William Penn "Pop" Gates (August 30, 1917 – December 1, 1999) 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.

Early life

He was born in

Decatur, Alabama Decatur (dɪˈkeɪtə(r)) is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County (with a portion also in Limestone County) in the U.S. state of Alabama. Nicknamed "The River City", it is located in northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler Lake ...

and attended high school in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

. 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 3 All-City titles with YMCA teams. Some later newspaper publications claimed that Gates graduated from Clark College (now

Clark Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Found ...

), but in fact his professional basketball career started right after graduating from Franklin High School.

Basketball career

Gates started his professional basketball career with the

New York Renaissance The New York Renaissance, also known as the Renaissance Big R Five and as the Rens, were the first black-owned, all-black, fully-professional basketball team in history, established in October 1923, by Robert "Bob" Douglas. They were named after t ...

, beginning in 1938–39. "Seven months before Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers,

Leo Ferris Leo F. Ferris (May 31, 1917 – June 1, 1993) was an American sports executive and businessman from Elmira, New York best known for helping invent the 24-second shot clock in the National Basketball Association. Managerial career in basketball ...

helped usher in a new era of racial integration for professional basketball when he signed Pop Gates, who made his debut for the

Tri-Cities Blackhawks Tri-Cities most often refers to: *Tri-Cities, Tennessee, United States *Tri-Cities, Washington, United States Tri-City, Tricity or Tri-Cities may also refer to: Populated places Americas Canada *Tri-Cities (British Columbia), consisting of Co ...

in October 1946. Gates, along with William "Dolly" King, were the first two African-American players in the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1946. "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." Later Gates played for and coached the Harlem Globetrotters. He 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).

Awards and honors

Gates was inducted into the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

as a player in 1989.

References

External links

"William Penn "Pop" Gates"
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gates, Pop 1917 births 1999 deaths 20th-century African-American sportspeople African-American basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from Alabama Basketball players from New York (state) Dayton Rens coaches Dayton Rens players Guards (basketball) Harlem Globetrotters coaches Harlem Globetrotters players Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees New York Renaissance players Player-coaches Scranton Miners (basketball) players Sportspeople from Decatur, Alabama Tri-Cities Blackhawks players