Chicago Hoops: Chicago’s Top Players Since 1950 A Personal Story of Books, Basketball, and a Career in Education

By Calvin Davis

During the 1950s, the great migration from the South led many Black families to the city of Chicago. As African American families took up residency all around the city, the talent in the Chicago Public League's high schools took a huge leap. Many of the schools that were previously predominantly White became Black. Neighborhoods throughout the city changed as well. Many White families moved to suburban areas outside of Chicago.

Since that time, basketball has created thousands of scholarship opportunities for Black student athletes, including myself. My version of the Top 100 Players of All Time will not only be similar to many but also different from what other writers would put together. The arguments about who belongs will always be present when the conversation centers on Chicago high school basketball.

My story is something I hope will be educational and inspirational to others who take the path I took as an inner-city resident who put in the extra effort in the classroom, on the court, and in the community to find success. I am a student of the human condition, wielding the written craft to enrapture the mind much like an artist wields a brush. The pages are a blank canvas on which to draw from a talent heralded by many but matched only by an imagination that rises to the task and delivers positivity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887635484

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

1: Best Players in Chicago Basketball

2: Girls' and Women's Basketball in Chicago and the Surrounding Suburban Areas

3: Accepting a Scholarship to William Penn University

About the Author

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Chicago Hoops

ChicagoaEUR(tm)s Top Players Since 1950 A Personal Story of Books, Basketball, and a Career in Education

Calvin Davis

Copyright © 2023 Calvin Davis

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-88763-552-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88763-548-4 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To the Davis family and all of those who have supported me throughout my life

Preface

Greetings to everyone who is about to read Chicago Hoops. It is my genuine pleasure to share some Chicago basketball history and my personal story. This is a story I share with many other men (young and old) from the inner city of Chicago as well as those from cities and towns throughout the United States of America. There are so many of us who used basketball as a springboard to a successful career. Everyone knows about all of the famous basketball players who are so familiar and popular they have become household names.

Many of the most well-known players are also rich and famous. My story is an account of a regular guy who did not become a superstar in basketball but did take advantage of his basketball scholarship opportunity to secure a college degree and use it to have a very successful professional career. It is something that more student athletes should do. The odds of getting a degree and becoming a professional in the workforce are much better than the odds of making it into the NBA. Even for those athletes who make it into the NBA, a career after you finish playing is a great thing to have. We often see pro athletes play professionally for approximately ten years. Then most athletes have a twenty-five-year wait before they can receive their pension. It is very smart to strategically plan to have a career to go into after your playing days. Having a career will allow you to do something productive and positive after your playing career and will also allow you to continue to build your resources until your pension kicks in.

As I write about the outstanding players who came out of Chicago, I'm ready to start the great debate about which city has produced the most talented basketball players. Chicago players are most definitely number 1 in my opinion. New York; Los Angeles, California; Washington, DC; and Baltimore area have produced many talented basketball players, and you would probably disagree with me about which city has produced the most outstanding players, but when you look at the large number of special basketball players out of Chicago, no other city can compare. After you read the long list of standout players (since 1950) I have included in this historical account of Chicago basketball, you will agree with me.

In conjunction with the history of Chicago basketball, I will write about both my personal basketball story and my professional career in education that I embarked upon after college. I will also share specific information about the individuals I believe are the top 125 players in the history of Chicago basketball beginning at the high school level. In this historical account, I will also give readers a number of details while highlighting Chicago's greatest hoopers based on their performance when they performed as high school players in the city of Chicago. I will also evaluate these extremely talented players and will list the top 15 players for each decade (all decade teams) beginning with 1950–1959 and ending at 2010–2019. It will be very interesting and enlightening to hear some of the stories that will describe what took place in high school basketball beginning around 1950.

The events that occurred during that time in history will indicate why the 1950s was so special to African American players and also to the United States from a basketball standpoint. I am sure basketball fans and athletes young and old will enjoy the stories about the talented players who lived in Chicago as they became elite basketball players during high school and moved on to colleges, universities, the National Basketball Association and European Leagues in many instances. Thank you for taking the time to read or listen to this publication. I truly believe this story will be very informative to basketball fans and historians as well as former student athletes and today's aspiring student athletes who are open to learning exciting things about life and basketball, which could help them along their path to college, adulthood, and careers. Much of the historical information about Chicago basketball which eventually created opportunities for players to attend colleges all over the country, will be entertaining and fun to read about.

Personally speaking, I am a student of the human condition. I wield this written craft to enrapture the mind much like an artist wields a brush. The pages begin as a blank canvas on which to draw from a talent heralded by many but shared by only a few. My research, experience, and imagination allow me to rise to the task of delivering this historical message effectively.

