In the annals of UCLA athletics history, there are two Kenny Washingtons unrelated to each other. One was a football player, the other an overlooked women’s basketball coach.
The first Kenny Washington (1918-1971) was a college football and baseball teammate of Jackie Robinson. He is a 1956 College Football Hall of Fame and 1984 UCLA Hall of Fame inductee.
Washington, who died from heart and lung problems at age 52, was the first Black player to sign an NFL contract in the post-World War II era and was UCLA’s first consensus All-American.
Who is the other Kenny Washington? This was the subject of my quick Black history quiz I conducted while on the UCLA campus a couple of weeks ago.
“He was a football player,” responded a Black female with a group of fellow Black students. When I corrected her, she said, “Oh wow, I didn’t know that. He must have been really good.”
This Kenny Washington was from Beaufort, South Carolina and attended UCLA in the early 1960s where the 6’3” Black player became a key member of John Wooden’s first two NCAA championship teams in 1964 and 1965 and made the 1965 All-Final Four team.
He was later drafted by San Francisco in the eighth round of the 1966 NBA Draft but never played in the league. He did play pro ball in Europe and was the second leading scorer on the 1970 U.S. team that played in the 1970 FIBA World Championship.
But what Washington did after playing basketball is overlooked in UCLA basketball history. He was the first head coach in the school’s women’s basketball history (1974-75), and the first Black head coach.
“I didn’t know that,” said a Black man standing in line for player autographs after the Feb. 2 UCLA-Minnesota contest at Pauley Pavilion when told of Washington’s place in history.
“He was a disciplinarian,” recalled Ann Meyers Drysdale, who played on that Washington team. “I mean, he did everything that Coach Wooden taught—all our drills were the same.”
Admitted Meyers Drysdale, who later would be inducted into Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (1993) and see her UCLA jersey retired in 1990, “I was a freshman, so I didn’t know anything. He expected a lot out of us. He taught me a lot, and he challenged me a lot. As athletic as I was, I wasn’t prepared or knew how to go to the next level, and he certainly brought that out of me.
“[It] wasn’t always great for me,” stressed Meyers Drysdale, “but I look back now, and I think how hard he was on me because he saw what I could be, and I think the challenges that he gave me made me a better player, made me a better person.”
Washington’s only season as coach he finished 18-4. Sadly, there’s little mention of Kenny Washington as the first Black women’s basketball coach at UCLA other than a short paragraph on Wikipedia.
“I think what he established was because of his relationship with Coach Wooden and being a player and being on those championship teams in those early days,” added Meyers Drysdale. “I think it’s huge to say that’s kind of where really the women’s basketball program started. Billie Moore [who succeeded Washington] took it to another level…and winning the championship in 1978 with the players that we did have. But you have to look at how we really started at the grassroots [under Washington].
“We led the nation in field goal percentage, and our tallest player was 5-11, I think. And we led the league in rebounding.”
Coach Kenny Washington’s legacy should be more widely recognized. “It wasn’t just about the physical skills which he helped teach us and understand the fundamentals of whether it was defense or blocking out or setting a screen,” said Meyers Drysdale. “All those little details, and if you don’t pay attention to the details, you’re not going to be successful.
“I thought his understanding of the game was so complete. I’ll be forever grateful…he taught me the game.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.