A master innovator and wonderful teacher, strategist and student of the game, McLendon is often called the 'father of modern basketball." He was the head coach and Barnett the star player as Tennessee State won an unprecedented three consecutive NAIA national basketball championships in 1957, '58 and '59, the first time three-peat in the history of American college hoops. McLendon along with other black college coaches and administrators also led the effort to fully integrate the tournament, then held in Kansas City, Mo., on and off the court, successfully lobbying and campaigning to end segregation in housing and the grouping of all black colleges into one NAIA district. McLendon coached collegiately at TSU, North Carolina College (now N.C. Central), Kentucky State, Hampton and Cleveland State. He was the first African-American professional basketball coach with the Cleveland Pipers of the ABL in 1961 and also coached the ABA's Denver Rockets. 'Coach Mac' would go on to share his methods on the international stage and was instrumental in carrying the game into the Soviet Union and its satellites as an international representative of Converse. His teams won a combined 523 games and posted a 76% winning percentage and he never got a technical foul. McLendon, who died in 1999, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.

Barnett is considered the premier player in the history of TSU basketball and near the top of the list in black college basketball history. He is the school's all-time leading scorer with 3,009 points accomplished by averaging 23.6 points per game in 136 games over his four seasons (1955-59). As a freshman, Barnett led McLendon's "Whiz Kids" to a 28-8 record. In his sophomore season, he averaged 22.4 points per game and the Tigers posted a 31-4 record en route to winning their first NAIA championship. With Barnett averaging 31.2 points per game, TSU finished 31-3 in his junior season and claimed its second straight NAIA national title. As a senior, Barnett averaged 35.3 ppg., while the Tigers three-peated after a 25-1 campaign. Barnett ended his collegiate career as a three-time NCAA and NAIA all-American, three-time Associated Press all-American, four-time district Most Valuable Player, four-time Mid-Western Conference MVP and two-time ('58-59) NAIA Tournament MVP. He was a first round pick of the Syracuse Nationals where he spent two seasons averaging over 14 points per game. He then averaged over 16 points over a three-year stint with the Los Angeles Lakers before crowning his 14-year professional career with nine years with the New York Knicks and was an integral part of the Knicks' 1970 and 1973 NBA Championship teams. He averaged a career-best 23.4 points per game for the Knicks in the 1965-66 season.

McLendon and Barnett will be inducted along with former UCLA center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Duke all-American basketballer Dick Groat, former Notre Dame star Austin Carr, and coaches Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Phog Allen (Kansas) and Charles "Lefty"Driesel Davidson and Maryland).

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