photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

The roundtable discussion at Lied Center on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023, included (from left) moderator Shawn Alexander, Kevin Willmott, Kansas coach Bill Self, Melissa Peterson and North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton.

A roundtable discussion that included Bill Self and filmmaker Kevin Willmott delved into issues of integration relating to former longtime basketball coach and player John McLendon, who never got to play at KU but went on to break color barriers in the coaching ranks.

A screening of “Fast Break: The Legendary John McLendon,” at Lied Center on Sunday, kicked off the McLendon Classic — which is slated to culminate with Monday night’s season-opening hoops tilt pitting Kansas against visiting North Carolina Central, which is the school McLendon coached from 1941 to 1952. The two-day event is also aimed at raising awareness for the Mclendon Foundation Leadership initiative.

The hour-long documentary primarily explores the integral role McLendon played in the integration of intercollegiate athletics in the 1940s and early 50s, while also tracing his coaching career — and tutelage under the game’s inventor, James Naismith. The film recognized McLendon as the architect of the fastbreak during his early coaching years at Lawrence High School and North Carolina Central. During the panel discussion that followed the screening, Self said that he fully recognizes McLendon’s contributions to the game and that the Kansas coaching staff works to impart the program’s decorated history on its players.

“I thought that I was a historian of our game, until I got to Kansas,” Self said, “and then I realized that I knew nothing about the history of our game.”

McLendon, a Kansas native and member of both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame, learned the game from Naismith, but never played on KU’s team due to segregation. McLendon went on to have a head coaching career of nearly 30 years in both the college and professional ranks. McLendon became the first Black head coach at a predominately White school when he became head coach of Cleveland State in 1967.

photo by: Matt Resnick | Journal-World

During the roundtable discussion at Lied Center in Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023, director Kevin Willmott (center) provides his thoughts on the documentary. Also pictured are moderator Shawn Alexander (left) and Kansas men’s basketball head coach Bill Self.

Willmott — an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, a director and KU professor of film — said that McLendon used basketball to usher in positive societal change and that he had an “impact on the entire game.”

Willmott said that in the 1930s, McLendon “was one of the few Blacks on the (KU) campus, period.”

“One of the things that really struck me was the way he talked about traveling,” said Willmott, referencing the perils related to that. Willmott lauded McLendon, who passed away in 1999, for his ability to forge ahead while keeping the “basic human dignity” of his team intact, and doing so in a manner in which he “was not identified as becoming a problem” by others.

“That’s why we called the film ‘Fastbreak,'” Willmott said. “Because as much as he changed society, I thought that it was really important that we give him the credit that he changed the technical part of the game as well.”

Self concurred that McLendon was way ahead of his time, adding that McLendon also devised the four corners offense, later popularized by Hall of Fame coach and KU alumnus Dean Smith.

“Nobody has stolen more from any coach than what we have from Coach McLendon,” Self said.

Moderator and KU professor Shawn Alexander, said that “segregation still exists in the city of Lawrence” and that “it took athletes to change that.”

“These are the folks who have changed society,” Willmott said. “That’s the power that sports can have.”

Kansas men’s assistant basketball coach Norm Roberts told the Journal-World after the screening that the documentary accentuated McLendon’s greatness “in all aspects.”

“I liked that he was the one talking about his life and story, so you’re getting it right from that person,” Roberts said.

Willmott told the Journal-World that he couldn’t have been more pleased with the screening, which was attended by several hundred people.

“Having Coach Self and other coaches here is going to take Coach McLendon’s legacy to another level,” Willmott said. “He’s kind of this hidden figure that we all need to know a lot more about.” Willmott also said that he heavily utilized archival footage from interviews McLendon conducted in the 1980s to piece the film together.

The roundtable also featured North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton and KU director of equity and success initiatives, Melissa Peterson.

The event also raised awareness of the nonprofit John McLendon Foundation, which has provided more than 130 scholarships to students pursing advanced degrees in athletic administration, in addition to hosting other leadership programs, according to the foundation’s website.

photo by: Matt Resnick/Journal-World

Kevin Willmott (left) mingles with organizers of the McLendon Classic at Lied Center on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023.