If you're a basketball fan or someone who relishes seeing a person from humble beginnings in the inner city learn how to not only enjoy but also benefit from participation in basketball and live a successful life because of it, then you should enjoy reading my story. It is about a young man growing up and using his involvement in sports to build a professional career and succeed in life. My story is a story shared by many others who dreamed to become a professional basketball player but did not. My story is also about life as well as how basketball enabled me to secure a college scholarship and a college education. Also, I will share my story after college and include specific details about how I have been able to use my college degree and secure a professional career as a teacher and an administrator in the city of Chicago's educational system.

This accomplishment has allowed me to provide a very comfortable life for my family. I did not become rich and famous, but I want to share with readers the fact that I have done pretty well as a professional educator, making over a couple million dollars in my career (even though it took me thirty years to do so). I say this somewhat facetiously because the perception of teachers and educators in general are underpaid and don't make a lot of money. This is true at some level, but teachers actually make a good living, especially if you can spend some of your years of service at the administrative level of education. Administrative salaries are much higher than regular teaching salaries.

Money can help make life comfortable, but it was never all about money in my mind. It is about what you can do to create a good life for yourself and your family while impacting others as you perform your role on your job and hopefully making the world a better place in the process. During my work in education, it has always been about how many kids I could influence to choose the upper road in life by mentoring and teaching them specific skills, not just basketball skills but general life skills you need to be successful. These are the things the adults in my life taught me at home and also during my basketball experience.

Life skills contain the ingredients needed to make good decisions and live a successful life. This means you have to practice good citizenship and follow all of the rules. Throughout this story, I will talk about a number of my personal life experiences and how they relate to my professional career. When you hear my perspective as I tell stories, you will be amazed at the confidence I have always had in my academic ability during my time in grade school, high school, and college. My confidence in my personal basketball skills continued to grow during my senior year of high school and throughout my college career. Confidence is important and helps lead to success in all of the things a person does. If you have confidence, you are more likely to succeed.

By the time I was in high school, I always believed I was as good as anyone academically and athletically. The academic confidence had been instilled in me at a very early age. On the athletic side, my confidence grew as I continued to improve and eventually became capable of dominating the game during my junior year in college. In addition to my time as a player, I will discuss how I've been able to give back to the students in the Chicagoland community in my role as educator, coach, official, and school administrator. You will notice that I will continuously refer to my basketball episodes and tell a few stories, which I hope will help someone and maybe educate others with life lessons that help you persevere and succeed. I will warn you now that I like to brag about my personal basketball skills more than anything else. I have a great deal of confidence, and I've always believed I was an exceptional talent who was never discovered or totally unharnessed in high school or college, and I still believe that today. I will list the top 125 basketball players in the last seventy years from the city of Chicago and a few of the suburban areas just outside of Chicago.

What makes my situation so special and how can others learn from me? As I think about my personal situation comprehensively, I believe I am a person who took advantage of an educational opportunity created by basketball, which was a special accomplishment. Just getting a scholarship opportunity is a unique accomplishment for anyone because everyone does not get this opportunity. It is even more special if you cannot afford tuition, and you get the chance to go to college for free. I was extremely fortunate to have an athletic scholarship opportunity. This great opportunity led to a professional career in education that was very successful. I had the good fortune of rising to the top position in my profession (director of the city of Chicago's elementary and high school sports administration, physical education, health, safety, and drivers' education).

I am one among the many student athletes who benefited from a basketball scholarship, and I want to share my success story. I hope someone reads my story and becomes motivated and inspired to make the best of a similar situation or any situation where an opportunity for upward mobility and a career is offered to them. My success story can easily become the success story of someone else who is reading this story and has an opportunity to succeed.

Like many inner-city youths, had I not been involved in basketball, I'm not sure I would have gone to college. If I did go to college after high school without a scholarship, it would have been challenging because my family did not have the resources to support me attending college. I guess I could have challenged myself and worked part-time while going to school, or maybe I could have even taken out loans. Introspectively, I can honestly say the blueprint for me to go to college without an athletic scholarship wasn't right in front of me. Even though I had the grades to go, it would have been much more challenging without the paid opportunity I received based on my basketball skills and potential.

