Advertisement

New campaign aims to put Earl Lloyd, NBA's first black player, on U.S. postage stamp

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer
Earl Lloyd became the first African-American to play in the NBA when he suited up on Oct. 31, 1950.
Earl Lloyd became the first African-American to play in the NBA when he suited up on Oct. 31, 1950.

Despite occupying a pivotal place in basketball history as the first African-American ever to play in an NBA game, Earl Lloyd's contributions to the game and to American sporting culture often went overlooked in the latter decades of his life. Now, six months after Lloyd's death at age 86, his son has begun a campaign aimed at ensuring that future fans will remember and revere the part played by the man they called "Moonfixer."

[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

Kevin Lloyd is "leading the effort to have his father" — who would later also become the first black assistant coach and the second black head coach in NBA history during his time with the Detroit Pistons — appear "on a commemorative United States postage stamp," according to Donald Hunt of the Philadelphia Tribune:

“I’m on a committee with our family,” Lloyd said. “I think it would be an honor to have my father Earl Lloyd put on a stamp. I think that it’s something that is well deserved for my father.” [...]

In 2003, Lloyd was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. for integrating the NBA.

“Earl Lloyd was a true pioneer in the game as a breakout player, a coach, and an administrator who at every level led the integration of the professional game,” said John Doleva, president and CEO, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in a statement. “He had a great love and respect for the game and used his success and challenges within it to educate and motivate so many others to achieve at the highest level. His remarkable basketball career aside, he was also one of the greatest and most decent human beings to represent basketball and the game was fortunate to have him at its forefront.”

The effort, coordinated through the Earl F. Lloyd Foundation, recently received a boost from the National Basketball Players Association, which had members of the NBA's incoming rookie class of 2015 sign a petition advocating for the creation of an Earl Lloyd stamp:

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football: Sign up and join a league today!]

While gathering signatures in support is certainly a strong start — "If you get 5,000 letters for a single subject, it gets noticed. It's on the committee's radar," USPS spokesman Roy Betts said told NBA.com's Steve Aschburner back in 2011 — it's only the beginning of a long process.

Earl Lloyd (center) was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg)
Earl Lloyd (center) was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg)

The Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, a 12-member panel appointed by the Postmaster General, meets four times a year to whittle down subjects submitted by the American public to a smaller number about that will receive further consideration. That whittling, done in accordance with some very specific criteria, begins with some 50,000 submissions and ends with 20 or 25 suggestions that are then sent back to the Postmaster General for approval.

The odds, then, are long, and even successful campaigns can take quite a while to cross the finish line. It took about six years to get the legendary Wilt Chamberlain emblazoned on a stamp, making him the first NBA player ever to receive that recognition. If this campaign is successful, Lloyd would become the second.

Daunting as the odds may seem, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you'd like to help Kevin Lloyd and company get to walkin', you can start by picking up a pen and sending a letter of support to the following address:

U.S. Postal Service
Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300
Washington, DC 20260-3501

Hat-tip to Mozaic Sports.

- - - - - - -

Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

Stay connected with Ball Don't Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, "Like" BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.