Good morning Obots!
Today’s NBA trailblazer is Mr. Don Barksdale.
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.