Sam &quot;Boom Boom&quot; WheelerSam &quot;Boom Boom&quot; Wheeler Sam "Boom Boom" Wheeler Samuel Wallace Wheeler, Jr. (November 15, 1923 - April 16, 1989), nicknamed "Boom Boom", was an American professional basketball player with the Harlem Globetrotters and Harlem Magicians, and was an outfielder in Negro league baseball for the New York Cubans. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Wheeler attended Dunbar High School and Philander Smith College, where he was a star basketball player. He played professional baseball with the New York Cubans of the Negro National League in 1948, and hit a grand slam in his first game with the team. Wheeler joined the Harlem Globetrotters in 1950  and spent several years with them. Wheeler married Betty McNeal, daughter of Theodore McNeal, the first African American to serve in the Missouri Senate, and a respected union organizer and activist. Betty McNeal Wheeler founded the noted St. Louis City public high school, Metro Academic and Classical High School. Sam Wheeler died in St. Louis, Missouri in 1989 at age 65. External links. and Seamheads Sam "Boom Boom" Wheeler Samuel Wallace Wheeler, Jr. (November 15, 1923 - April 16, 1989), nicknamed "Boom Boom", was an American professional basketball player with the Harlem Globetrotters and Harlem Magicians, and was an outfielder in