FORD FREEDOM AWARD HONOREE
The New York Renaissance:
If ever a team demonstrated the value of Talent, Tenacity and Teamwork, it was this year’s Ford Freedom Award honoree, the New York Renaissance
FORD FREEDOM AWARD HONOREE
The New York Renaissance:
If ever a team demonstrated the value of Talent, Tenacity and Teamwork, it was this year’s Ford Freedom Award honoree, the New York Renaissance.
The Rens, as they were called, hold a special place in sports history as the nation’s first all-black, professional basketball team owned by African Americans. They were so talented they were the most dominant professional basketball team in the 1920s and 1930s, winners of 88 straight games in the 1932-1933 season and a world champion in 1939 after beating teams of all races in the World Professional Basketball Tournament.
They demonstrated tenacity year after year in the face of discrimination from leagues that would not let them play and fans who were abusive and prejudiced against African-American players. And they were one of the greatest early examples of how teamwork leads to basketball success, prompting Hall of Fame player and coach John Wooden to later declare that in all his years of coaching “I have 