Curley "Boo" Johnson

[Da Coach]

The Peoria Journal Star has a nice article about Curley "Boo" Johnson in todays issue-

Former Bradley star expands Skills for Life basketball camp

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1660535626/Former-Harlem-Globetrotter-Bradley-star-expands-Skills-for-Life-basketball-camp

Congratulations to Curley "Boo" Johnson for his great work with young kids in Peoria.

But now I have to take the Journal Star sports people to task once again.
The headline claims Curley "Boo" Johnson was a former Bradley "star" basketball player! Not true. I can understand typos and headline errors, but how did they come up with this?
Curley "Boo" Johnson was never a "star" for Bradley. In fact he never played for Bradley at all. As far as I can tell, he never attended Bradley a day in his life. He played high school basketball in Peoria for Richwoods, then Central. But he then attended Spoon River College for a couple years, then played a couple seasons at Loras College, a Division III school in Dubuque, Iowa, before hooking up with the Harlem Globetrotters and becoming their marquee dribbler for 18 years.

Curley "Boo" Johnson's father, Curley Johnson, was a Bradley basketball player from 1955-1958. Though he was not the star, he played on some very good Bradley teams with a number of outstanding players. Curley Sr. played in a total of 76 games in his 3 years at Bradley and scored a total of 365 points, for a career average of 4.8 points per game.
Curley Johnson's stats at Bradley-
Year........Games...Points......Average...FG%
1955-56.....25........160........6.4
1956-57.....29........165........5.7........31.3%
1957-58.....22.........40........1.8.........29.2%
Career.......76.........365.......4.8

[tornado]

presto - the headline suddenly changes on the online version...
"Former Globetrotters player expands Skills for Life basketball camp"

[tornado]

Not to start any arguments but some interesting items....

Many separate places in the Curley "Boo" Johnson bios it says his dad was recognized as the first Black player at Bradley.

Curley Johnson, Sr. started at Bradley in the fall of 1956, but so did Shellie McMillon, so Curley tied Shellie if indeed they were the first Black players...

But here is a report that a Black player named Tony Davis was on the 1955 Bradley team and he's pictured here...
in a book titled "Blacks at Bradley"...(scroll to page 77 in the book)...actually suggesting Davis preceded Johnson & McMillon by a year even though he apparently did not score any varsity points according to the all time roster.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Psn_NWAQ0IsC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=%22blacks+at+bradley%22+and+%22tony+davis%22&source=bl&ots=IEuA-O8WFS&sig=Y2JqZw_c2Uq_tNEAVOTm00ktxUA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rD3zT-38KMa1rQGN5fjMAw&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22blacks%20at%20bradley%22%20and%20%22tony%20davis%22&f=false

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds' article about the BU-Arizona State game states:

In the crowd was ex-Brave and ex-Harlem Globetrotter Curley ???Boo??? Johnson, who lives in the Phoenix area.

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20131123/SPORTS/131129670/10963/SPORTS/?tag=2

As noted above, this appears to be a common mistake by the PJ Star. Curley "Boo" Johnson never played for Bradley, and to my knowledge, never attended Bradley.

[Old Coach]

Dave Reynolds' article about the BU-Arizona State game states:

In the crowd was ex-Brave and ex-Harlem Globetrotter Curley ???Boo??? Johnson, who lives in the Phoenix area.

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20131123/SPORTS/131129670/10963/SPORTS/?tag=2

As noted above, this appears to be a common mistake by the PJ Star. Curley "Boo" Johnson never played for Bradley, and to my knowledge, never attended Bradley.

Boo played at Spoon River and then transferred to Loras.

[Da Coach]

Boo played at Spoon River and then transferred to Loras.

Yes. His bio is in the top post.

[Old Coach]

Yes. His bio is in the top post.

Didn't see it.

[capecod]

who was Tony Davis???

Not to start any arguments but some interesting items....

Many separate places in the Curley "Boo" Johnson bios it says his dad was recognized as the first Black player at Bradley.

Curley Johnson, Sr. started at Bradley in the fall of 1956, but so did Shellie McMillon, so Curley tied Shellie if indeed they were the first Black players...

But here is a report that a Black player named Tony Davis was on the 1955 Bradley team and he's pictured here...
in a book titled "Blacks at Bradley"...(scroll to page 77 in the book)...actually suggesting Davis preceded Johnson & McMillon by a year even though he apparently did not score any varsity points according to the all time roster.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Psn...vis%22&f=false

Tony Davis is a mystery to me.

*There is no Tony Davis listed on the BU Basketball all time roster-at least the one I have
*I do not know what the '1955' BU team means in the team picture that includes Davis-was it 1954-55 or 1955-6?
* Shellie McMillon and Curley Johnson were on the '54-'55 BU frosh team(and no Davis was on that team)
* No Tony Davis played on any BU frosh team prior to that(of course he could have just walked onto the varsity)
* The picture with the caption-Tony Davis #51 vs 'arch rival' Illinois St is actually of #51 Curley Johnson in 1957 game('57-58 season)...and Illinois St was FAR from an 'arch rival' back then...plus BU did not play Illinois St in any season with a " '55" (54-55 or 55-56)
* Curley Johnson was #51 at BU

Tornado will probably be able to put this story to rest with his great research capabilities....but I just can't find any trace of Davis....perhaps he was a member of the 54-55 varsity when McMillon and Johnson were just frosh and never appeared in a game.....? Or played in a varsity game that year and didn't score....and therefore was left off the all time roster?

[tornado]

capecod - I have a couple answers for you...

