Chris Rudolf Huiswoud was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, and immigrated to the United States with his family. Known as "Dutch" Huiswoud, he is credited with being the first official African-American basketball referee. Prior to his career as a referee, he served as the captain of the Amasons soccer team, jockeyed for several years, including a season spent at Havre de Gras and played basketball for St. Christopher and the Incorporator basketball teams of Harlem, New York, where he resided. Huiswoud's brother was the communist activist Otto Huiswoud, who headed of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers in Hamburg, Germany.
Huiswoud began his referee career in 1917. In 1922 he was appointed a referee by the Intercollegiate League (which represented various institutions such as Yale, Columbia and Brown Universities) and was later sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States. James Murray (well known and respected referee of the era) referred to him as an up and coming "first flight referee." Huiswoud refereed the 1925 basketball game between the original New York Celtics, a white champion basketball team, and the Renaissance Five, an African-American champion basketball team, at which the Celtics were defeated 37-30. In addition to his referee career, he managed the New York Blue Belts (an African-American female champion basketball team) and wrote a sports column (possibly for the Amsterdam News).
From the guide to the Chris Huiswoud scrapbook, 1922-1940, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.)
