DiGIOVANNI: 50 years later, McClellan’s call to start 5 black players at West Chester won’t be forgotten

 

In the year 2019, it is not uncommon for a Ches-Mont League basketball team — or any team, really — to take the floor with an all-black starting five. 

We do not even note the occurrence because it is so commonplace these days.

But, 50 years ago, when West Chester High School — now West Chester Henderson — fielded the first all-black starting five in the Ches-Mont League, it was more than just front-page news. 

It was a racial tsunami that rocked multiple boats in West Chester and beyond.

But for late Warrior head coach Jack McClellan, it had nothing to do with changing people’s minds. It was simply the best way to win.

McClellan told me before his death in 2015 that he wanted to play the best players, and that he was not concerned about the backlash 1968 America would offer.

“I just wanted to put the players on the floor that would win games,” McClellan said. “I thought it was the only fair thing to do for the kids and the school. It did not make me very popular around West Chester, but I really did not care. I wanted to do the right thing and the black players were the best at that time.”

One of those players was Leon Bell, who went on to be a legend at Cheyney University and earn a spot in the school’s hall of fame, as well as the Chester County and Ches-Mont halls of fame.

A few decades after making history on the court, Bell would sit in McLellan’s chair as the Henderson head coach, where he won four straight Ches-Mont League crowns in the 2000s.

“Jack took a lot of heat for doing this,” Bell said. “He thought it was the only fair thing to do and he was right. We won three straight Ches-Mont League titles from ’67-’68 when I was a sophomore, until I graduated. And we beat Coatesville at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, in the first high school game ever played there, at the end of the ’68-’69 season. We had some real good teams back then.

“I don’t remember Jack talking about it too much with us,” Bell said. “We did not think anything of it because we played together for so long. We went around to different towns in the summer and the offseason and we all played together, so we did not think much of it. But, Jack cut two white seniors my sophomore year and that did not make him very popular on the golf course. I mean, Jack was also the golf coach in school, so it was tough on him.”

Another one of McClellan’s players was guard Bobby Dorsey, who was a junior when Bell was a sophomore. Dorsey, who won two Ches-Mont League titles, remembers one story in 1966-67, when he and Gary Jones were sophomores playing junior varsity. Before the third game of the season, McClellan told the pair to not go out on the floor 30 minutes before the opening tip.

“I mean we were worried that we did something wrong,” Dorsey laughed. “But, Jack told us we would be going up to varsity to play. And let me tell you, Jack took a lot of heat for having an all-black team. And we faced racism, but it was usually pretty subtle. We took a lot of glances and stares from the fans, and sometimes people said racist things, but we just played basketball.

“But we did have a scene up in Boyertown where it really got out of hand, and Jack had to pull us off the floor in the first half,” Dorsey said. “Spring-Ford was pretty bad too, but at Boyertown they were throwing things at us, so it was a real bad scene.”

Another Warrior on those championship teams was guard Mike Gallimore. Gallimore remembers McClellan talking to the players and trying to get them ready for what they were going to face.

“Jack tried to coach us through all the stuff,” Gallimore said. “And he was very concerned about us. He did not want us taking too much stuff, and that is why he pulled us off the court at Boyertown. And boy, did Jack take a lot of heat. He was a member of the West Chester Country Club, and having an all black team did not go over well at all there.”

Bell remembers going to Coatesville in the offseason, and people saying things to the Warriors. But he does not remember McClellan specifically trying to coach the group through the adversity.

“Jack let our actions do the work,” Bell recalls. “I personally did not ever hear an opposing player use a racial slur at me or even a fan. I would have taken matters into my own hands because I played with a vengeance and would not tolerate that kind of disrespect.”

Dorsey says that some other teams in the Ches-Mont League noticed the all-black team, and he remembers some Coatesville players talking to him about the situation.

“People really noticed and commented on it,” Dorsey recalls. “And some of the guys that played at Coatesville said they were proud of what Jack was doing, and they thought they had a quota system where they had to keep some white players.”

Things have changed dramatically since those days in the late 1960s. Things aren’t perfect — not by a longshot. But now teams play with white, black, Asian and Latino players, and no one really notices. 

But as Martin Luther King’s birthday arrives, it is wise to remember back when things were very different, and remember all the hurdles that still remain.

Fifty years ago, Jack McClellan wanted to win games, and trotted out his best starting five.

Maybe he didn’t do it on purpose, but McClellan’s stand against hate is a moment in history we should never forget.

Peter DiGiovanni covers boys basketball for the Daily Local News and Pa. Prep Live. You can reach him at pdigiovanni07@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteDLN.