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West Virginia State University to name street for Earl Lloyd

  • Courier Newsroom

 
INSTITUTE, W.Va. (AP) _ West Virginia State University is honoring

In this April 1955 file photo, Fort Wayne\’s Mel Hutchins (9) and Syracuse\’s Earl Lloyd (11) reach for the ball during an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis. Lloyd, the first black player in NBA history, died Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. He was 86. Lloyd\’s alma mater, West Virginia State, confirmed the death. It did not provide details. Lloyd made his NBA debut in 1950 for the Washington Capitals, just before fellow black players Sweetwater Clifton and Chuck Cooper played their first games. (AP Photo/File)

, the first African-American to play in an NBA game.
The university will name a street on campus after Lloyd, who played professionally in the 1950s. The Nov. 9 ceremony will take place in the lobby of the D. Stephen and Diane H. Walker Convocation Center, where a statue honoring Lloyd stands. The new Earl Lloyd Way is located between the Convocation Center and the University’s tennis courts. The event is open to the public.
Lloyd died in 2015. In 1950, with the Washington Capitols, he was the first African-American to play in an NBA game. Later, with the Syracuse Nationals, he became the first African-American player to win an NBA championship.
Lloyd played at what was then called West Virginia State College in in the late 1940s.
 

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