Leroy Chollet

Leroy Chollet was born to Olga and Alfred Chollet on March 5, 1925.[3] Alfred's mother, Oliva Olinde, was born to a black mother and white father in 1873.[4] By the standards of the time this meant that Leroy Chollet and his siblings, who were one-eighth black, could be subject to racial segregation laws in The South. The family moved from New Roads to New Orleans where they passed as white. The Chollet brothers—Leroy, Al, and Hillary—all attended Holy Cross, which refused admission to black students.[5] The brothers excelled at sports, and Leroy Chollet led the basketball team to consecutive state titles.[6]

Brothers Leroy and Hillary Chollet played for Canisius and Cornell respectively, after they "were run out of" 1940s New Orleans for racial reasons.[7]

"There is no telling how far Leroy Chollet could have taken Loyola, if not all of New Orleans, in his soph, junior or senior seasons. But New Orleans didn’t wait to find out, because Leroy Chollet’s family was part black – and regrettably, shamefully, maddeningly, in this city, in those days that was unacceptable."[7]

— Ramon Vargas, Fight, Grin, & Squarely Play the Game (2013)

Leroy attended Loyola University New Orleans from 1944 to 1945.[3] During that freshmen year, he helped lead the team to Louisiana's first national basketball championship.[8] The season played out against the backdrop of World War II, where Loyola alums followed the team from overseas writing battlefield letters back to the current players,[9] and the school held Mass in memory of former students who were killed.[10]

His younger brother Hillary Chollet had become a high school football star, recruited by rival colleges Louisiana State University and Tulane. After Hillary chose Tulane, the family's genealogy came under increased scrutiny. Louisiana colleges were segregated, and neither Tulane nor Loyola accepted black students. Hillary went out of state to Cornell University. Leroy Chollet transferred to Canisius, a private Jesuit college in New York. Older brother Al Chollet and the parents moved to New York after an experience the family described as "being run out of town."[11][7]

Leroy Chollet played three seasons for Canisius and became their first player to total 1,000 points.[12] While Chollet was on the team, LSU traveled to New York twice to play against Canisius and lost both times.[7] Chollet was inducted into the Canisius Hall of Fame in 1964,[12] and the Loyola Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.[3]

Leroy Chollet signed with the Syracuse Nationals during the NBA's inaugural season.[13][14] The Nationals were led by future Basketball Hall of Famers Dolph Schayes and player-coach Al "The Digger" Cervi. They made it to the first NBA Finals but fell to the Lakers in six games.[15]

During his time with Nationals, Chollet feuded with player-coach Al Cervi over playing time.[16][7] According to teammate Alex Hannum, Chollet told Cervi that he would make a better coach during an argument. When Cervi responded by making Chollet coach for a game, the rookie "did not send Cervi in until the last 30 seconds or so—about the usual time Cervi sent in Leroy."[17][2]

After two seasons with Syracuse, Chollet went on to play for the Utica Pros and Elmira Colonels of the American Basketball League.[3] He later moved to his wife's hometown, Lakewood, Ohio, where he tended bar and coached basketball.[7]

• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com  and Basketball-Reference.com