Remembering Philly’s Zack Clayton and basketball’s all-but-forgotten pioneers: The Black Fives

There is a wall inside Lauren Myers’ Mount Airy home that displays an assortment of family photos. She frequents this area often, and at times Myers will glance at the archives of her ancestors.

One particular photo serves as daily inspiration for Myers and her family: a black-and-white image of her great-aunt and great-uncle, Lunette and Zack Clayton.

Many Philadelphians remember Zack Clayton as a boxing referee, the third man in the ring when Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in 1974. Long before that, Clayton was a city basketball legend who starred for the Philadelphia Panthers during the Black Fives era. Starting in 1904, the Black Fives gave African Americans somewhere to play before the racial integration of the National Basketball League in the 1940s and the NBA in 1950.

“Uncle Zack’s legacy is about family,” Myers said. “It was about being committed to your craft and developing strong relationships with your family.”

According to the World Boxing Association, Clayton was the first African American to receive his referee’s license in 1949, and he was the first Black referee in a heavyweight bout (Jersey Joe Walcott vs. Ezzard Charles) in 1952. Clayton also officiated the last fight of Ali’s career against Trevor Berbick in 1981.

Clayton’s impact on the boxing world is equally strong as his impact on basketball, Myers said.

“Our family knows him, at least my generation, knows him more as Uncle Zack the referee than we do for his basketball and baseball achievements,” she said. “He was just known as being very fair. I’ll remember him more than anything else ... as a respected, fair person.”

During the 1996 season, the NBA celebrated its 50-year anniversary by publishing an 800-page encyclopedia detailing the league’s history. However, it included only three pages on early African American teams. One section featured Clayton’s Panthers teammate and fellow Philly native, Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, who was the first Black Fives player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977.

It was evident that more recognition was necessary.

Black Fives Foundation founder Claude Johnson has spent decades researching Clayton and hundreds of other stars of that era. Johnson visited libraries across the East Coast, including the Free Library of Philadelphia, where he scoured yellowed newspaper clippings detailing crucial moments from the historic teams that preluded the NBA.

“I knew those teams existed,” Johnson said. “I wondered, how does nobody know about this?”

The Black Fives Foundation’s mission “is to inspire excellence by preserving, teaching, and honoring that once-forgotten and important history.” In an effort to keep the Black Fives’ memory alive, Johnson decided to take a chance developing products and memorabilia. Last month, the Black Fives Foundation partnered with Homage vintage apparel to launch a graphic T-shirt collection featuring logos of the circuit’s all-Black basketball teams. Two of Clayton’s teams, the Panthers and the New York Rens, are featured on the T-shirts.

Johnson said the foundation has previously partnered with Nike, the Big East Conference, and others.

“When it all comes together, it’s fulfilling because a lot of work has gone into all of this,” Johnson said. “But it’s not really about me, it’s about this story that’s been waiting to be told. We have a compassion about giving voice to the voiceless.

“The validation that this brings is part of the way to connect the dots for this history and bringing it back to life now, so that people can enjoy the inspirational value of these Black players. It’s a way of conveying, ‘This is what I stand for.’ ”

The Black Fives collection “really speaks to fans’ desire to connect with sports history,” said Ryan Vesler, the CEO of Homage. “When fans wear these shirts, they are showing their support for the players, the teams, the cities that contributed so much to the history of basketball. We comb through archives, source memorabilia, talk with those who live the history, and go through countless iterations before launching a collection. It’s imperative that we get it right to honor those unsung heroes of sport. Nowhere is this more exemplified than with the Black Fives collection.”

Clayton grew up playing basketball in the city at the Christian Street YMCA, the same gym that produced Wilt Chamberlain, John Chaney, and Earl Monroe. After Clayton graduated from Simon Gratz High School, he started his pro sports career in baseball as a first baseman and catcher in the Negro Leagues. Clayton later transitioned to pro basketball, playing for several local teams, including the Wissahickon Speed Boys, Philadelphia Tribune Five, and the Panthers.

In 1935, Clayton signed with the New York Rens — the first Black-owned, all-Black, fully professional basketball team. From 1923-49, the Rens played 3,117 games — roughly 125 per season — with an impressive .830 winning percentage.

In addition to his time with the Rens, Clayton played with the Harlem Globetrotters.

“Look at what was done before the NBA,” Myers said. “It was a commitment that players had to the game and they dealt with all of the adversity. The NBA wasn’t ready to accept them, but they still committed to what mattered. It was about playing a game that you love and the commitment you have to both of those things.”

At the conclusion of his professional basketball and baseball careers, Clayton transitioned to boxing and worked as a referee for 40 years.

“This man had so many different lives, it was not just basketball,” Myers said. “At the end of the day, it was about doing something Uncle Zack loved to enjoy.”

Clayton, who died in 1997 at age 84, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. Myers spoke on behalf of the family at Clayton’s induction ceremony, noting the adversity he faced playing “primarily under the specter of racial segregation.” One example: Clayton and his teammates had to sleep in cars on road trips because at the time, “no one would open their hotel to Blacks.”

Through it all, Clayton persevered and established a legacy that has served as inspiration for several generations.

“That’s the blueprint that I feel he put in place,” Myers said. “We can still really learn from that in terms of how can we approach adversity. The adversity hasn’t disappeared. It’s just manifested into something different. ... I don’t look at it like the Black Fives created acceptance. ... The Black Fives players, in that era, set the tone for what excellence could be.”