March 31, 1923: Don Barksdale, Basketball Pioneer

March 31, 1923, 100 years ago: Donald Argee Barksdale is born in Oakland, California. Before Drew Gooden, before Paul Pierce, before Jason Kidd, before Gary Payton, before Paul Silas, before Bill Russell, before Jim Pollard, Don Barksdale was the original Oakland basketball star.
 
And before Ed O’Bannon, before Bill Walton, before Sidney Wicks, before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, before Gail Goodrich, and before Walt Hazzard, Don Barksdale was the original UCLA basketball star. They retired his Number 11.
 
In 1947, he became the 1st black basketball player to be named an All-American. In 1948, he was a member of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the Olympics in London. He played for semi-pro teams in Oakland until 1951, when with the original Baltimore Bullets, he was only the 5th black player in the NBA. In 1953, with the Bullets, he was named an NBA All-Star. He played 2 more seasons, with the Boston Celtics, wearing Number 17 years before John Havlicek, before an ankle injury ended his career.

 

He made more money in his off-season job, owning 1 of Oakland's 1st 2 black-owned record stores. He later founded and owned a record label, a radio station, and a nightclub. He became the San Francisco Bay Area's 1st black beer distributor, and its 1st black television host, with a show called Sepia Review on KRON-Channel 4.

In 1983, he launched a foundation that is credited with saving high school sports in Oakland. He died of cancer in 1993. In 2012, long overdue, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.