I was assigned to play forward and, sometimes the pivot as well.

He was not going to lose a game on a technical foul, and his players were not either.Starting in 1951, Crowe’s teams were burned by bad calls in the state tournament three years in a row. Basketball,” had 32 points and set a three-game tournament scoring record. There would be no downtown celebration. Oscar Robertson How an all-black high school team starring Oscar Robertson changed Hoosier Hysteria. They had been further schooled by Sleet and Crowe ran very few set plays, but his teams still played with discipline – focusing on team success, sharing the ball, working for good shots, deferring to the better shooters, playing within themselves without showboating.And he emphasized that whatever the fans, your opponents, or the officials threw at you, you were to maintain your poise and composure. And then we were off to the other courses on our schedules. I was naïve about the depths of segregation in Indianapolis and in the world.We kids being black, poor, and unwelcome outside our own neighborhood, our activities were pretty much limited to school, church, and sports. But Bill Mason, a senior guard I knew well from the Dust Bowl, kept beckoning to me. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Excluded from teaching at white schools, these dedicated men and women were determined to create a superior academic environment within the confines of a segregated school system.Lane also emphasized cultural pride, discipline and respect. Then it was on to the sectionals, the regionals, and the semi-state, where we faced basically the same Muncie Central team that had lost to Milan the previous year.Central and Attucks had traded No. 17. And basketball was the king of all sports. No school from Indianapolis – Indiana’s largest city and the state capital – had won the championship in 44 years of organized high school basketball.But in 1955, our Crispus Attucks Tigers had an opportunity to change all that – because we were in the state’s Final Four for the first time.Attucks had been a source of pride for Indianapolis’ black community ever since its doors opened. No. But our win came with a bittersweet aftertaste.As we climbed aboard a fire truck for the traditional ride downtown, followed by a caravan of our fans cheering for their “bad, bad Tigers,” we had a strange feeling about the trip.And when we got to Monument Circle, we didn’t stop and get off and join our fans in celebration. But it seemed that its days of basketball dominance would remain a distant memory.Just in the last couple of years, however, the program has been rejuvenated, and I’m betting that Saturday’s visit to the state finals and its championship win will not be its last. It was faster, louder, more stop-and-go, more improvised – a style that, like jazz, allowed for individual excellence within a team context.You had to be in great shape to play for Crowe. He has two brothers, Bailey Jr. and Henry. Even if you were among the chosen, Crowe made it clear that your first priority was academics. Each item sold between $50,000 and $91,000.Robertson in the 1960s as a member of the Cincinnati Royals He taught us the critical importance of the fundamentals – that athleticism and gamesmanship, aka basketball intelligence – don’t mean anything unless you can execute consistently.We learned how to pivot, how to box out under the boards, how to set a pick, how to pass and cut, how to move without the ball. Oscar Robertson. Our fan base was now spreading throughout the city. His mantra was, “The first 10 points are for the refs … the rest are for us.”He also allowed his tallest players to dunk the ball during warm-ups, alternating right and left hands, giving opponents a little preview of what they were up against before the game even began.Attucks’ visually exciting style of play coincided with the emergence of television, and tournament games were now shown live statewide on TV.I had seen very few varsity games up to this point. Indianapolis was hostile territory if you were black. I’m proud to say that the “bad, bad Tigers” are back.Oscar Robertson, the National Association of Basketball Coaches' "Player of the Century,” is also an established labor leader, entrepreneur, author, basketball ambassador, and an advocate for healthy living and organ disease prevention. I hung around for a while, but I wasn’t really in much of a mood to celebrate, so I went home.Soon enough, we learned that city officials had called Lane before the finals and informed him that there would be no celebrating downtown. And where I was quiet and reserved, keeping my true feelings internalized, he was always vocal in speaking up for himself, which often put him at odds with his coach. Athletes were students first and foremost, and enjoyed no special privileges. The many records he still holds include: points in one game, 62 (one of his six games of 50 points or more); career triple-doubles, 10; career rebounds per game, 15.2; and career points, 2,973.Robertson had many outstanding individual game performances, including 10 triple-doubles. All-black high schools were built in Gary and Evansville as well.Even in the mid-’50s, the Klan had tremendous influence in Indiana politics, business and education. We could draw up to 11,000 people for our games, and were supposedly the best-drawing high school team in the country. Instead, Mayor Alex Clark read a brief tribute, we took another lap around the circle, and then our parade was redirected to Northwestern Park in the black section near Attucks, where 25,000 people celebrated around a huge bonfire.That’s when it hit me.