I had four siblings who were older than me, and none of them had gone to college after finishing high school. The blessing, and also the bottom line in my situation, was I had to pay zero dollars. That was huge. Here I was with an opportunity to go the college and earn a degree without having to worry about paying anything. What a great situation. I don't believe I realized how great it was at the time. I didn't think about what it could mean for me in the future when it was happening. At the time I graduated from high school, I was only thinking about basketball and how I believed I should have been offered a scholarship by a bigger school than William Penn College. Looking back at myself as a player, the NAIA scholarship I received was appropriate because I was really a role player in high school playing with two future college All-America Selections, but I always felt I was capable of being a twenty-point-per-game scorer if I had been asked to be a primary scorer. My brother Clyde would always tell me I was better than everybody, and I believed him. This gave me confidence, but I accepted my role. I say I was a capable twnenty-PPG scorer because I did it in high-school summer leagues with some of the best high-school players on my team. Robert Byrd and Darius Clemons, two all-staters (among others), played with me in summer leagues when we were members of the junior Trotters traveling team for several years. I was always a double-figure scorer in college, and in key games in high school, I put up good numbers and made key baskets. I could score, assist, and defend; but I guess I'd have to call myself an all-around glue guy who played the game the right way and did what it takes to win. This includes defending the top player on the opposing team, which I did on occasion, as well as defending Ronnie Lester in practice every day. That was a tall task in itself, but it made us better because we competed hard against each other every day.

Later in life, I would come to realize the value of the offer from William Penn College. I'm very happy I finally embraced the opportunity and took full advantage of it. Getting a college education has meant a great deal to my professional life. I can't imagine what my occupation would have been without attending college. I'm extremely happy I went and made it work for me because college is not for everyone. I can think of a few peers and friends who did not go to college and did very, very well in life.

Dunbar Vocational High School offered a variety of trades that many of my classmates took advantage of directly after high school. There are many successful individuals who take a number of different training and noncollege routes to become successful in their careers, but college was the right choice for me. Any parent that has to pay zero dollars for their child's college education should be overjoyed. My parents were delighted with my scholarship opportunity because I was the sixth child and the first to be going to college.

In my first (Inner City Hoops) book, I talked a lot about the general history of Chicago basketball with a few specific references to my personal story. This time around, you are in for a treat because you will get a good amount of detailed basketball history along with my personal success story. In addition to listing my top 125 players in Chicago basketball history, I will tell stories about some of the best players from the last seven decades. I will also talk about my life growing up in the Bronzeville neighborhood on Thirty-Second Street in Chicago, which was also known as the Douglas community back then.

The story we learned while attending Douglas Elementary School was the family of the senator Stephen A. Douglas (who ran against Abraham Lincoln) from the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates that took place in the 1800s owned and donated the land the school occupied. The Douglas family also donated the land in the surrounding area which consists of dozens of miles. Because of this generous act by the Douglas family in the 1800s, the community and even the elementary school was named after Stephen A. Douglas, who was also known as the little giant. Unfortunately, about 150 years later, it was publicly pointed out that Stephen A. Douglas and his wife were slave owners, so the school name was very recently changed to Pershing West as part of the reckoning that is going on in America today.

The reason I love sports so much will be evident because it has been a part of my life since I was around eight years old. That is when I had my first experience with organized sports. It was the second Ward's sixteen-inch softball league. Organized basketball became a part of my life a few years later. I will talk about city and suburban basketball players and inner-city basketball venues and locations where individuals came together to compete and share their skills. I have spoken with a number of individuals who lived the same experiences and can testify that athletics and basketball in particular created opportunities and lifelong friendships. The opportunities included participation in basketball at the high school level, which sometimes led to college scholarships as well as social development, and the life skills and experiences helped shape many of us into upstanding individuals. Even the individuals who did not get a scholarship after high school learned the life skills youngsters get from participation in sports. Those are skills that stay with you throughout life and can be applied to general everyday life situations.

The friendships you acquire in sports are also very important. I feel my personal story is a version of the Horatio Alger story of hard work as well as practicing the proper virtues, which leads to success and respect from others. As I get deep into the discussion about both my basketball and professional careers and how I proudly rose to the top of my profession as an educator, coach, school administrator, and citywide director of athletics, I believe the entire account will be teachable, interesting, and hopefully inspiring. I've experienced every situation you could possibly imagine in over thirty years in education in both the city and the western suburbs of Chicago.

My accomplishments always made my parents proud. They were just like any other parents who wanted their children to have a better life experience with more education and more opportunities to succeed than they had. They didn't have money, but they had exceptional common sense and were very responsible. My parents gave us lots of love and support while making sure their children had what they needed (not what they wanted). They taught us all of the common values, including to be respectful, honest, hard-working, and also to get the best education we could. I would not have been able to accomplish anything without the love and support from my parents. I could never thank them enough. Whenever I needed them, they were there for me. As an adult, I was always there for them when they needed me.

