Lonnie Lynn Jr. (May 24, 1943 – September 12, 2014), nicknamed "Pops", was an American
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.
Life and career
Lynn was born on May 24, 1943 in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, the son of Mabel and Lonnie Lynn, a construction worker.
At 6'7" and 215 lb, he was a
forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
* Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Sm ...
and played basketball at
DuSable High School
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable High School is a public four-year high school campus located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. DuSable is owned by the Chicago Public Schools district. The school ...
on Chicago's south side before moving on to
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. It participates in t ...
and
Upper Iowa University
Upper Iowa University (UIU) is a private university in Fayette, Iowa. It enrolls around 6000 students and offers distance education programs that include 15 centers in the U.S., an online program, an independent study program, and centers in ...
.
[
Lynn was drafted by the ]St. Louis 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 Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...
in the 12th round of the 1966 NBA draft and later played one season for the Pittsburgh Pipers
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylv ...
of 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, ...
in 1969–70, averaging 5.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Once known to Chicagoans for his play at DuSable High School, Lonnie Lynn gathered a following in the rap world. Father of rapper Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
, Lynn performed on several of his son's albums.
On his son's records, Lynn shared opinions, experiences and wisdom to a younger hip hop audience in spoken word poetry
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...
format. Many of these appearances, in particular "Pops Rap" on ''Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
'', feature Lynn discussing the hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
ideals that have found their way into hip hop culture
Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. Hip hop culture is characterized by four key elements: rapping, DJing and turntablis ...
. In an article for National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
, journalist Robert Siegel
Robert Charles Siegel (born June 26, 1947) is an American retired radio journalist. He was one of the co-hosts of the National Public Radio evening news broadcast ''All Things Considered'' from 1987 until his retirement in January 2018.
Early ...
wrote of Lonnie "Pops" Lynn:
Lynn had six other children aside from Common.
Although he was reared in Chicago, Lynn was greatly affected by visits to the South during his youth and the brutal murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...
, a fellow Chicagoan.
Death
Lynn died of prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
on September 12, 2014, at the age of 71.
References
External links
Lynn at databasebasketball.com
NPR Interview: 'Pops' Contributes to Rapper Common's Cause
1943 births
2014 deaths
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people
African-American basketball players
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Chicago
Denver Rockets players
Pittsburgh Pipers players
Small forwards
St. Louis Hawks draft picks
Upper Iowa Peacocks men's basketball players
Wilberforce Bulldogs men's basketball players
{{1940s-US-basketball-bio-stub