Chuck Cooper ( basketball ) - wikipedia Chuck Cooper ( basketball ) This article is about the basketball player. For the actor, see Chuck Cooper ( actor ). Chuck Cooper ( 1926 - 09 - 29 ) September 29, 1926 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania February 5, 1984 ( 1984 - 02 - 05 ) ( aged 57 ) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Nationality American Listed height 6 ft 5 in ( 1.96 m ) Listed weight 209 lb ( 95 kg ) Career information High school Westinghouse ( Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ) College West Virginia State ( 1944 -- 1945 ) Duquesne ( 1946 -- 1950 ) NBA draft 1950 / Round : 2 / Pick : 14th overall Selected by the Boston Celtics Playing career 1950 -- 1956 Position Small forward / Shooting guard Number 11, 15, 6 Career history 1950 -- 1954 Boston Celtics 1954 -- 1956 Milwaukee / St. Louis Hawks 1956 Fort Wayne Pistons Career highlights and awards Consensus second - team All - American ( 1950 ) No. 15 retired by Duquesne Career statistics Points 2,725 ( 6.7 ppg ) Rebounds 2,431 ( 5.9 rpg ) Assists 734 ( 1.8 apg ) Stats at Basketball-Reference.com Charles Henry `` Chuck '' Cooper ( September 29, 1926 -- February 5, 1984 ) was an American professional basketball player. He and two others, Nat `` Sweetwater '' Clifton and Earl Lloyd, became the first African - American players in the NBA in 1950. Cooper was also the first African American to be drafted by a National Basketball Association ( NBA ) team, as the first pick of the second round by the Boston Celtics. Contents 1 Early life and college career 2 NBA career 3 After the NBA 4 NBA career statistics 4.1 Regular season 4.2 Playoffs 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Early life and college career Cooper was born and died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Daniel and Emma Cooper, Daniel was a mailman, and Emma was a schoolteacher. He attended Pittsburgh 's Westinghouse High School and graduated in 1944. For his senior year, he averaged more than 13 points per game, and was an All - City first team center. He then attended and played a semester basketball for West Virginia State College ( now University ) before being drafted to serve in the United States Navy in the final stages of World War II. Following his service, he enrolled at Duquesne University where he was an All - American, starting all four years, and setting the school - record for total points with 990 in four seasons. During his time Duquesne University had a 78 -- 19 record, and was invited to the then prestigious National Invitation Tournament twice. He was a captain for the 1949 -- 50 team, which was the first team from that university to be nationally ranked all season, finishing with a 23 - 6 record and ranked sixth nationally. He was the first African American to participate in a college basketball game south of the Mason -- Dixon line. NBA career The 1953 -- 54 Boston Celtics basketball team practicing the pick and roll. From left to rightː Bob Donham, Ed Mikan, Bill Sharman and Chuck Cooper Coming out of college in 1950, he signed onto the Harlem Globetrotters. On April 25, 1950, he became the first African American drafted into the NBA when the Boston Celtics chose him with the 14th overall pick. Cooper was drafted by Celtics ' owner Walter A. Brown and played for coach Red Auerbach. He made his NBA debut on November 1, 1950, against the Fort Wayne Pistons. He played four years with the Celtics, then was traded to the Milwaukee Hawks before ending his career as a member of the Ft. Wayne Pistons. After that he spent a year playing for the Harlem Magicians before injuring his back in a car crash and leaving basketball. During his NBA career, Cooper played a total of 409 games, scored 2,725 points for an average of 6.66 points per game, had 2431 rebounds for an average of 5.9 per game, and had 733 assists for an average of 1.79 per game. As some statistics were not kept during that time, it is not known how many blocked shots, steals or turnovers he had during his career. After the NBA After his NBA career, Cooper graduated