Past: "The Dark Days": On-Court Violence and Black Masculinity in the Late-1970s National Basketball Association- Kent Library Athenaeum Event

Former National Basketball Association (N.B.A.) Commissioner David Stern once referred to the late 1970s as “the dark days” of the league as it struggled with rampant on-court violence, illicit drug use among its players, and charges that the league was becoming “too black.” On December 9, 1977, the league witnessed perhaps its darkest day when Los Angeles Lakers forward Kermit Washington nearly killed Houston Rockets forward Rudy Tomjanovich with a punch thrown during an on-court fracas. Fighting was an accepted, and sometimes even celebrated, part of the N.B.A. – there were 41 documented scuffles the previous season alone including one much-publicized bout during the N.B.A. Finals. But the level of violence precipitated by Washington, an African American, on Tomjanovich, a Caucasian, caused numerous debates about the increasing physicality of professional basketball as well as racialized notions of masculinity and violence pervasive throughout late 1970s American culture. Join us for this lecture with Dr. Adam Criblez, Department of History, Southeast Missouri State University. Refreshments will also be served.