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Cum Posey

Cumberland Posey
Cumberland Posey 1913.jpg
Outfielder/Manager/Owner
Born: (1890-06-20)June 20, 1890
Homestead, Pennsylvania
Died: March 28, 1946(1946-03-28) (aged 55)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Teams
Member of the National
Empty Star.svgEmpty Star.svgEmpty Star.svgBaseball Hall of Fame Empty Star.svgEmpty Star.svgEmpty Star.svg
Inducted 2006
Election Method Committee on African-American Baseball
Cumberland Posey
Personal information
Born (1890-10-25)October 25, 1890
Homestead, Pennsylvania
Died March 28, 1946(1946-03-28) (aged 55)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Listed height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Career information
High school Homestead High School
College Penn State (1909-11)
Duquesne (1916-18)
Career highlights and awards
Basketball Hall of Fame as player

Cumberland Willis "Cum" Posey, Jr. (June 20, 1890 – March 28, 1946) was an American baseball player, manager, and team owner in the Negro leagues, as well as a star professional basketball player and team owner.

Cumberland Jr. was born into Western Pennsylvania's Negro elite, the son of Cumberland Willis Posey Sr. and Angelina "Anna" Stevens Posey of Homestead, adjacent to Pittsburgh. Posey senior worked on riverboats and became in 1877 probably the first African American licensed engineer in the United States, then earned the chief engineer license and title Captain. "Cap" Posey was a riverboat builder, general manager of the Dexter Coal Company, owner of the Diamond Coke and Coal Company, and industrial partner of Henry Clay Frick. He was president of the Loendi Social and Literary Club for three years and president of the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper for its first fourteen years, to 1924.(Williams) The family lived in a palatial Italianate mansion on the heights.

Despite his commanding wealth Captain Posey still had to deal with racial discrimination, according to historian William Serrin. In that crucible of race his son began to excel as a young athlete.

In football, Cumberland Jr. was a star player and manager for semi-pro sandlot teams in the Pittsburgh area prior to 1910, including the Delaney Rifles and the Collins Tigers.

Posey was the best African American basketball player of his time, playing from the early 1900s (decade) through the mid-1920s. His peers and the sporting press considered him an "All-Time Immortal". "The mystic wand of Posey ruled basketball with as much eclat as 'Rasputin' dominated the Queen of all the Russias", observed the Harlem Interstate Tattler in 1929.

Posey led Homestead High to the 1908 city championship, played basketball at Penn State for two years, moved to the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a pharmacy degree in 1915, and formed the famous Monticello Athletic Association team that won the Colored Basketball World’s Championship in 1912. He later played varsity basketball for Duquesne University, under the name "Charles Cumbert", and led the Dukes in scoring for three seasons through 1919. Today he is enshrined in the Duquesne Sports Hall of Fame under his real name.


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Wikipedia

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