This is from Maurice King

Posted on: August 6, 2025 at 13:59:43 CT

The first black starter in kU basketball history: Even at home in Lawrence, King said he faced discrimination. On home game days the team ate lunch in the Kansas Union, and then all of the white players took a bus somewhere, King recalled. The coaches always told King to go home and take a nap, and he thought nothing of it. Later he’d meet the team at a small café near campus for Ovaltine and celery right before the game. He said he always thought it was strange that the white players all showed up together on the bus, but he figured the bus just went around and picked them up.

He later learned that the team went to the Eldridge Hotel after lunch to take a nap. Hotel management at that time refused to allow blacks.

Lawrence was a segregated city, King said. “They subscribed to it. They were going along with segregation,” he said, pointing out how hard it was to find restaurants that served blacks. One sandwich shop downtown allowed blacks to order sandwiches to go, but not to sit down in the restaurant, he recalled.