Wyatt "Sonny" Boswell (May 19, 1919 – October 19, 1964) was an early

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He was born in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta. H ...

and grew up in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, where he attended Scott High School. He played for the Harlem Globetrotters from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1943 to 1944. Boswell was known for taking long distance trick shots to entertain the fans. Abe Saperstein, the manager of the Globetrotters, described Boswell as "one of the great long shot artists of his day"."Ex-Trotter suffers fatal heart attack". ''Chicago Defender''. October 20, 1964. 21. In 1940, Boswell was named MVP of the

World Professional Basketball Tournament The World Professional Basketball Tournament was an annual invitational tournament held in Chicago from 1939 to 1948 and sponsored by the '' Chicago Herald American''. Many teams came from the National Basketball League, but it also included the b ...

after scoring eleven points in the Globetrotters' 31–29 championship win over the

Chicago Bruins The Chicago Bruins were an American basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Chicago Bears football team owner George Halas, the Bruins were a member of the American Basketball League, a league that also featured other National Football ...

.Ryan E. Smith.
At least 11 men with Toledo ties played for the Harlem Globetrotters
. ''Toledo Blade''. October 2008. Retrieved on January 31, 2009. During the 1942–43 season, Boswell played for the

Chicago Studebaker Flyers The Chicago Studebaker Flyers (also known as the Chicago Studebakers) were a National Basketball League team from 1942 to 1943.Charley Rosen. The First Tip-Off'. McGraw-Hill, 2008. 105. They were funded by the United Auto Workers and replaced Georg ...

of the National Basketball League. He was one of a group of former Harlem Globetrotters who joined the previously all-white NBL to replace players who had recently been drafted for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Over the years, Boswell also appeared in games for 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 ...

and the Chicago Monarchs."Collegians and Monarchs win". ''Chicago Defender''. January 19, 1946. 7. After his basketball career, Boswell settled in Chicago, where he managed the Pershing Hotel and later owned his own

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling ...

, called Sonny Boswell's South Park Bowl. He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

at age 45 in 1964.

References

1919 births 1964 deaths African-American basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from Ohio Chicago Studebaker Flyers players Guards (basketball) Harlem Globetrotters players New York Renaissance players Sportspeople from Greenville, Mississippi Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{1910s-US-basketball-bio-stub