The Associated Press

LEXINGTON - Irvine Lee Shanks, who became the first black in Kentucky to join an all-white college basketball team, has died after a long illness. He was 73.

Shanks died Friday at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lexington.

Shanks made his first appearance in the Berea College men's basketball lineup Feb. 4, 1954. The 6-foot-5 center scored 10 points against Ohio's Wilmington College.

It was the first time in Kentucky that a black man played on an all-white college basketball team.

Two days later, Shanks became the first black to play for a predominantly white school inside the state when Berea hosted Bellarmine College.

No team ever canceled a game with Berea after Shanks joined the squad. And neither he nor his teammates could recall any major racial abuse directed at Shanks by opposing players or fans.

AKRON: The school fired coach Dan Hipsher on Tuesday, one day after the Zips lost in the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament for the second straight season.

Hipsher will be reassigned to a position within the university.

The Zips went 13-15 this season, including 7-11 in the MAC.

Hipsher took over at Akron in March 1995 and was named MAC coach of the year in 1998 after the Zips went 17-10. He had three winning seasons and went 112-137 in nine years. Hipsher also coached at Wittenberg and Stetson.

SAN FRANCISCO: The school fired men's basketball coach Phil Mathews on Tuesday after nine seasons.

Mathews went 139-123 with one trip to the NCAA tournament.

The Dons went 17-14 and lost to Santa Clara in the second round of the West Coast Conference tournament Saturday.