Page 13 - SHELL Test Smaller vid file1 (1)

chuck cooper

CHUCK COOPER

Duquesne University 1947-50
Pittsburgh, Pa. (Westinghouse HS)

• 2019 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee
• 1950 consensus Second Team All-American
• Led the Dukes to a 78-19 record and a pair of National Invitation Tourna-
ment appearances (1947 & 1950)
• Captained a 1949-50 squad that finished with a 23-6 record and No. 6 (AP)
national ranking
• Drafted by the Boston Celtics in the second round (13th overall) on April 25,
1950 (six year NBA career)

“I don’t give a damn if he’s striped or plaid or polka-dot, Boston takes Charles
Cooper of Duquesne!” were the history-making words of Boston Celtics owner
Walter Brown when he made Duquesne’s Chuck Cooper the first African-Amer-
ican player drafted by a National Basketball Association team on April 25, 1950.
As a senior at Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse High School, Cooper averaged
over 13 points per game and earned all-city honors in leading Westinghouse
to a City League championship. Like many talented young African-American
players, Cooper headed for historically Black West Virginia State College,
whose program also produced fellow NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd. Cooper played
a promising semester there before leaving to enter the military in the winter of
1944-45. After a tour of duty on the West Coast, Cooper was drawn back home
to Pittsburgh and enrolled at Duquesne University.
Cooper led the Dukes to a 78-19 record and two NIT appearances in his
four-year career. He captained a 1949-50 squad - the first Duquesne team to be ranked for an entire season by the Associated Press - to a 23-6 record and
No. 6 national ranking. He was a consensus second team All-American in 1950.
Cooper, who played in the NBA for six seasons, was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September of 2019.
Cooper’s life after basketball was notable for his commitment to social activism. He enrolled in social work classes at the University of Minnesota
and earned a master’s degree in 1961.
He returned to Pittsburgh where he worked for and eventually rose to the position of director in several neighborhood anti-poverty organizations.
He was named head of the city’s parks and recreation department in 1970, becoming Pittsburgh’s first black department director. Later he moved into an
urban affairs post at Pittsburgh National Bank, where he spearheaded development and affirmative action programs. Pittsburgh residents of the 1970s and
1980s knew Chuck Cooper mostly as a member of numerous high-profile boards and civic organizations.
Cooper was inducted into the Duquesne University Sports Hall of Fame in 1969 and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1974.
He passed away on May 2, 1984, in Pittsburgh.
Chuck Cooper’s legacy was formally honored with the announcement of the naming of UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on October 23, 2018.

VIEW: CHUCK COOPER III’S HALL OF FAME INDUCTION SPEECH

11