A page from the 1948 book "50 Golden Years of Sport" by Rawlings Sporting Goods, shows what gear the well-dressed early-1920s #baller wore. Similar #equipment was worn by Mike Briscoe, star forward for the all-black Vandal Athletic Club of #AtlanticCityduring the late 1910s. The "Vandals" played their home games in a wire mesh cage at Fitzgerald Auditorium in the seaside resort, and were a top national team. During 1916-17 they won 16 straight games and played for the Eastern Colored #Championship. Briscoe, who was a founder of the club and the Vandals' captain, was at one time hailed as "one of the world's greatest forwards." He earned a living with a day job as a bellman. Drafted into#military duty for World War I in 1918, Briscoe, a #Baltimore native, served as a 1st Sergeant in the 51st Company, 13th Battalion, 153rd Depot Brigade. After the war, he returned briefly to hoops before dying tragically of then-incurable tuberculosis — the "White Plague" — in 1921, at 29 years of age.
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