-first - the guy who wrote that book about Blacks at Bradley did some pretty exhaustive research and talked to a lot of people - but I was not there - so I can only cite his findings - I cannot substantiate them

-second - I have a business client who played basketball for Bradley - who was NOT in the all time Bradley roster - until I told him he wasn't and he contacted someone at BU and after some quick research - they added his name.
His name IS now there but the player in question tells me that there are other kids who played in varsity games and if their contributions were minimal or if they did not score - then they are not noted.

Last - read this thread I had about the facts in that book

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21199&highlight=blacks+bradley

[capecod]

Leroy Jackson

capecod - I have a couple answers for you...

-first - the guy who wrote that book about Blacks at Bradley did some pretty exhaustive research and talked to a lot of people - but I was not there - so I can only cite his findings - I cannot substantiate them

-second - I have a business client who played basketball for Bradley - who was NOT in the all time Bradley roster - until I told him he wasn't and he contacted someone at BU and after some quick research - they added his name.
His name IS now there but the player in question tells me that there are other kids who played in varsity games and if their contributions were minimal or if they did not score - then they are not noted.

Last - read this thread I had about the facts in that book
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread...blacks+bradley

thanks for the quick response

Leroy Jackson was on the 1953-54 Bu frosh team:

6'2 150 from Dunbar Madison

since there are no pictures in the 1953-54 BU 'Press-Radio-TV' guide, I did not know that he was black....I have never heard his name mentioned before

Since Jackson was on the frosh team in 1953-54..doesn't that make HIM the first black player-since Davis didn't 'play' until 1955(or are we talking varsity only)?

Also, I have only done about 10 minutes of research on all of the above-hence I bow to you statement that the author did 'exhaustive research'...although I'm not buying his act on the picture that is actually of # 51 Curley Johnson vs Illinois St in 1957

[Da Coach]

I have revived this thread where we discussed the first black player at Bradley because I have learned some new information that might be relevant.

As noted above, there was a black player named Tony Davis who appears in the team picture for the 1954-55 team, though he does not appear in the All Time Bradley Basketball Roster. Then on the 1955-56 team, there were 2 black players, Shellie McMillon and Curley Johnson.

The book, "Blacks at Bradley" by Arwin Smallwood (a former assistant professor of history at Bradley), suggests that Tony Davis was Bradley's first black varsity basketball player (pictured in game action on page 78 in the link below), and that a player named Leroy Jackson (pictured on page 73) was "the first African-American basketball player to appear on any Bradley team" when he played for the Bradley freshman team in 1954.-
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ps...vis%22&f=false

However, here is the Bradley All Time Roster-
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...ll_Records.pdf

Neither Tony Davis nor Leroy Jackson are listed. Possibly they only played freshman or junior varsity basketball, and thus don't show on the all-time roster, which only includes varsity years and stats.
But notice on page 2, that a player named Lynch Conway is listed as having played basketball for Bradley in 1908-1909.
Lynch Conway (full name was John Robert "Lynch" Conway) was a star black athlete and basketball player at Peoria High School, where he is still a legend. And he was the team captain of the very first Illinois state champion basketball team, which Peoria High School won in 1908. He attended Bradley and played basketball at Bradley in 1908-1909.

Here is a picture of him on the 1908 Peoria High School team-

https://i.ibb.co/N9WX49B/Lynch-Conway3.png

And a plaque at Peoria HS designating Conway as the captain of the state championship-winning team-

https://i.ibb.co/G9M7sXy/Lynch-Conway4.png

Here is a picture of him on the 1908-1909 Bradley team-

https://i.ibb.co/qYCT3y6/Lynch-Conway2.png

Lynch Conway is even enshrined in the Bradley Athletics Hall of Fame and was a standouts in 4 sports- baseball, basketball, football, and track at Bradley-
http://bradleybraves.com/sports/2016...-fame-c-d.aspx

Here is an obituary page that documents he was a star black athlete at Peoria High School, and that he attended Bradley. He died in 1939 and is buried in Springdale Cemetery in Peoria. The obituary cites that he was "the only African-American to play on a state title team until 1949"-
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...&GRid=90978661

And in 2006, the IHSA named him to their list of 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Le...all_Tournament

In every reference I can find, the first reported black college basketball player is said to have occurred somewhere around 1914 or 1915 and only at all-black colleges. The first blacks to play on integrated teams are not reported to have occurred until much later, probably in the 1920's. So I believe Bradley's Lynch Conway might have been the first black athlete to play college basketball anywhere in the US, though it would take a bit more research to confirm that.* (* see addendum below)

If anyone knows more about Lynch Conway, or this topic of the first black college player, or the first black to play at Bradley, let us know.

For the record, I sent all the research and documentation I had about Lynch Conway and the first black players at Bradley to the sports info department at Bradley back in August, 2017, when I first posted this on Bradleyfans.
Jim Mattson, sports broadcaster for WEEK (channel 25) did a great story about Lynch Conway in February, 2019. Please check this out-

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=394401531137822

* Edit- After more research, I have found one instance of a black college basketball player who played earlier than Lynch Conway did at Bradley in 1908-09.
Fenwick Henri Watkins played basketball, as well as baseball and football at the University of Vermont from 1906-1909.
There is little written about him, but he does have a Wikipedia page (which does not mention that he was black)-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenwick_Watkins

Obituary-
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1932...on-free-press/

Brief article-

https://peoplepill.com/people/fenwick-henri-watkins/

His 1905-06 high school photo-

https://deadfred.com/photos/21595.jpg