Alex M. Rivera Athletics Hall of Fame
Lathrop Alston was a letterman in baseball, basketball, and football during his career at this institution, which he first attended when it was Durham State Normal School. He was also an early student at North Carolina College for Negroes. He was captain of the team in each of his three sports.
Mr. Alston subsequently became Durham's first black playground director. He became associated with the Biltmore Hotel and Grill and served as its manager until it fell to an urban renewal project. In that post, he represented and was host to a number of the nation's most celebrated musicians when they visited Durham: Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington. and the Ink Spots all made the Biltmore their N.C. tour headquarters in the big band era.
