When Vice President Kamala Harris greeted Dick Barnett on Friday, he was concise in his response.
“Lastly.”
In the end, six surviving members of the all-Black Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College in Nashville visited the White Home, the fruits of a decades-long effort, led by Mr. Barnett, for recognition.
The Tennessee A&I Tigers had been the primary group from a traditionally Black school or college to win any nationwide championship, and the primary school group to win three back-to-back championships, in 1957, 1958 and 1959. The previous teammates — Mr. Barnett, George Finley, Ernest Jones, Henry Carlton, Robert Clark and Ron Hamilton — took half in a personal ceremony within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home with Ms. Harris, who paid tribute to the group throughout a round-table dialogue.
“There’s a lot that we’ve completed as a nation due to the heroes like people who I’m proper now,” Ms. Harris mentioned, including, “I, like so many people, stand in your broad shoulders, every certainly one of you.”
Regardless that 9 gamers from the Tennessee A&I championship groups went on to play skilled basketball, their accomplishments rapidly receded within the Jim Crow South.
Mr. Barnett, a former taking pictures guard, has spent the final decade attempting to appropriate that. He campaigned for years for the group to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame, whereas educating the subsequent technology of basketball gamers at Tennessee State College, as the varsity is now recognized, in regards to the barrier-breaking group.
When Ms. Harris requested Mr. Barnett, 87, to explain their taking part in days, he mentioned, “It was a relentless wrestle.”
“However you didn’t surrender,” Ms. Harris mentioned.
“No query about it,” he responded.
His work was rewarded in 2019, when the Tennessee A&I groups of 1957-59 had been inducted into the Corridor of Fame, a journey that was the topic of a current PBS documentary, “The Dream Whisperer.”
However the last piece of the puzzle was a celebration on the White Home — a longtime American custom and one which Mr. Barnett felt was lengthy overdue. And time was of the essence: Solely eight gamers and one assistant coach from the championship groups are nonetheless alive.
Greater than 50 members of Congress signed a letter in January on the group’s behalf asking for a White Home invitation “for lengthy overdue acknowledgment and correct celebration.”
After the ceremony, the group gave Ms. Harris a custom-made jersey and took a tour of the White Home.
In an interview afterward, Mr. Barnett mentioned of the go to, “It felt good that that point lastly got here.”
George Finley, 85, a former heart for the group who traveled to Washington from Los Angeles together with his grandson, mentioned he by no means thought a White Home go to would occur. He advised Ms. Harris that Friday was “one of many biggest days of our lives.” He additionally confirmed her an image of Ms. Harris and President Biden that he carries in his pockets.
“I have a look at this as a promotion for H.B.C.U. faculties and the popularity that this faculty dropped at all of these faculties; it’s actually one thing massive,” he mentioned in an interview earlier than Friday’s ceremony. “Regardless that so a few years have handed, it’s nonetheless good.”
Their coach, John McLendon, an exacting technician, “can be lit up over this,” Mr. Finley added. “He was to me one of many biggest coaches that ever existed.”
Mr. McLendon, who died in 1999, had tried to maneuver Tennessee A&I to the N.C.A.A. however was denied. As a substitute, the group performed within the Nationwide Affiliation of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Ernest Johnson, 85, and his spouse took a prepare to Washington from Chicago. He was sidelined with accidents throughout the 1959 championship run, however went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters and for semiprofessional groups. After discrimination saved his school group out of the nationwide highlight for thus lengthy, Mr. Johnson mentioned, the go to to the White Home was nicely earned.
“Nobody noticed this as being that nice an accomplishment till anyone actually, actually labored and made them conscious of it,” he mentioned in an interview earlier than the ceremony.
Mr. Johnson, who grew up taking part in on filth courts in Mississippi, doesn’t keep in mind a lot from his Tennessee A&I days, however he does keep in mind Mr. McLendon’s notorious conditioning routine: Operating three miles day by day earlier than the season and three miles day by day 21 days earlier than the match. Mr. McLendon known as them “the championship miles.”
If Mr. McLendon had lived to see his group go to the White Home, he would say, “Hallelujah,” Mr. Johnson mentioned. “I might say to him, ‘A job nicely carried out, coach.’”
Friday might not be the final celebration for Mr. Barnett, who went on to play for the one two New York Knicks championship groups within the Nineteen Seventies, dazzling followers together with his signature, query mark-shaped bounce shot. He’s a finalist for this yr’s Basketball Corridor of Fame class, which is predicted to be introduced on Saturday throughout the Males’s Ultimate 4 match in Phoenix.
Mr. Barnett’s former Knicks teammate Walt Frazier appeared to pre-empt the official announcement throughout a Knicks recreation broadcast this week, saying he had heard from one other Knicks legend, Earl Monroe, that Mr. Barnett’s induction was official.
“I’m glad you lastly heard that,” Mr. Barnett mentioned within the interview on Friday, including, “They’d indicated they had been attempting to maintain it secret for some time.”
Erica L. Inexperienced contributed reporting.