Description: As part of They Gave Us Game, Ebbets Field Flannels is honored to explore the history of Black basketball. Made with the same style and construction of our classic vintage wool ballcaps.
Product Details:
- Made in the USA
- Genuine black wool broadcloth
- White and black embroidered Black Fives patch
- Standard visor in black wool with green satin under visor
- Vintage hair cloth backed buckram crown
- Satin taping with cotton sweatband
- Embroidered “Black 5ives” script with tail on the back
- Available in fitted sizes only
History: Just after basketball was invented in 1891, teams were called “fives” in reference to their starting five players. The sport, like society, was racially segregated, and all-Black squads were called “colored quints,” “Negro cagers,” or “Black fives."
The sport remained divided from 1904 - when basketball was first introduced to African Americans on a wide-scale organized basis - until the racial integration of the National Basketball League in the 1940s and the National Basketball Association in 1950.
During that time, dozens of all-Black teams emerged, flourished, and excelled, staging culturally rich, socially meaningful events that strengthened Black communities in the face of Jim Crow oppression.
