Wataru Misaka (December 21, 1923 – November 20, 2019) 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. A

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

of Japanese descent, he broke a color barrier in professional basketball by being the first non-white player and the first player of

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

descent to play 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), known then as 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 ...

(BAA). Misaka 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

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' ...

and led the team to win the 1944 NCAA and

1947 NIT The 1947 National Invitation Tournament was the 1947 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. The Utah Utes won the tournament, led by Wataru Misaka. Misaka later joined the New York Knicks and became the first person of color to ...

championships. He took a two-year hiatus between these titles to serve in the United States Army in the American

occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

. Misaka subsequently played three games for the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

during the 1947–48 season.

Early life

Misaka was born a '' Nisei'' (second-generation Japanese American) in

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

, to Tatsuyo and Fusaichi Misaka. He grew up poor with his two younger brothers. His family lived in the basement of his father's barber shop between a bar and a pawn shop in a bad area on 25th Street, which was also rife with prostitution.Nielsen, Chad. (2010).
That’s Just How It Was
. ''Continuum''. Retrieved January 6, 2013. He recalled the neighborhood as being a "ghetto". Misaka was raised in an era of "virtual

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

", wrote

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

magazine ''Continuum''. Excluded from extracurricular activities, ''Nisei'' children played in their own

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and basketball leagues. Misaka was not served in restaurants because of his ethnicity, and neighbors would cross the street to steer clear of him. Despite this, Misaka still participated in sports. Misaka attended

Ogden High School Ogden High School is an Art Deco secondary school located in Ogden, Utah, educating students in grades 10–12. Operated by the Ogden City School District, Ogden High enrolls approximately 1,250 students each year. The graduation rate has increase ...

, where he led the basketball team to a state championship title in 1940 and a regional championship title in 1941.

College career

After high school, Misaka continued his education at the same time that many other Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps. He attended

Weber College Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founde ...

, where he helped lead its basketball team to two championships. Misaka was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1942 junior college postseason tournament and, in 1943, he was named the Weber College athlete of the year. Misaka subsequently enrolled at the

and joined their Utes basketball team. The young team finished with an 18–3 record in the 1943–44 season. They were invited to both the NCAA tournament and the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT). The team chose the latter because it was more prestigious at the time, and meant a trip to

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. The team lost to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

in the first round, but was given a chance to play in the NCAA tournament due to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

's withdrawal because of a team accident. The team took advantage of this and won the tournament, winning the

championship game In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

over

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42–40 in overtime. Two nights later, Misaka and his team played the NIT champions, St. John's, in an exhibition match at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

, where his team won 43–36. Misaka was later 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 opposin ...

and rose to the rank of

staff sergeant Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. History of title In origin, certain senior sergeants were assigned to administrative, supervi ...

. After two years, he returned to the University of Utah and rejoined the team. The team won their second national championship in four years. Because of their success, Utah was invited to the NIT championship tournament in New York. The team slid by the first two rounds before beating

49–45 to capture the

championship title. Misaka held Wildcats All-American guard Ralph Beard to a single point. On January 22, 2022, Misaka's number 20 jersey was honored by the Utah Utes.

Professional career

Misaka was selected by the

in the

1947 BAA Draft The 1947 BAA draft was the 1st draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later became the National Basketball Association (NBA). The fledgling BAA held a joint draft with the established National Basketball League (NBL). Both le ...

. He debuted as the first non-Caucasian player in the BAA (later known as the NBA) in 1947, the same year that

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

broke the

baseball color line The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947 (with a few notable exceptions in the 19th century before the li ...

. The first

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 ...

did not play in the NBA until 1950. There were no press conferences or interviews to commemorate Misaka's first game. "It wasn't a big thing," he said. "Nobody cared." Misaka played in three games and scored seven points in the 1947–48 season before being cut from the team mid-season. He believed he was cut because the Knicks had too many guards. Misaka said he did not feel any discrimination from teammates or opposing players during his time with the Knicks, but he did not mingle with everyone. During training camp, he was only close with future Hall-of-Famer Carl Braun.

Later years

Misaka declined an offer to play with the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...

, and he returned home to earn a degree in engineering from Utah. "The salary for a rookie and the salary for starting engineer weren't much different", Misaka recalled. He then joined a company in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

as an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He and his wife, Kate, had two children. Misaka died at the age of 95 on November 20, 2019 in Salt Lake City.

Legacy

Misaka was inducted into the

Utah Sports Hall of Fame The Utah Sports Hall of Fame is an athletics hall of fame in the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, organized in 1967 as The Old Time Athletes Association, was founded "to celebrate and preserve Utah's storied sports heri ...

in 1999. In 2000, Misaka was featured in a landmark exhibit, ''More Than a Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community'', at the

Japanese American National Museum The is located in Los Angeles, California, and dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Japanese Americans. Founded in 1992, it is located in the Little Tokyo area near downtown. The museum is an affiliate within the Smithsonian Affil ...

in Los Angeles. A documentary film, ''Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story'' by Bruce Alan Johnson and Christine Toy Johnson, premiered in 2008. It recounts Misaka's playing career and his status as the first non-Caucasian player in the NBA.Utah Basketball Legend Wat Misaka Passes Away at Age 95
''University of Utah Athletics''. November 21, 2019.

BAA career statistics

Regular season

Footnotes

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Misaka, Wataru 1923 births 2019 deaths American electrical engineers American men's basketball players American military personnel of Japanese descent American sportspeople of Japanese descent Basketball players from Utah Engineers from Utah Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Military personnel from Utah New York Knicks draft picks New York Knicks players Point guards Sportspeople from Ogden, Utah Utah Utes men's basketball players Weber State Wildcats men's basketball players