The College of Idaho, where Elgin Baylor played a key role in the integration in college athletics, on Friday renamed its basketball arena for the late Basketball Hall of Fame legend at halftime of its 97-46 win against Evergreen State.
Baylor attended the College of Idaho in 1954 and joined the basketball team along with five other Black students, living on campus in his first experience of an integrated community.
In the 1954-55 season — his only at the NAIA school — Baylor averaged 32.8 points and 18.9 rebounds per game and led the Coyotes to a 15-0 Northwest Conference record and 23-4 overall mark.
That Coyotes team, which lost the district final to Montana State, was inducted into the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005. Baylor was inducted in 2017 and still holds a handful of team records, including most points in one game (53).
Following two seasons at Seattle University, Baylor was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA Draft by the Minneapolis Lakers and spent all 14 of his seasons with the organization, which moved to Los Angeles before the 1960-61 season.
Considered as one of the game’s all-time greats, the 11-time All-Star averaged 27.4 points, 13.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 846 games. Among his numerous feats was becoming the first NBA player to score 70 points in a game.
One of the NBA’s first Black coaches and general managers and a member of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team, Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He died in 2021 at the age of 86.
–Field Level Media
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