• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Site Directory
  • Home
  • Alex’s Lounge
  • P.O.U. Health and Fitness
  • POU Comments of the Week
  • P.O.U. Daily Link Sweep
Pragmatic Obots Unite

Pragmatic Obots Unite

Shooting down firebaggers & teabaggers one truth at a time...

Tuesday Open Thread: African American Trailblazers (NBA)

May 15, 2012 by Miranda 98 Comments

Good morning Obots!

Today’s NBA trailblazer is  Mr. Don Barksdale.

The late Don Barksdale before boat trip to 1948 Olympic Games

 Donald Angelo “Don” Barksdale (March 31, 1923 – March 8, 1993) was a true pioneer as an African-American basketball player: the first to be named NCAA All-American;  the first to play on a United States Men’s Olympic basketball team; and the first to play in an National Basketball Association All-Star Game.

Born in Oakland, California, Don Barksdale attended nearby Berkeley High School, where the basketball coach cut him from the team for three-straight years because he wanted no more than one black player. 

Barksdale honed his playing skills in park basketball and then played junior college ball, before earning a scholarship to UCLA.  A 6’6″ center at UCLA,  he became the first African American to be named consensus All-American in 1947.  In 1948, he became the first African American to play with the U.S. Olympic basketball team and the the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball.

In 1949, the personable Barksdale was hired to be the San Francisco Bay Area’s first black television host, moderating a program called “Sepia Revue” that featured the leading black entertainers of the day, among them Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Armstrong.

In 1950, he was one of the first four black players taken in the NBA draft. But he was doing so well financially — by then, he had also opened a beer distributorship — that he didn’t sign with the Baltimore Bullets until 1951, when he doubled as a 28-year-old rookie forward and host of the Bullets’ postgame radio show. 

While with the Bullets, Barksdale became the first African American to appear in an NBA All-Star Game (1953).  Shortly afterward, he was traded to the Boston Celtics.  Two years later, his playing career was cut short by ankle injuries.

After leaving pro basketball, Barksdale  returned to radio, started his own recording label, and opened two nightclubs in Oakland. In 1983, he launched Save High School Sports Foundation, which is credited with helping to save Oakland school athletic programs from collapse.

The Wire character D’Angelo Barksdale is named in his honor.

Filed Under: Open Thread Tagged With: African American Trailblazers, Don Barksdale, NBA

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • People
  • Recent
  • Popular

Top Commenters

  • GreenLadyHere13
     · 221992 posts
  • Alma98
     · 205518 posts
  • rikyrah
     · 181522 posts
  • nellcote
     · 100353 posts

Recent Comments

  • Alma98

    Just horrible, the police need to be sued.

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 5 minutes ago

  • Alma98

    Shiiiit

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 5 minutes ago

  • TyrenM

    That boy ain't right.

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 1 hour ago

  • Alma98

    This is crazy.
    https://x.com/TMZ/status/1929631674012143956

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 2 hours ago

Most Discussed

  • Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1)

    comment · 5 minutes ago

  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – A Southern Haunting

    comment · 20 hours ago

  • Friday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II

    comment · 2 days ago

  • Saturday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II

    comment · 1 day ago

Powered by Disqus

Twitter

Tweets by @PragObots

Recent Posts

  • Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1)
  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – A Southern Haunting
  • Saturday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II
  • Friday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II
  • Thursday Open Thread: African American Military History – World War II

Tags

#HTGAWM #TGIT African American History African History Black History Civil Rights Movement Divas Forward Friday Open Thread Funk Grammy Winners Great Bands Hip-Hop How To Get Away With Murder Jazz Kerry Washington Legends Monday Open Thread Motown Records NFL Obama Biden 2012 Olivia Pope Open Thread P.O.U. Sunday Jazz Brunch POU Weekly NFL Picks President Barack H. Obama President Barack Obama President Obama R&B racism Rap Saturday Open Thread Scandal Shondaland Shonda Rhimes slavery Songwriters Soul Sports Sunday Open Thread Thursday Open Thread Tuesday Open Thread Video Viola Davis Wednesday Open Thread

Footer

A-F

  • African American Pundit
  • Afrospear
  • All About Race
  • Angry Black Lady Chronicles
  • AverageBro.com
  • Black Politics on the Web
  • Blacks 4 Barack
  • Blue Wave News
  • Brown Man Thinking Hard
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Democracy Now!
  • Democrats for Progress
  • Eclectablog
  • Extreme Liberal's Blog
  • FactCheck.org
  • Field Negro
  • FiveThirtyEight

G-S

  • GrannyStandingforTruth
  • Hello, Negro
  • Jack & Jill Politics
  • Latino Politico
  • Margaret and Helen
  • Melissa Harris Perry
  • Michelle Obama Watch
  • Mirror On America
  • Momma, here come that woman again!
  • New Black Woman
  • Obama Foodorama
  • Obama for America 2012
  • Positively Barack
  • Raving Black Lunatic
  • Sheryl Kaye's Blog
  • Sojourner's Place
  • Stuff White People Do

T-Z

  • Talking Points Memo
  • The Black Snob Feed
  • The Field
  • The Hill
  • The Mudflats
  • The Obama Diary
  • The only adult in the room
  • The Peoples View
  • The Reid Report
  • The Rude Pundit
  • The Starting Five
  • ThinkProgress
  • This Week in Blackness
  • Tim Wise
  • Uppity Negro Network
  • What About Our Daughters
  • White House Blog
  • Womanist Musings

Copyright © 2025 · Log in