Chuck Cooper

Charles Henry Cooper (September 29, 1926 – February 5, 1984) was an American professional basketball player. Cooper played college basketball for Duquesne University and was named an All-American. He was the first African-American to play in a college basketball game south of the Mason-Dixon line. In 1950, Cooper and two others--Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton and Earl Lloyd--became the first African-American players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Cooper was also the first African-American to be drafted by an NBA team; he was chosen by the Boston Celtics with the first pick of the second round of the 1950 NBA Draft. In a six-season NBA career, Cooper played for the Celtics, the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks, and the Fort Wayne Pistons, averaging 6.7 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Cooper was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on September 9, 2019. Early life and college career Cooper was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Daniel and Emma Cooper. Daniel was a mailman, and Emma was a school teacher. 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 of 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.