In the world of college basketball, Coach John B. McLendon Jr. is truly a legend. Credited as being the inventor of the fast break, McLendon led a campaign to integrate national college basketball tournaments in the 1950s. When he achieved that goal in 1953, he took the coaching job at Tennessee State University. His teams became the first ever to win three consecutive NAIA championships in 1957 to 1959. Coach McLendon liked to win, having a career record of 729-240, but his love for the game was more than that. He had great respect for basketball’s originator, Dr. James Naismith, under whom he studied physical education at the University of Kansas in the mid-1930s. “Dr. Naismith had no idea of a racial attitude,” McLendon said. “He was always for the democratic approach, the brotherly approach. He told me the game is patterned to be played with a full-court offense and a full-court defense. I patterned my whole game after that philosophy.” McLendon is a member of nine different halls of fame, three of national standing. On the fiftieth anniversary of the NAIA in 1987, McLendon was honored among the “Top Five Coaches of Fifty Years.” His great contributions to Tennessee State and to the sport of basketball will forever be remembered with much appreciation.
