The 'Hoopster Of The Week'
for this week
goes to:
the Big Black Man, 6-6, 200 pound center
who was the first Big Black to be named a
NCAA All-American, the first Big Black to
play on the U. S. Men's Olympic Basketball
team in 1948, and he was a NBA All-Star
Gamer in 1953, after which he was inducted
into the NBA HOF, but in high school he
was cut from the team by the coach at Berkeley
High for three straight years because he didn't
want more than one Big Black Guy on the
team, however that did not stop him from
earning a full sports scholarship to UCLA
and selected that year as the top center of
the Pacific Coast Conference, plus he was
a formidable high jumper and the 1944
triple jump champion at the USA Track and
Field outdoor Championships, plus he and
his team won the Gold Medal at the 1951
Pan American Games, and did you know
that he became the first Big Black Radio
Disc Jockey in the San Francisco Bay Area
in 1948, the first Big Black beer distributor,
the first Big Black TV host in the Bay Area
on KRON-TV on a show called Sepia Review,
and was the first Big Black to play in a NBA
All-Star game, and later he started his own
recording label and opened two nightclubs
in the Oakland area, while launching a
successful drive to save high school sports
in the Oakland School District,
and so much more...
Black Basketball History Month,
celebrated in October each year, was
founded by Ralph C. Winge, D.D.S.
in 2025 to acknowledge, praise,
and hold high, with cheer, the untold
numbers of International Black Men
and Women, both past and present,
that made us go, "Wow!...Whoa!...
...and...OMGosh!" in their nonstop,
valiant, and always surprising,
individual and team
efforts to put the ball through the
hoop the most, to win games and
championships!
The Founder of Black Basketball History Month,
Ralph C.Winge, D.D.S.,
and USC Dental School Graduate.
If you know a Basketball Practitioner who should be included here,
please leave a note in the comment section. Thank you!
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