In 1950, Cooper, a Pittsburgh resident and Duquesne University graduate became the first African-American selected in the NBA Draft.
Duquesne honors Chuck Cooper, among first blacks in NBA, by staging inaugural Chuck Cooper Classic, a hoops doubleheader featuring HBCU teams. How cool is that?
Henry “Hank” DeZonie, who was a star basketball player with the Harlem Yankees, New York Renaissance, Dayton Rens of the National Basketball League, and Tri-Cities Blackhawks of the National Basketball Association, died January 2, 2009, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Harlem. He would have been 87 years old yesterday.
Isaacs’ biggest contributions came well after his playing days ended. For decades, he mentored youth in the South Bronx at the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, the kids not aware at all (usually, until they saw him on TV) that the still-fit elderly man was a trailblazer and a vocal critic of the conditions he and his teammates had to endure, on and off the court. Future NBA legends like Tiny Archibald came through the Madison Square Club as kids, shaped by Isaacs’ big voice and reservoir of stories.
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