In 1972, which man was the first African American to be elected into the professional Basketball Hall of Fame?

Robert L. Douglas (1882-1979) was known as "The Father of Black Professional Basketball". Bob Douglas owned and coached the New York Renaissance, the first fully all-black professional black-owned basketball team, from 1922 until 1949. Though racial discrimination was severe and unrelenting. Douglas kept his team focused. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972, the first African American enshrined.

His teams played throughout the United States, mostly in the Midwest, and against any team that would schedule them, black or white. Traveling as far as 200 miles (322 km) for a game, they often slept on the bus and ate cold meals; they were barred from many hotels and restaurants by Jim Crow laws and norms of racial discrimination which prevailed in most of the United States at that time.

They soon became a dominant team, winning as many as 88 consecutive games during the 1932-33 season. At the World Professional Basketball Tournament they won in 1939, lost to the eventual champion Harlem Globetrotters in 1940, and finished second to the National Basketball League champion Minnesota Lakers in 1948.