MONTGOMERY, Ala. – During Black History Month, the Southern States Athletic Conference will recognize significant contributions by African Americans at each of its member institutions.
 
Leroy Chollet | Loyola University New Orleans
 
Leroy Chollet played one glorious year for Loyola Men’s Basketball as a freshman in the 1944-1945 season. Chollet scored 470 points and helped lead Loyola to the 1945 National Championship, which was the first in school history and the only Championship for Loyola until 2022. In the 1945 National Tournament Chollet averaged 21 points per game and was named to the Tournament’s All-Star Team.
 
However, it was revealed shortly after that Chollet was mixed race, and in the 1940s, Louisiana was still segregated. Chollet then transferred to Canisius, as the school claims Chollet as its first African-American basketball player, leaving Loyola, which did not admit black undergraduates at that time. He’d go on to have a successful three-year career at Canisius where he scored 1,116 career points in three years, becoming the first player in school history to reach the 1,000-career-point milestone. 
 
Chollet was inducted into the Loyola Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993, the first induction for the department since athletics returned to the University after a 20-year hiatus. Chollet and his brothers Al and Hillary were featured in a 2020 Nola.com article that detailed their athletic careers.