From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American basketball player (1917?1999)
Pop Gates
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Pop_Gates_%28cropped%29.jpeg/220px-Pop_Gates_%28cropped%29.jpeg) Gates circa 1952
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Born
| (
1917-08-30
)
August 30, 1917
Decatur, Alabama
, U.S.
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Died
| December 1, 1999
(1999-12-01)
(aged 82)
New York City, New York
, U.S.
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Nationality
| American
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Listed height
| 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
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Listed weight
| 205 lb (93 kg)
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High school
| Benjamin Franklin
(
Harlem, New York
)
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Position
| Guard
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1937?1938
| New York Harlem Yankees
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1938?1941,
1942?1946
| New York Renaissance
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1941?1946
| Washington Licthman Bears
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1941?1944
| Grumman Flyers
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1944?1945
| Rochester
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1944?1946
| Long Island Grumman Hellcats
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1945?1946
| Chicago Monarchs
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1946?1947
| Tri-Cities Blackhawks
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1947?1949
| New York Rens
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1949
| Dayton Rens
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1949?1950
| Scranton Miners
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1950?1957
| Harlem Globetrotters
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1951?1952
| New York Celtics
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1949
| Dayton Rens
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1950?1955
| Harlem Globetrotters
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- NBL
All-Time Team
- 3× All-
WPBT
Team (1940, 1942, 1943)
- ABL
champion (1950)
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Basketball Hall of Fame as player
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William Penn
"
Pop
"
Gates
(August 30, 1917 ? December 1, 1999) was an American professional
basketball
player. Considered one of the top players of his day, he was the first
African American
player signed to the
National Basketball League
, the precursor to today's
National Basketball Association
.
Early life
[
edit
]
He was born in
Decatur, Alabama
and attended high school in New York City. During high school studies he earned All-Conference honors in both 1937 and 1938 and made the All-City first team in 1938, as well as won three All-City titles with YMCA teams.
[1]
Some later newspaper publications claimed that Gates graduated from Clark College (now
Clark Atlanta University
), but in fact his professional basketball career started right after graduating from
Franklin High School
.
[2]
Basketball career
[
edit
]
Gates started his professional basketball career with the
New York Renaissance
, beginning in 1938–39. "Seven months before Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers,
Leo Ferris
helped usher in a new era of racial integration for professional basketball when he signed Pop Gates, who made his debut for the
Tri-Cities Blackhawks
in October 1946.
Gates, along with
William "Dolly" King
, were the first two African-American players in the
National Basketball League
(NBL) in 1946. "When Leo Ferris came to me, it was like a godsend", Gates was quoted as saying in the book "Pioneers of the Hardwood: Indiana and the Birth of Professional Basketball." "It was a real highlight of my career to be accepted by the NBL as one of only two blacks in the league."
[3]
Later Gates played for and coached the
Harlem Globetrotters
. He is one of the few athletes who went directly from a high school championship team (Benjamin Franklin, New York, 1938) to a world professional champion (New York Rens, 1939).
Awards and honors
[
edit
]
Gates was inducted into the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
as a player in 1989.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Rayl, Susan (2000).
"Gates, William ("Pop")"
. In Kirsch, George B.; Harris, Othello; Nolte, Claire E. (eds.).
Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States
. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 177.
ISBN
0-313-29911-0
.
- ^
"William 'Pop' Gates"
.
The Black Fives Foundation
. September 29, 2016
. Retrieved
May 3,
2021
.
- ^
"Long-forgotten Leo Ferris helped devise NBA's 24-second clock, first used 61 years ago today"
.
ESPN.com
. October 30, 2015
. Retrieved
March 14,
2016
.
External links
[
edit
]
Links to related articles
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| †
Special voting by the media selected Bobby McDermott as the NBL's all-time greatest player
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International
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National
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Other
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