Back in 1957, the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University Tigers became the first HBCU team to win a national championship… and they went on to make even more history, winning three back-to-back national titles from 1957 to 1959.
The champs didn’t get all the accolades they were due back then, but 67 years later, they finally are getting their flowers. Surviving members of the team, Dick Barnett, George Finley, Ernest Jones, Henry Carlton, Robert Clark and Ron Hamilton were invited to the White House last week. Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a private ceremony paying homage to them on April 5th, where they also presented her with a custom jersey.
The team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, after a campaign spearheaded by Mr. Barnett that went on for years and was the subject of the PBS documentary “The Dream Whisperer.”
Vice President Harris told them, “There’s so much that we have accomplished as a nation because of the heroes like those that I’m looking at right now… I, like so many of us, stand on your broad shoulders, each one of you.”
And Mr. Finley said in response, “This is the greatest day of my life… I thought this would never take place… winning the championship was big, but it wasn’t as big as being here with Vice President Harris today."
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