I am extremely proud to come from humble beginnings in the inner city and rise to the top of the school system to contribute to sports and education and impact our youth. It is extra fulfilling because I was able to achieve this in the same system I came from. Being able to influence kids who were going through the same experience I had gone through was very, very rewarding to me. Another thing to note is I'm from an area within Chicago where most of my peers who grew up there (unfortunately) did not have the opportunity go to college and have the chance to advance to the level of professionalism that I had.

To further drive home my point, let me reiterate that I'm the only child among my seven siblings who had the chance to attend college. The fact that I became successful after growing up in an area where life was tough and very challenging goes to show you that it doesn't matter where you come from. It matters how you live your life, how you apply yourself, and how you pursue your goals. If you work hard and do things the right way, there are no limits to what you can achieve. There comes a time when your life becomes what you make of it. There were adults who helped me along the way, and I have focused on giving the same support to the students I have taught, mentored, and hopefully impacted. Most people call it giving back, and I really feel that I have given back to the Chicagoland community and its children during my educational career. I have also given back by volunteering and providing unpaid services in numerous youth recreation programs in my community. It has always been my hope that young people will learn something from me to help them on their path to adulthood and a career in the workforce.

I hope this publication can help or inspire someone to move ahead in their life and pursue success in any area they choose. Our path in life is never perfect, but if you can make good decisions and work things out properly, you will be successful in life. Was I a perfect kid? Of course not, but I was a good kid and a good student. I never got into trouble with the law and rarely did anything troublesome in school. Here's a story I will share about one time I did, in fact, get into trouble at school. I got involved in a fight one day when my younger brother Billy was injured by another student during my eighth grade school year. I had no idea why they were fighting, but I felt like he really needed my help at that moment in time due to the fact that he had a black eye. A referee would have probably stopped the fight if it had been a boxing match because his eye was swollen shut. Two against one was not fair, and I was suspended for jumping into the fight.

Here's my account of what I remember: As I left school at dismissal time on a Friday, I noticed a big crowd forming near the main entrance. This was usually a sign that someone was fighting. It was unusual because if you fought on school grounds, you would surely be disciplined and suspended from school. Kids would normally wait until they had left school grounds if they planned to fight someone. That way, the school would not be involved unless a parent came up and reported it. I pushed through the crowd to see who was fighting. To my surprise and shock, it was my younger brother Billy, who was fighting a guy who was a little bigger than him. As I looked more closely, Billy had a big black eye but was continuing to go after the guy and exchange punches. I felt like he was in trouble and needed help. (Of course, Billy said he was winning the fight, which I learned it started after he was kicked in the eye by a kid who was horsing around.) I rushed in, grabbed the kid, and held him around the waist. While I was holding the kid, Billy got in some big punches and kicks. I grabbed Billy, and we walked away before any adults were able to come in and break it up.

When I returned to school on Monday, I was summoned from my class by my brother's teacher, Ms. Stroud. When I walked into Ms. Stroud's classroom, all of the kids pointed me out and said I was the person who had jumped into the fight and held the kid while my brother punched him. I left the classroom immediately and went back to my classroom to get my coat. My teacher asked me what was going on, and I said I was being suspended right away along with my brother and another kid for a fight last Friday. A parent conference had to be held before we could return to school. My mom came up to the school right away. I had already told my family about the incident after it happened on Friday, so this development was not a surprise.

My eighth-grade teacher, Ms. Bishop, was appalled because I was the good kid. When I returned to school, she scolded me, and I apologized. I let her know it wouldn't happen again, and I knew it was wrong. My parents understood why I reacted the way I did but did not support my actions at the school during the reentry meeting. They obviously knew I felt my brother was in trouble with a big black eye, and I intervened on impulse. We were always taught to help each other but not to do anything wrong. I learned I could have handled it differently and could've just broken up the fight while not giving my brother the advantage.

I found out later Billy had been kicked in the eye in the classroom while the teacher was out. This caused the black eye and the fight because he wanted to retaliate. Why was he kicked? The kids were playing around in the class, doing karate, after being left unattended by the teacher. When I think about it now, it was the teacher's fault for leaving the classroom unattended, but nevertheless, I still have to admit I was wrong for getting involved the way I did. I was bigger and stronger, so it was unfair. This was the first and only time I was suspended from school and actually the only time I ever got into trouble at school. The suspension was for a grand total of one day, so I went home for the day after the parent-teacher conference. The suspension didn't affect me academically, but I did learn a good lesson about how I could have intervened in a more acceptable way. I was not a perfect kid. I was still voted valedictorian by the eighth-grade teachers that year, so all was forgiven soon after the incident.

