By Katie Vasquez
Tears welled in Lisa Stith’s eyes as she looked at a banner at St. Francis Prep bearing her father’s name, Tom Stith, who died in 2010.
“It’s just such an honor that my dad still gets his flowers and he’s passed away such a, you know, many years ago,” she said.
Tom Stith’s brother, Sam, now 88, lives in Arizona. The brothers grew up in Harlem in the 1950s, playing basketball for fun.
“They just got really good at it… just a natural thing that just got uncovered,” Lisa Stith said.
Their talent was eventually noticed by a Franciscan from St. Francis Prep High School who offered them scholarships to the now Queens-based institution.
“Some of the brothers here from Saint Francis Prep just happened to watch them playing,” she said. “And they said, ‘You know what? We want you to play our varsity basketball team.’ And they were like, ‘Okay.’”
The siblings commuted from Harlem to the Catholic high school, which was located in Williamsburg at the time. As the first African American players at the school, they faced challenges.
“It wasn’t easy for them, you know, in terms of racism. It was alive and well back then, but they survived,” she said.
Their story later caught the attention of filmmaker Michael Camoin, an alumnus of St. Bonaventure University in New York State, which the Stith brothers also attended.
“They were able to transform this really good basketball program to a national winning basketball high school team by bringing Saint Francis Prep to the Knights of Columbus national tournament in Washington, D.C., in 1956,” Camoin said.
Camoin created a two-episode documentary, “Brown N White,” to share the story of how the brothers went from St. Francis Prep all the way to the NBA. The project has drawn attention from the Vatican because it aligns with the pope’s vision for a “cinema of hope.”
“We got a letter back from the Apostolic nuncio immediately,” Camoin said.
The family is honored to see the story brought to the big screen — two men who helped pave the way for others, including NBA great Walt Frazier.
“He said, ‘Stith.’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He goes, ‘Those guys paved the way for us,’” Lisa Stith said.
“They broke a lot of barriers. And I just think it’s important that it gets recognized,” she said.
The independent film is still seeking funding and has raised more than 10% of its goal. Camoin hopes to have both parts completed by the end of the year.
To learn more, visit the website for the film.