Smart Set Athletic Club

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The Smart Set Athletic Club was an athletic club based in Brooklyn, NY. [1] [2] [3] [4] The club organized the first African-American basketball team, one of the most successful teams in the Black Fives Era. [1]

History

Founded in 1904, the Smart Set Athletic Club is credited with assembling the first formal fully independent African-American basketball team. [2] The team debuted in 1907. The Smart Set Athletic Club team was also a founding member of the Olympian Athletic League, along with the Alpha Physical Culture Club, the Marathon Athletic Club of Manhattan, and the St. Christopher Club. [2]

Smart Set members came from a background of well-educated, affluent African Americans who resided in what at the time was a predominantly white Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 Cooper, Pamela (1 April 1998). The American Marathon. Syracuse University Press. ISBN   9780815605201.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Smart Set Athletic Club | The Black Fives Foundation". 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  3. Barron, James (2013-02-01). "Long Before the Brooklyn Nets, There Were the Black Fives". City Room. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  4. Sandomir, Richard (2014-03-19). "Remembering the 'Black Fives' of Pro Basketball (Published 2014)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-02-25.