Lenny Hall

Lenny Hall shot twice and made two baskets. He also collected two rebounds. It happened in less than four minutes. Then, Hall came down hard and twisted his knee, forcing him to leave the game. Shortly, thereafter, he re-entered the game and tried to play but the knee would not support him. He fell and his career as an FSU basketball player had ended. It would later be determined that there was cartilage damage.

Brief as they were, those few minutes changed athletics at Florida State forever. In those minutes, Lenny Hall and FSU had penetrated a major barrier. Those moments, despite the controversy surrounding them, or, perhaps, because of the controversy that surrounded them, are among the "shiniest" in FSU sports history. In those few minutes, Hall had become the first African American to play varsity basketball at Florida State and among the very first at a predominantly white university in the Deep South. Some believe that he was the first. In today’s world, it may not seem like much. It was huge.

-- Jim Joanos, "Four Minutes that Changed History," Report to Seminole Boosters, June 2006