How One Detroit Basketball Court Became a Sanctuary for Many

In the midst of his first NCAA tournament run as a member of the now-legendary Fab Five, Detroit native and University of Michigan freshman Jalen Rose was just beginning to make his lasting impact on the game of basketball. After one of the 1992 tournament games, a reporter asked him how he acquired his knack for “taking the right shot, making the right pass, getting the ball to the right player, after fewer than 40 games in college.”

Rose immediately responded with the place and the coach that played a formative role in his development as a basketball player and as a young man: “It started at St. Cecilia’s. We had a coach there, Sam Washington. He didn’t just send you out there to play. He worked on developing you, teaching the game.”

To fully understand the impact of St. Cecilia’s Gym on Detroit’s West Side, you have to go back more than 50 years to a period in the Motor City’s history that many would like to forget…