959
Conference Championships:CIAA: 1946, 1950 MWAA: 1957, 1959
NAIA District 29 Championships: 1957, 1958

Best Seasons:
         NC Central: 1944: 19-1, 1945: 18-2, 1959: 25-5
         Tennessee St: 1955: 29-4, 1957: 31-4, 1958: 31-3, 1959: 32-1

Major Accomplishments

1940-54 - Developed Fastbreak Basketball (Had highest scoring college for 10 of 14 years.)

1943 - Coached Rudolph "Rocky" Robeson, the first Black to break a college record.

1944 - Set second-half scoring record of 67 points against Shaw University.
Coached the first integrated ball game in the South, North Carolina College v. Duke. NC College won 88-44. The game was kept secret for nearly 50 years.

1946 - Co-founder of CIAA Tournament with Talmege Hill, John Burr, and Harry Jefferson.

1950 - Founded and won the Tournament of the Carolinas (1950, 1951, 1952)

1950 - Coached Harold Hunter, first Black athlete to be signed by NBA. (Took Hunter and Earl Lloyd to tryouts with Washington Capitols. Both signed the same day.
NC Central defeated Camp LeJeune in first public integrated game in South.

1950 - Initiated and planned the mechanics for integrating Black colleges into national basketball championships. Along with Harry Jefferson and Eddie Jackson, he was a charter member of the National Athletic Steering Committee. This led to the participation of Tennessee State winning the first NAIA District 29 Championship in 1953, and participating in the first integrated national tournament.

1954 - Coached Tennessee State to the championship of the NAIA Tip-Off Tournament. This was the first time an HBCU was invited to a national invitational tournament. They won the tournament which was held in downtown Kansas City. One of the conditions for their participation was that Tennessee State would stay where the other teams stayed. This was the first time that Blacks stayed in the downtown hotels in Kansas City.

1956 - Organized and won the first integrated tournament in the South. The participating teams were Fisk University, Rockhurst College, North Dakota University and Tennessee State.

1957 - Coached Tennessee State to the NAIA Championship. This was the first time that an HBCU won a college national championship.

1958 - Coached Tennessee State to a second consecutive NAIA Championship, the first time that an HBCU won consecutive championships. Coach McLendon was named NAIA Coach of the Year.

1959 - Coach Tennessee State to its third straight NAIA Championship. Another HBCU first.

1959 - Became the first Black coach to be selected to coach the National All-Star Team. The team defeated the Denver Truckers National Industrial Basketball League Champions. (March 1, 1959)

1959 - Became the first Black coach in the National Industrial Basketball League. (Won the league in 1961.)

1960 - First Black coach to defeat the U.S. Olympic Team with an amateur team.

1961 - Became the first Black coach to win the National AAU Championship.

1961 - Became the first Black to coach a professional team, the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League. Won first Eastern Division Championship.

1962 - Inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame.

1962 - Became the first Black coach to author book on basketball, Fast Break Basketball, Fine Points and Fundamentals. (Parker Publishing)

1966 - Coached and won the first integrated game between state schools in the State of Kentucky between Kentucky State and Moorhead State.

1966 - Became the first Black coach to serve on the U.S. Olympic Committee (1966-76) He was responsible for scouting and player performance statistical evaluation.

1966 - Became the first Black coach to be hired by a predominately white university, Cleveland State. (June, 1966)

1968 - Became the first Black coach on the Olympic Coaching Staff.

1969 - Became the first Black coach in the American Basketball Association with the Denver Rockets.

1978 - Inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame

1979 - Inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

1990 - Began effort to establish the HBCU Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame

1999 - Named Durham, North Carolina as the host city for the HBCU Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame.

Year By Year Record

Year W L Pct. 1941 19 5 79.2 1942 18 5 78.3 1943 13 6 68.4 1944 19 1 95.0 1945 18 2 90.0 1946 19 5 79.2 1947 20 5 80.0 1948 18 12 60.0 1949 25 5 83.3 1950 24 5 82.8 1951 28 7 80.0

Year W L Pct. 1952 18 10 64.3 1953 16 6 72.7 1954 15 14 51.7 1955 29 4 87.9 1956 26 8 76.5 1957 31 4 88.6 1958 31 3 91.2 1959 32 1 97.0 1964 20 7 74.1 1965 11 14 44.0 1966 19 8 70.4 Total 523 165 76.2