EPISODE 288: The Secret Game: A Fast Break to Freedom

Join me on The Bill Walton Show as filmmaker Greg De Deugd talks about the making of his film The Secret Game: A Fast Break to Freedom which tells the story of a basketball game that had to be played in secret. In our conversation, he reveals how in Durham, North Carolina in 1944, two teams broke the law by simply wanting to know who was better at putting a ball through a hoop. The facts De Deugd uncovered are plain: Black players and white players were forbidden to touch each other, let alone play together. The penalty could be jail, or worse.

De Deugd’s film shows us how at one college – then called North Carolina College for Negroes – Coach John McClendon had built an unstoppable team. He had learned the game from its inventor, and he taught his players to run faster and score more points than any team in the state. Across town at Duke Medical School, an all-white team was also beating everyone they faced. The question was obvious: Who would win if they played each other?

The answer meant breaking the law. They cleared the gym. They locked the doors. They played. What happened next, as De Deugd’s documentary reveals, exposed the lie at the heart of segregation – that races couldn’t mix, couldn’t compete, couldn’t respect each other as equals.

In our discussion, De Deugd explains how when he filmed young players recreating the game, he had to explain why it had to be secret. They couldn’t understand. This was his point exactly – the truth of that day in 1944 had helped make their confusion possible.