Paul Robeson
From Hoopedia
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, Basso cantante concert singer, writer, civil rights activist, fellow traveler, Spingarn Medal winner, and Stalin Peace Prize laureate. He was a multisport athlete at Rutgers University, a professional football player and a star with the St. Christopher Club basketball team that was declared Colored Basketball World's Champions in 1917, 1918 and 1919.
Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His father, William Drew Robeson I, ran away from a North Carolina plantation where he had been born a slave; he later graduated from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) and became a church minister. His mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, came from an abolitionist Quaker family. Paul's four siblings included: William Drew Robeson, a physician who practiced in Washington, D.C.; Benjamin Robeson, a minister; Reeve Robeson (called Reed); and Marian Robeson, who lived in Philadelphia. In 1915, Paul graduated with honors from Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey, where he excelled academically and participated in singing, acting, and athletics.
Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University. He was the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and was the only black student during his time on campus. Robeson was one of three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and one of four students selected in 1919 to Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society. He was also the class valedictorian, exhorting his classmates to "catch a new vision."
A noted athlete, Robeson earned altogether fifteen varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. For his accomplishments as an end in football, he was twice named a first-team All-American in (1917 and 1918). When he went out for the Rutgers football team, the other players beat him viciously, even pulling out his fingernails. He bore the abuse to prove his worth. His football coach, Walter Camp, later described him as "the greatest to ever trot the gridiron." Later in his life, however, when the United States government stopped him from traveling outside the country, his name was retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams.
The Rutgers basketball team was of middling-quality. During Robeson's tenure at Rutgers the team won more than they lost, but not by much. Robeson excelled for the team, however, and was their leading scorer in his junior and senior seasons. Robeson never did achieve his highest basketball goal in college. Rutgers never beat Princeton, a team for which Robeson harbored a deep animosity, stretching back to his childhood, when his family lived in Princeton, New Jersey. His older brothers suffered from brutal discrimination (one was refused admission to the public high school), and his father was forced from his minister's job by the town's powers.
While attending Rutgers, Robeson joined the St. Christopher Club team in Harlem. He remained with the team when he enrolled at Columbia University's Law School. This team was much more successful than the Scarlet Knights. With "Tiny" Robeson at power forward, the St. C.'s team were declared Colored Basketball World's Champions three years running: 1917, 1918 and 1919.
In 1976 Robeson was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame.
