New England and Bucky Lew: Ahead of the Game When It Came To Integrating Pro Sports

New England was well ahead of the game when it came to integrating professional sports, and a man from a city nearly in its center, Harry “Bucky” Lew, the pride of Lowell, Mass., served as its pivot point.

It all started with Maine’s Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play major league baseball. Sock left Holy Cross College to join Cleveland’s franchise in 1897. He immediately rocketed to the top of the key offensive categories and became a star. The press re-christened the team the “Indians” due to his popularity. Unfortunately, Sock flamed out after the Fourth of July due to issues with alcohol and injuries. But he was far from forgotten.

Fred Lake, the manager of Lowell’s baseball team, remembered Sock from his own playing days in the majors. He made his way to the Penobscot Reservation on Indian Island to recruit him. Sock agreed to return to the game and attempted a comeback in Lowell in 1902, where he was once again a “hit” both on and off the field.

As the Boston Globe declared after his first game: “The work of Sockalexis, the noted Indian player, was of the phenomenal order … Coming from the field to the players’ bench he was repeatedly cheered.” Sock’s race made him a novelty and he sometimes even played along. “‘It’s great sport being an Indian,’” he told the Lowell Sun after he and a teammate “went through a war dance that made a great hit with the crowd.”

Unfortunately after a hot start Sock fell off the wagon and resumed drinking midway through the season. This time, at least, he recovered and finished with respectable numbers and the most complete season of his career.

Several observers in the city had seen enough to keep the ball rolling. One was Harry “Bucky” Lew, a Black athlete who played basketball and baseball for Lowell’s YMCA. Another was James Gray, a friend of Lake’s, who ran Lowell’s franchise in the New England Basketball League (NEBL).

Lew signed a contract with Gray that fall and thus integrated professional basketball in 1902. Like Sock, Lew was a fan favorite. The Sun described Lew as a “star” and “an attraction in every city and town where he plays.”

Early basketball was physically rough, and no doubt was even worse on the trailblazing Lew. But he was described a “clean and skillful player.” A teammate later told the Sun: “At times the going was rough for him but he never got ruffled or angry.” In a violent era, he never threw a punch in a game!

Lew wasn’t satisfied with that lone achievement. While continuing to play, he doubled down and integrated college. In 1903, he coached at Lowell Textile School, now known as the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Then, when the NEBL folded, Lew organized his own team and hit the road. He also spent a season in Vermont, winning the Vermont championship with the state’s Springfield Athletic Club in 1907. There he earned a new nickname, “the Original Bucky Lew.” A reporter from the Saint Johnsbury Caledonian said the nickname arose from his “original stunts in dribbling and passing that have seldom been surpassed.”

Lew had serious longevity. In a career that spanned 25 years, he integrated every conceivable position in the game. Before he was done, he ultimately became basketball’s first Black player, coach, manager, referee and franchise owner.

And he sometimes attempted to fulfill multiple roles at once. One newspaper reported that a game had to be rescheduled because Lew was set to play, coach and referee on the same night!

Lew approached magnate status when he partnered with the Sullivan family of Lowell to found a new NEBL in the 1920s. The revived league was the brainchild of Lew, who fronted the local team. Billy Sullivan, Sr., bankrolled the team and hosted games at his Crescent Arena. Sullivan, Sr., also took on the role of league president. Unfortunately a textile depression doomed the league, as 10 percent of the city’s population left for greener pastures.

Looking back, Lew’s logical connection to Jackie Robinson is obvious. He made it himself when he told reporter Gerry Finn of the Springfield Union in 1958, “All those things you read about Jackie Robinson … they’re all true. I got the same treatment and even worse … But I gave it right back. It was rough but worth it. Once they knew I could take it, I had it made.”

There’s a deeper connection, too. Lew also assisted the Dodgers in integrating pro baseball. While Robinson started in Canada, the Dodgers struggled to find a home for an integrated farm team in the United States. But then they reached New Hampshire and Nashua Telegraph editor Fred Dobens. He assured them his city would welcome its Black players.

How did Dobens know? As a high school basketball star, Dobens’ teams entertained crowds at halftime of Lew’s games in Nashua in the 1920s. He saw firsthand what a beloved figure Lew was and wrote about it in his column decades later: “Bucky was a Negro, and, in those days, they didn’t like to see Negroes playing on white teams and many is the time the fans refused to let him play — not in this city though … He was a great favorite.”

Dodgers Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella were similarly well-received in Nashua. After a successful run there, they ultimately went on to unite with Robinson in Brooklyn, where they won several pennants and a World Series together.

The next man up was Walter Brown, a Bostonian and owner of the Celtics of the National Basketball Association and Bruins of the National Hockey League. Brown drafted the NBA’s first Black player, Chuck Cooper, in 1950, as well as the NHL’s in Willie O’Ree in 1958.

Like Dobens, Brown was also a sports-mad high schooler during Lew’s playing days. While there is no definitive link between the two, it seems likely Brown knew of Lew and his acceptance as a player and leader from fans and peers.

If you’re thinking we left out a sport, keep reading, because we’re not done yet!

Billy Sullivan, Jr., the son of Lew’s old partner, helped accelerate the integration of pro football when he and and his fellow owners founded the American Football League in 1959. The rival National Football League had already integrated, but opportunities for Black players were few.

The AFL, however, opened things up. Its owners drafted more Black players and freed them to play all positions. Sullivan’s team, the Boston Patriots, had a number of Black players that first year. Ron Burton Sr., their first pick, was later nicknamed the “First Patriot.”This openmindedness helped the AFL quickly match the talent of the NFL and force a merger, creating the juggernaut the modern NFL has become.

The Red Sox completed the cycle, albeir later than others, when Pumpsie Green joined the team in 1959. Had they signed Jackie Robinson after trying him out in 1945, perhaps using him to fill their weak spot at third base, the curse of the Bambino might have been reversed the very next season!

From baseball’s “first Indian,” Louis Sockalexis, to “the first Patriot,” Ron Burton, Sr., and all of the other firsts that came in between, New England was well ahead of the game when it came to integrating pro sports.

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“Harry “Bucky” Lew: A Biography of Basketball’s First Black Professional” is Chris Boucher’s fourth book. A lifelong basketball fan and resident of Lowell, Mass., Chris hadn’t heard of Lew until he started researching early basketball in his backyard. He was shocked to learn all his hometown hero accomplished and now hopes to get Lew his proper due. The book is available on McFarland Web site here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/harry-bucky-lew/