African-American Basketball Pioneer Honored

Duquesne University will host the Chuck Cooper Classic tomorrow, a basketball tournament in honor of the first African-American to be drafted to the National Basketball Association.

Cooper was a Duquesne alum who distinguished himself by leading the Dukes to a No. 6 national ranking and earning All-American honors as team captain in 1949-1950.

But his son, Chuck Cooper III, says it wasn’t easy – the University of Tennessee refused to even play the Dukes unless they benched Cooper.

“Duquesne University took a stand at that time, and said, ‘Absolutely no way will we play a basketball game without our full team, so if Chuck Cooper can’t play, then we won’t play,’ ” says Cooper. “From that point on, I think it just really forged a special relationship between my father and Duquesne University.”

After playing six years in the NBA, Cooper earned his master’s degree in social work and returned to Pittsburgh to work in anti-poverty organizations. Later, he became the first African-American to head a city department when he became the Director of Parks and Recreation. Chuck Cooper died in 1984 at sixty-one years old.

West Virginia State and Davis & Elkins will start the tourney at 1:00. Duquesne will play Savannah State at 3:30.

There will also be a free honorary concert at the August Wilson Center tonight at 7:30.