with a Masters in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. He was married twice, first in 1951, and then in 1957 to Irva Lee, with whom he had four children. He worked to improve his hometown of Pittsburgh, serving on the Pittsburgh school board, and was appointed the director of parks and recreation for the city, becoming the first black department head. He also helped the Pittsburgh 's National Bank 's affirmative action program as an urban affairs officer until he died at the age of 57 on February 5, 1984, of liver cancer at Forbes Hospice. NBA career statistics Legend 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 1950 -- 51 Boston 66 --. 344. 753 8.5 2.6 9.3 1951 -- 52 Boston 66 29.9. 361. 741 7.6 2.0 8.2 1952 -- 53 Boston 70 28.5. 337. 758 6.3 1.6 6.5 1953 -- 54 Boston 70 15.7. 299. 672 4.3 3.3 1954 -- 55 Milwaukee 70 25.0. 339. 751 5.5 8.2 1955 -- 56 St. Louis 35 16.4. 337. 738 3.9 1.7 5.1 1955 -- 56 Fort Wayne 32 17.8. 316. 776 3.2 0.9 3.9 Career 409 23.2. 339. 743 5.9 1.8 6.7 Playoffs Year Team GP MPG FG % FT % RPG APG PPG 1951 Boston --. 333. 400 6.5 1.5 5.0 1952 Boston 42.7. 320. 895 5.3 1.3 11.0 1953 Boston 6 32.5. 396. 815 6.5 2.3 10.0 1954 Boston 6 18.0. 500. 727 5.2 0.7 4.0 1956 Fort Wayne 9 6.6. 192. 667 1.9 0.2 1.3 Career 26 20.4. 346. 785 4.5 1.0 5.3 See also Race and ethnicity in the NBA References ^ Jump up to : `` 1950 - 51 Season Overview ''. NBA 's Color Line is Broken. NBA.com. Retrieved March 9, 2013. ^ Jump up to : `` Chuck Cooper, one of the NBA 's trash player ''. African American Registry. Retrieved May 12, 2015. ^ Jump up to : James M. Manheim. `` Charles ' Chuck ' Cooper Biography -- Played for West Virginia State College and Duquesne, Formed Friendly Relationships with Celtics Players ''. biography.org. Retrieved May 12, 2015. ^ Jump up to : Dave Howell, `` Six Who Paved the Way '', NBA.com. Jump up ^ `` Duquesne University Official Athletic Site ''. ^ Jump up to : `` Chuck Cooper dead at 57 ; Duquesne basketball great '', Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 1984. Jump up ^ `` 1950 NBA Draft ''. Jump up ^ `` Chuck Cooper, NBA player ''. New York Times. February 7, 1984. Retrieved May 12, 2015. External links Chuck Cooper 's career NBA Stats from databasketball.com Biography at answers.com Chuck Cooper at Find a Grave Phil Axelrod, `` Duquesne honors legacy of Chuck Cooper '', Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 6, 2009. 1950 NCAA Men 's Basketball Consensus All - Americans First Team Paul Arizin Bob Cousy Dick Schnittker Bill Sharman Paul Unruh Second Team Chuck Cooper Don Lofgran Kevin O'Shea Don Rehfeldt Sherman White 1950 NBA Draft Territorial pick Paul Arizin First round Chuck Share Don Rehfeldt Bob Cousy Dick Schnittker Larry Foust Irwin Dambrot George Yardley Bob Lavoy Joe McNamee Kevin O'Shea Don Lofgran Second round Chuck Cooper John Pilch Ed Dahler Ed Gayda Bill Sharman Wally Osterkorn Herb Scherer Jim Riffey Paul Unruh George Stanich Hal Haskins Gerald Calabrese VIAF : 39005402 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chuck_Cooper_(basketball)&oldid=827325016 '' Categories : 1926 births 1984 deaths African - American basketball players All - American college men 's basketball players Basketball players from Pennsylvania Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics players Burials at Homewood Cemetery Duquesne Dukes men 's basketball players Fort Wayne Pistons players Harlem Globetrotters players Milwaukee Hawks players Sportspeople from Pittsburgh St. Louis Hawks players West Virginia State Yellow Jackets men 's basketball players Hidden categories : Articles which use infobox templates with no data rows Find a Grave template with ID same as Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Čeština Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本 語 Polski Português Русский Svenska 中文 5 more Edit links This page was last edited on 24 February 2018, at 02 : 13. 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Question: who was the first black basketball player in the nba
Answer: Charles Henry "Chuck" Cooper