During the month of February, the BIG EAST Conference and Creighton Athletics will celebrate Black History Month by partnering with the Black Fives Foundation, a nonprofit public charity whose mission is to research, preserve, showcase, teach, and honor the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball, to host 22 games honoring Black athletes, coaches, and communities who played a critical part in America's basketball history.
After basketball was invented in 1891, teams were often called "fives," for their five starting players. The sport, like society, was racially segregated, and all-Black squads were called "Black fives." From 1904, when basketball was first introduced to African Americans on a wide scale organized basis, through the racial integration of all-White professional leagues in the 1940's, dozens of Black fives emerged and thrived while their skill, athleticism, and innovative styles of play helped shape and popularize the game to know and love today.