Chris Boucher, "Harry "Bucky" Lew: A Biography of the First Black Professional Basketball Player" (McFarland, 2026)

·47 min·4 clips

Who was Harry 'Bucky' Lew, the first black professional basketball player who integrated the sport in 1902?

The episode begins with host Paul Knepper introducing guest Chris Boucher and his book on Harry 'Bucky' Lew. Boucher explains that Lew signed a pro contract in 1902, integrating professional basketball, and coached at Lowell Textile School in 1903. Boucher discovered Lew while researching early basketball as an ethnic neighborhood game, leading him to investigate his own family's French Canadian roots in Lowell, Massachusetts. His research relied on digitized newspapers, archives at the UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History, and interviews with Lew's granddaughter and a son of a former player. Lew grew up in Lowell, left school after eighth grade to work in his family's dry cleaning business, and learned basketball at the integrated YMCA. He turned pro at 18 after local press pressure, joining the New England League. Early basketball featured crude equipment like a 'lumpy pumpkin' ball, smaller rims, no backboards, and violent play with minimal foul calls. Lew faced racial incidents on the road but was protected by teammates like Skip Field. He compared himself to Jackie Robinson, enduring physical abuse. A key moment was when star player Harry Huff boycotted a game against Lew, likely due to Lew's defensive prowess. After his playing career, Lew continued as a coach, manager, referee, and franchise owner, even during the Ku Klux Klan's resurgence. His legacy indirectly aided Jackie Robinson's integration of baseball, as a newspaperman who saw Lew play assured the Dodgers that black players would be welcome in Nashua, New Hampshire. Despite recognition by the Naismith Hall of Fame as the first African-American professional basketball player, Lew has not been inducted. Boucher attributes his obscurity to early basketball's 'dead ball era' low scores and lack of connection to the NBA's history. The episode concludes with Boucher recommending Douglas Stark's book on early Jewish basketball as his favorite sports book.

As heard by us

A discussion of early pro basketball traces the game before its familiar form had fully settled.

Chris frames early professional basketball as a game still finding its footing, played in rented halls and armories on slippery floors, under uneven lighting, with a single referee and, in the New England league, no backboards.

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Why you'd press play

You can hear early professional basketball taking shape under rules that made fouling feel like a strategy, not just a mistake.

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