MONTICELLO ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

In 1911, Cumberland Posey formed an all-Black basketball team called the Monticello Athletic Association.

Location:Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Nickname:“The Monticellos” Colors:Brown, Yellow
Manager:Cumberland Posey, Jr. Posey was a local multi-sport star who had led Homestead High School to the city basketball championship and who had earned respect on Pittsburgh’s tough, blue-collar sandlot playgrounds. With no gym of their own, the Monticellos practiced and honed their game at the whites-only Phipps Gymnasium on city’s North Side, where one of Posey’s players, Jim Dorsey, worked as a janitor and had a key to the building. The Monticello lineup featured Posey, Dorsey, Walter Clark, Sell Hall, Israel Lee, and Posey’s brother, Seward. An image collage featuring the Monticello Athletic Association of Pittsburgh.

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