Joe Louis Caldwell (born November 1, 1941) is a retired 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. Caldwell played six seasons (1964–1970) in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) and five seasons (1970–1975) in the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

(ABA). Caldwell was one of the few players to be an All-Star in both leagues, making 2 All-Star teams in each league. Caldwell was a member of the United States Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal in the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

. Caldwell was

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

's fourth leading scorer.

Early life

Caldwell was one of 11 children born in

Texas City Texas City is a city in Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and pe ...

, near

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He was the son of a longshoreman and mechanic and a homemaker. When he was six, Caldwell witnessed the Texas City disaster in 1947, when a docked ship blew up and 581 people died with thousands injured. Caldwell's family was left unharmed, but he said decades later, "I can still see people flying through the air." When Caldwell was 15, he moved with his sister to Los Angeles, California. He emerged as a late-bloomer player and

John Wooden John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head ...

courted him to play for him at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He ended up at

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

instead.

Collegiate career

Caldwell attended John C. Fremont High School in Los Angeles, not playing until his junior year. He then played collegiately at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. Caldwell played for Arizona State from 1961 to 1964, setting the Sun Devils career scoring record with 1,515 points (18.2 ppg). His 929 rebounds (11.2), are the second-best total in school history. Caldwell led Arizona State to the NCAA Tournament in each of his three varsity seasons and a 65–18 overall record.

1964 Olympic Team

Selected to the U.S.A. Team, Caldwell was the fourth-leading scorer (9.0 ppg) on the

1964 United States men's Olympic basketball team The 1964 United States men's Olympic basketball team represented the United States at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Entering into the Olympics for the sixth time, the United States men's team had won its last 37 games in a row. In th ...

. Team U.S.A. went 9–0 under coach

Hank Iba Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri S ...

to capture the Olympic Gold Medal in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. Caldwell scored 14 points for the USA in the 73–59 gold medal game victory over the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Professional career

Nicknamed "Pogo Joe" or "Jumping Joe" for his leaping abilities, Caldwell was a guard/forward. In the

1964 NBA draft The 1964 NBA draft was the 18th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 4, 1964, before the 1964–65 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players ...

, Caldwell was the No. 2 overall pick by the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

. Olympic teammate

Jim "Bad News" Barnes Velvet James Barnes (April 13, 1941 – September 14, 2002), also known as Jim "Bad News" Barnes, was an American basketball player, who was an Olympic Gold Medalist and the No. 1 overall pick of the 1964 NBA draft. He played college basketball at ...

went No. 1. Caldwell spent the majority of his NBA career with the St. Louis/

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

franchise. After averaging 21.1 points per game for the

in the

1969–70 NBA season The 1969–70 NBA Season was the 24th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the New York Knicks winning the NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals. Regular season The 1969– ...

, Caldwell jumped to the rival ABA, playing for the

Carolina Cougars The Carolina Cougars were a basketball franchise in the American Basketball Association that existed from 1969 through 1974. The Cougars were originally a charter member of the ABA as the Houston Mavericks in 1967. The Mavericks moved to North Ca ...

from 1970 to 1974. Caldwell's contract with Carolina called for him to earn $150,000 per year and another $70,000 deferred for five years. A clause called for him to receive $6,600 per month beginning at age 55. Later, the Carolina owner, Tedd Munchak, sued to try to negate the pension. Caldwell was interviewed on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'', who ran a segment on the lawsuit. Caldwell prevailed and received his pension payments beginning in 1996. During the 1974–75 ABA season, the Carolina franchise had moved to become the St. Louis Spirits. Spirits' management blamed Caldwell for influencing team star

Marvin Barnes Marvin Jerome "Bad News" Barnes (July 27, 1952 – September 8, 2014) was an American professional basketball player. A forward, he was an All-American at Providence College, and played professionally in both the American Basketball Association ( ...

to briefly leave the team. Caldwell denied doing this but he was suspended for "activities detrimental to the best interests of professional basketball." Caldwell never played another professional basketball game. He filed various lawsuits, alleging that he was wrongly blacklisted by the ABA and later the NBA. Tedd Munchak, who was suing Caldwell was now Commissioner of the ABA. Caldwell, who was President of the ABA Players Association, had his case (Caldwell vs. American Basketball Association, 95-1012) go all the way to the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. Caldwell averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in eleven professional seasons. He scored 12,619 combined NBA/ABA career points.

Personal life

Joe Caldwell is the grandfather of

Marvin Bagley III Marvin Bagley III (born March 16, 1999) is an American professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils and was a 2018 Consensus All-Amer ...

, a power forward for the

. Bagley's mother is Caldwell's daughter, Tracy Caldwell. Bagley was the No. 2 overall selection in the

2018 NBA draft The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including inte ...

, the same pick as his grandfather in the

. Caldwell attended his grandson's games throughout high school and college.

Honors

* Caldwell's jersey #32 was retired by

. On November 20, 2010, the ceremony took place before a game against the

UAB Blazers The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of Conference USA (C-USA) and participates in Division I of th ...

. * In 1975 Caldwell was a charter member of the Arizona State Hall of Fame. * In 2005 Caldwell was inducted into the Pac-10 Hall of Fame.

References

External links

*
Joe Caldwell
at Remember the ABA

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Joe 1941 births Living people 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball players Atlanta Hawks players Basketball players at the 1964 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Houston Carolina Cougars players Detroit Pistons draft picks Detroit Pistons players John C. Fremont High School alumni Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics National Basketball Association All-Stars Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Texas City, Texas Shooting guards Small forwards Spirits of St. Louis players St. Louis Hawks players United States men's national basketball team players