I hate to admit it, but I was the teachers' pet because of my academic success and good conduct. After the incident, my teacher told me that admitting I was wrong and apologizing were important. She also said she liked the fact I stated it would not happen again, and she told me I was still her boy. That was reassuring because it let me know I was forgiven. I continued to have academic success in eighth grade and received nearly perfect scores (99 percent overall) in all subject areas on the eighth-grade Iowa assessment of academic achievement.

I was always a very quiet student who spoke when called upon or answered when a question was presented to the class. There were many adults and educators who passed on knowledge to me during my time as a student and an athlete. Those adults were very important to my success. It only takes a few encouraging words to inspire a young person and give them confidence. Let me highlight a few examples of the point I would like to make with this statement. My seventh-grade teacher, Ms. Johnson, on a report card pickup night, told my mom I was intelligent and would be special in my adult life. That stuck with me after my mom told me what the teacher said, and it made me feel like I was smart. It is amazing how kind words can inspire someone. Those kind words were one of the reasons I always had high expectations for myself at every level of education as every student should. I had been the spelling bee champion in fifth grade, and that gave me great confidence in my academic ability. I had what some called a photographic memory. I could look at documents and remember them without studying them.

Academics are important, and athletes should never place basketball or sports ahead of schoolwork. Remember, you must qualify academically to play at any level. Most importantly, you have to secure the required grade point average and aptitude test scores in order to receive a college scholarship after high school. As an educator, one of the saddest things I've witnessed on many occasions is when an outstanding high school athlete is not able to accept a scholarship offer because he cannot qualify academically. Student athletes and parents need to be aware of athletic scholarship requirements per the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) during the student's freshman year of high school. This will certainly help kids and families understand the importance of academics throughout high school.

As a student, I worked hard to be on the honor roll and to be a part of the national honor society in high school. I continued to seek academic success after high school and became a member of the dean's list while in college. Even in graduate school, I was a dedicated student who received all As and only one B, which was in the last class of the master of arts type 75 educational administration and supervision program. I was so upset I remember calling the professor at Chicago State University and telling him the grade was unfair, and I deserved an A. He didn't change my grade, but in his heart, I believe he knew it was unfair. I had written a thirty-page paper for the final project, which I put a whole lot of research into. The paper I wrote was accepted and published in the educational research information center and is still there for researchers to use today. I felt it was appropriate to let him know how I felt because I had worked hard in the class and had learned a lot about research. I believe all student athletes need to take pride in their academic performance because it will take them far beyond basketball and help them transition into another career.

Other memories I have about words of encouragement from adults in my life includes the guest speaker at my eighth-grade graduation. When the speaker looked at the fact I was valedictorian with awards in every subject area, he made this comment, Maybe this young man can become president of the United States one day. I never aimed that high, but it was a compliment that made me feel good about becoming whatever I wanted to become.

My third-grade teacher said I had the best handwriting she had ever seen for a boy. That made me focus on always writing neatly, and I still do that today. I can even remember my speech from my kindergarten ceremony. I was selected to go on stage and say, First grade, oh my, how exciting, I can hardly wait. I was proud to be the kid Ms. Allen picked to speak, and that is probably when I first began to believe I was smart.

Charlie Gant, my high school assistant varsity basketball coach, told me I would be a basketball star in college because I had special skills and abilities that were not highlighted at Dunbar High School but would be highlighted in college. I believed his words, and that is part of what drove me to become a Hall of Fame player at William Penn College. Being a mentor and a role model is very important, and it is something I have embraced more as I've become older. I believe we really need to share more with the young people and transfer historical knowledge and experiences which can help individuals develop and also contribute to a better society.

Mentoring is a great way of sharing knowledge that helps to make young people better. A few kind words of encouragement or support are always helpful, especially if you're trying to build confidence or give constructive criticism. You have no idea how kind words raise the level of confidence and lift the spirit of an individual. All of the kind words I mentioned above that adults expressed to me or to my parents inspired and motivated me to do well in life. This approach of positive reinforcement will generally have a lasting positive effect on young people as it did with me. It will also increase effectiveness and develop confidence within those you touch.

My success story brings truth to the old saying that with hard work, you can achieve anything. It's the American dream. Having overcome many obstacles to achieve success. This is why I want to share my story with others. Like most young men who grow up in the inner city in areas that are impoverished, I was very close to all of the negative forces that impact so many of our young people in big