Don Barksdale
Berkeley (Berkeley, California ) | |||||||||||||||||||||
College | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Baltimore Bullets | |||||||||||||||||||||
1953–1955 | Boston Celtics | ||||||||||||||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Career NBA statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||
Points | 2,895 (11.0 ppg) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Rebounds | 2,088 (8.0 rpg) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Assists | 549 (2.1 apg) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Stats at NBA.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
Basketball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medals
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Donald Argee Barksdale (March 31, 1923 – March 8, 1993) was an American professional
Early life
Born in
College
Barksdale honed his basketball playing skills in parks, and then played at
Barksdale owned one of only two black-owned record stores in Los Angeles during his time in UCLA. This had him interacting closely with performers like Etta James, Lou Rawls, and Nat King Cole.[8]
Olympics
In 1948, he was the first African-American on the U.S. Olympic basketball team. He joined the team at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and became the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball.[9][10]
Barksdale, who had been playing with the Amateur Athletic Union's Oakland Bittners, was given an at-large berth from the independent bracket, but not without heavy lobbying by Fred Maggiora, a member of the Olympic Basketball Committee and a politician in Oakland, which was adjacent to Barksdale's hometown. About eight years later, Maggiora told Barksdale that some committee members' responses to the idea of having a black Olympian was "Hell no, that will never happen." But Maggiora wouldn't let the committee bypass Barksdale.[11]
"This guy fought, fought and fought", Barksdale said, "and I think finally the coach of the Phillips 66ers
Omar Browningsaid, 'That son of a bitch is the best basketball player in the country outside of Bob Kurland, so I don't know how we can turn him down.' So they picked me, but Maggiora said he went through holy hell for it – closed-door meetings and begging."
The 1948 Olympic team had five
Adolph Rupp, the legendary Kentucky coach, was assistant coach on the 1948 team under Omar Browning.[13]
"[Rupp] turned out to be my closest friend," Barksdale said. "We went to London and won all 12 games and got the gold medal." But he had to brush off indignities just about every step of the way. . . Later, coach Rupp told Barksdale, "Son, I wish things weren't like that, but there's nothing you or I can do about it." Barksdale agreed. He lived by a very simple philosophy. He wasn't interested in protest; he was interested in playing basketball. He had faced prejudice before, and he knew that he would face it again.
Professional career
After college, he played for the Oakland AAU team until the NBA began to integrate. While playing professional basketball, he started a career in radio broadcasting. In 1948, he became the first black radio disc jockey in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also worked in television and owned a beer distributorship. He became the first African-American beer distributor and the first African-American television host in the Bay area with a show called Sepia Review on KRON-TV.[11]
NBA
In 1951, he signed a lucrative contract with the
Later years
After his basketball career ended he returned to radio, started his own recording label and opened two nightclubs in Oakland.
In 1983 he launched the Save High School Sports Foundation, which is credited with helping to save Oakland school athletic programs from collapse.[9]
Death
He succumbed to throat cancer at the age of 69 on March 8, 1993, in Oakland, California. He was survived by his sons Donald and Derek.[14]
Legacy
A documentary on Barksdale's life, Bounce: The Don Barksdale Story, was released in 2007. The documentary was produced by Doug Harris for Athletes United for Peace, a Berkeley-based youth sports and media organization.
For his significant contributions to broadcasting in the San Francisco Bay Area, Don Barksdale was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2007. His sister, Pam Barksdale-Gore, accepted the posthumous honor on his behalf.[15]
On February 24, 2012, Barksdale was announced as a member of the 2012 induction class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was directly elected by the Hall's Early African-American Pioneers committee, and formally entered the Hall as a contributor on September 7.[9]
The character D'Angelo Barksdale from the HBO series The Wire was named in tribute to Don Barksdale.[16]
NBA career statistics
GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
Regular season
Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1951–52 | Baltimore | 62 | 32.5 | .338 | .691 | 9.7 | 2.2 | 12.6 |
1952–53 | Baltimore | 65 | 35.4 | .387 | .641 | 9.2 | 2.6 | 13.8 |
1953–54 | Boston | 63 | 21.6 | .376 | .662 | 5.5 | 1.9 | 7.3 |
1954–55 | Boston | 72 | 24.9 | .382 | .651 | 7.6 | 1.8 | 10.5 |
Career | 262 | 28.5 | .370 | .660 | 8.0 | 2.1 | 11.0 | |
All-Star | 1 | 11.0 | .000 | .333 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 |
Playoffs
Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1954
|
Boston | 6 | 17.7 | .306 | .727 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 5.0 |
1955
|
Boston | 7 | 17.4 | .450 | .857 | 5.0 | 1.4 | 7.7 |
Career | 13 | 17.5 | .382 | .813 | 4.8 | 1.3 | 6.5 |
See also
- List of African American firsts
- Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
References
- ^ A pioneer in green
- ^ "Don Barksdale". College of Marin Athletics. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Alpha Phi Alpha, Gamma Xi chapter Archived August 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Barksdale film reveals multiple layers of Bay Area legend". February 27, 2016.
- ^ a b c d "Five Direct-Elects for the Class of 2012 Announced By the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame" (Press release). Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. February 24, 2012. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Don Barksdale Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ a b c Thomas, Ron (2004)
- ^ Rice, Russell (1994)
- ^ Bricker, Charles – "Eventually, He Made it to the NBA", Knight-Ridder News Service, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 15, 1984.
- ^ "Don Barksdale, 69, One of First Blacks To Play in N.B.A.", The New York Times, March 11, 1993
- ^ Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame: The Class of 2007, August 9, 2014
- Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
Bibliography
- New York Times Obituaries – Don Barksdale, 69, One of First Blacks To Play in N.B.A. New York Times, March 11, 1993. (Don Barksdale obituary)
- Athletes United For Peace
- Crowe, Jerry – Some overdue recognition for a basketball trailblazer. Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2007
- Conner, Floyd – Basketball's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Hoops' Outrageous Deunkers, Incredible Buzzer-Beaters and other oddities. Brasseys's 2002, ISBN 1-57488-361-5
- Rice, Russell – Adolph Rupp: Kentucky's Basketball Baron. Sports Publishing LLC, 1994, ISBN 0-915611-98-8
- Thomas, Ron – They Cleared the Lane: The NBA's Black Pioneers. University of Nebraska Press, 2004 ISBN 0-8032-9454-9
External links
- Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com
- NBA Profile