LaVannes Squires, Kansas Jayhawks’ first Black basketball player, dies at 90
LaVannes Squires, the first Black player on the University of Kansas basketball team and a member of the Jayhawks’ 1952 NCAA championship squad, has died at the age of 90, the school’s athletic department reported Saturday.
Squires died on Feb. 19 in Pasadena, California.
Born in Hartsdale, Missouri, Squires, who was the eighth of 12 children, was raised in Wichita, where he played basketball for Hall of Fame coach Ralph Miller at Wichita East High School.
At East, Squires served as a team captain and earned All-City and All-State honors his senior year. Academically he graduated in the top 10 percent of his class.
Squires moved on to KU and lettered three seasons (1952-54) while playing on teams coached by Phog Allen. He earned KU’s freshman basketball award in 1950-51. He played on teams that won the 1952 NCAA championship, three Big Seven regular-season titles and two Big Seven Holiday Tournaments.
“LaVannes Squires is important to the history of this program,” KU coach Bill Self said. “Primarily, he paved the way and opened doors for many to follow. In large part, he is even more important to the history of college basketball because if he hadn’t come here, I doubt that Wilt (Chamberlain) would have come here. And that helped shape the landscape of the history of our game. It would never get as good as it is now without somebody like LaVannes Squires.”
After graduating from KU, Squires worked in the accounting office for Look Magazine in Des Moines, Iowa. He worked at Douglass State Bank in Kansas City, Kansas, then Swope Parkway National Bank in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1964, Squires started as chief executive officer at Bank of Finance and later became president of the bank.
Squires started L.C. Squires Real Estate Company, Inc., in Los Angeles. He later created a postal center in his Los Angeles community and following retirement Squires worked in real estate and trading until his death.
“LaVannes was a true trailblazer for Kansas men’s basketball and Kansas Athletics,” KU athletic director Jeff Long said. “He left an indelible impression from the first day he stepped on this campus in 1950, and continued to be a great ambassador for KU throughout his life.
“Not only did LaVannes break down the walls of color at KU, he did so with great success in the banking industry for many decades after his graduation. We are so thankful for LaVannes Squires and his legacy that will never be forgotten.”
Former KU basketball player Nolen Ellison said this about Squires in a 2016 article on the KU Athletics’ website: “The influence of early Black KU athletes like LaVannes Squires, Wilt Chamberlain, Maurice King and Bill Bridges had addressed the several issues of race that confronted American sports in the late 40s and 50s.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 3:49 PM with the headline "LaVannes Squires, Kansas Jayhawks’ first Black basketball player, dies at 90."
