Don Barksdale
Barksdale with the Boston Celtics in 1953.
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Born |
March 31, 1923 Oakland, California |
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| Died | March 8, 1993 (aged 69) Oakland, California |
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| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 200 lb (91 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||||
| High school | Berkeley (Berkeley, California) | ||||||||||||||||||
| College | UCLA (1946–1947) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 1948–1955 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Forward / Center | ||||||||||||||||||
| Number | 6, 17 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1948–1949 | Oakland Bittners | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1950–1951 | Oakland Blue n' Gold Atlas | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1951–1953 | Baltimore Bullets | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1953–1955 | Boston Celtics | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Career NBA statistics | |||||||||||||||||||
| Points | 2,895 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rebounds | 2,088 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Assists | 549 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| Basketball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||||||
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Medals
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Donald Argee Barksdale (March 31, 1923 – March 8, 1993) was an American professional basketball player. He was a pioneer as an African-American basketball player, becoming the first to be named NCAA All-American, the first to play on a United States men's Olympic basketball team, and the first to play in a National Basketball Association All-Star Game. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Born in Oakland, California to Argee Barksdale, a Pullman porter, and Desoree (née Rowe) Barksdale, Don attended nearby Berkeley High School, where the basketball coach cut him from the team for three straight years because he wanted no more than one black player.
Barksdale honed his basketball playing skills in parks, and then played for two years at Marin Junior College, across San Francisco Bay, before earning a scholarship to UCLA. A 6'6" center for the Bruins, in 1947 he became the first African American to be named consensus All-American. Barksdale was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
In 1948, he was the first African-American on the U.S. Olympic basketball team. He joined the team in Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and became the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball.
Barksdale, who had been playing with the Amateur Athletic Union's Oakland Bittners, was given an at-large berth from the independent bracket, but not without heavy lobbying by Fred Maggiora, a member of the Olympic Basketball Committee and a politician in Oakland, which was adjacent to Barksdale's hometown. About eight years later, Maggiora told Barksdale that some committee members' responses to the idea of having a black Olympian was "Hell no, that will never happen." But Maggiora wouldn't let the committee bypass Barksdale.
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