Grady W. Lewis (March 25, 1917 – March 11, 2009) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs The Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs (also SWOSU Bulldogs) are the athletic teams that represent Southwestern Oklahoma State University, located in Weatherford, Oklahoma, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Bulldogs compete as mem ...

and

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

. Lewis played four seasons with the Phillips 66 Oilers of the AAU, and three seasons (1946–1949) in the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA absorbed most of National Basketball League (NBL) and rebranded as the National Ba ...

as a member of the Detroit Falcons,

St. Louis Bombers The St. Louis Bombers were a National Basketball Association team based in St. Louis from 1946 to 1950. Franchise history The St. Louis Bombers were originally part of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946. The BAA merged wit ...

, and Baltimore Bullets. He averaged 5.4

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

in his career and won a league championship with Baltimore in 1948. Lewis also was a member of two AAU national championship teams with Phillips 66 (1940, 1946). Lewis coached the St. Louis Bombers during the 1948–49 and 1949–50 seasons. He then worked for the

Converse Converse may refer to: Mathematics and logic * Converse (logic), the result of reversing the two parts of a definite or implicational statement ** Converse implication, the converse of a material implication ** Converse nonimplication, a logical c ...

shoe company. Lewis went on to invent the Converse All Stars shoe, although he did not get recognition as the famous Marketer Chuck Taylor was accredited due to his popular name.Andy Taylor.
Retired Converse exec with Caney connection dies
. ''Montgomery County Chronicle''. March 18, 2009. Retrieved on March 19, 2009. Lewis was inducted into the Southwestern Oklahoma State Hall of Fame in 1970.

BAA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

1917 births 2009 deaths American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) players Basketball coaches from Texas Basketball players from Texas Centers (basketball) Detroit Falcons (basketball) players Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball players People from Boyd, Texas Phillips 66ers players Player-coaches Power forwards (basketball) Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs men's basketball players Sportspeople from the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex St. Louis Bombers (NBA) coaches St. Louis Bombers (NBA) players {{1910s-US-basketball-bio-stub