.jpeg) Gates circa 1952 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1917-08-30)August 30, 1917 Decatur, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | December 1, 1999(1999-12-01) (aged 82) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Listed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Benjamin Franklin (Harlem, New York) |
| Position | Guard |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 1937–1938 | New York Harlem Yankees |
| 1938–1941, 1942–1946 | New York Renaissance |
| 1941–1946 | Washington Lichtman Bears |
| 1941–1944 | Long Island Grumman Flyers |
| 1944–1945 | Rochester |
| 1944–1946 | Long Island Grumman Hellcats |
| 1945–1946 | Chicago Monarchs |
| 1946–1999 | Buffalo Bisons / Tri-Cities Blackhawks |
| 1947–1949 | New York Rens |
| 1949 | Dayton Rens |
| 1949–1950 | Scranton Miners |
| 1950–1957 | Harlem Globetrotters |
| 1951–1952 | New York Celtics |
Coaching | |
| 1949 | Dayton Rens |
| 1950–1955 | Harlem Globetrotters |
| Career highlights | |
| Basketball Hall of Fame | |
William Penn "Pop"Gates (August 30, 1917 – December 1, 1999) was an American professionalbasketball player. Considered one of the top players of his day, he was among the firstAfrican American players signed to theNational Basketball League, which through merger became today'sNational Basketball Association.
Gates was born inDecatur, 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 (nowClark Atlanta University), but in fact his professional basketball career started right after graduating fromFranklin High School.[2]
Gates started his professional basketball career with the famedNew York Renaissance, beginning in 1938–39. Gates 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): in his first season with the Rens, the team won the1939 World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, the inaugural such event. Gates was the Rens' leading scorer in the championship game, won over the Oshkosh All Stars of theNational Basketball League (NBL), a precursor to theNBA.[3] Gates would play in all 10 of the editions of that tournament, both on all-African-American and racially integrated teams.[4] He would twice be named to the World Professional Basketball Tournament First Team, including in 1943, when he led the Washington Bears, a team comprised mostly of former Rens, to a second WPBT championship.[5]
Gates played for theBuffalo Bisons/Tri-Cities Blackhawks in 1946-47 in the NBL,[6] and later served as player-coach for the Rens, relocated to Dayton,[7] when the team was added to the NBL during the 1948-49 season, the league's final campaign before merging into the new NBA. After the NBA did not admit the Rens into the new league, Gates and his Rens teammateWilliam "Dolly" King joined the Scranton Miners of theAmerican Basketball League, winning the league championship in 1949-50.[8] Gates subsequently played for and coached theHarlem Globetrotters.
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 to his fledgling franchise, theBuffalo Bisons (later Tri-Cities Blackhawks) in October 1946. Gates was one of two prominent African-American players to join theNational Basketball League (NBL) that year, along with fellow New York Ren and Washington Bear Dolly King, who joined the defending-championRochester Royals.[9] (In the1942-43 NBL season, with rosters depleted by World War II, a number of African-American players had played in the league, most prominently on the Chicago franchise, an integrated squad that included former Globetrotter stars Sonny Boswell and Bernie Price as well as 6'9" white center Mike Novak, who had starred in his college days for Depaul. But no African-American players had played in the league since.[10])
"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."[11]
Despite the Buffalo Bisons moving fromBuffalo, New York toMoline, Illinois (as a part of what was called the "Tri-Cities" area at the time)--a place that could be seen as having more problems withracial segregation at the time--Gates would still be one of eight players from that original Buffalo Bisons NBL team from 1946 to remain with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks byChristmas of 1946. The Blackhawks franchise continues to the present day as theAtlanta Hawks.[12][13]
Gates was inducted into theNaismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989.
| GP | Games played | FGM | Field goals made |
| FTM | Free throws made | FTA | Free throws attempted |
| FT% | Free throw percentage | PTS | Totalpoints |
| PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| Year[14] | Team | GP | FGM | FTM | PTS | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946–47 | Buffalo / Tri-Cities | 41 | 125 | 60 | 310 | 7.6 |
| 1948–49 | Dayton | 40 | 161 | 126 | 448 | 11.2 |
| Career | 81 | 286 | 186 | 758 | 9.4 | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
