1. Donald Argee Barksdale was an American professional basketball player.
16 Facts About Don Barksdale
1. 2.
Don Barksdale was a pioneer as an African-American basketball player, becoming the first to be named NCAA All-American, the first to play on a United States men's Olympic basketball team, and the first to play in a National Basketball Association All-Star Game.
3.
Don Barksdale was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
4.
Don Barksdale became the first African American to be named consensus All-American.
5.
Don Barksdale owned one of only two black-owned record stores in Los Angeles during his time in UCLA.
6.
Don Barksdale was an accomplished triple jumper and high jumper, winning the 1944 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships title in the triple jump.
7.
Don Barksdale joined the team at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and became the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball.
Related searches
Earl Lloyd 8.
Don Barksdale, who had been playing with the Amateur Athletic Union's Oakland Bittners, was given an at-large berth from the independent bracket, but not without heavy lobbying by Fred Maggiora, a member of the Olympic Basketball Committee and a politician in Oakland, which was adjacent to Don Barksdale's hometown.
9.
Don Barksdale became the first African-American to play against Kentucky in Lexington.
10.
Don Barksdale had faced prejudice before, and he knew that he would face it again.
11.
Don Barksdale worked in television and owned a beer distributorship.
12.
Don Barksdale became the first African-American beer distributor and the first African-American television host in the Bay area with a show called Sepia Review on KRON-TV.
13.
Don Barksdale would be one of the first African-Americans to play in the NBA after Nathaniel Clifton, Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd and Hank DeZonie had joined the league in 1950.
14.
Don Barksdale succumbed to throat cancer at the age of 69 on March 8,1993, in Oakland, California.
15.
Don Barksdale was survived by his sons Donald and Derek.
16.
On February 24,2012, Don Barksdale was announced as a member of the 2012 induction class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.