Atlantic City Vandal Athletic Club

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The Vandal Athletic Club was formed in Atlantic City in the early 1910s. They assembled a basketball team that was top rate and became known simply as the Vandals. They played their home games in a wire cage at Fitzgerald Auditorium in the seaside resort. Cages were the norm in New Jersey basketball and they favored tough, physical teams like the Vandals. because they required quite a different and often more challenging style of play than on the open floor. The Vandals were one of the best Black Fives in the East during World War I, even though their star player and team captain, Mike Briscoe, was drafted into military duty in 1918. Their strongest season may have been in 1916-17 when the Vandals won sixteen straight games and played for the Eastern Colored Basketball title against strong forward Paul Robeson and his heavily favored St. Christopher Club of Harlem. The Vandals would have won the game if leading scorer Bill Howard hadn’t split his kneecap just before the championship game. The athletic club itself was comprised of an unusually cohesive group of athletes who prided themselves on their hard work and sportsmanship. “They are clean, both morally and physically,” one supporter claimed. “The nucleus of this great association lies in their brotherly feeling toward one another.” A portion of net proceeds from the sales of our Black Fives assortment will benefit the The Black Fives Foundation, which works to inspire excellence by preserving, teaching, and honoring the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball.

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