BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " POP GATES " WAS AN AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

            BLACK   SOCIAL   HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

Pop Gates

BLACK                           SOCIAL                        HISTORY

William "Pop" Gates (August 30, 1917 – December 1, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. He was born in Decatur, Alabama and attended high school inNew York, New York. After playing college basketball at Clark Atlanta University, he continued his basketball career in New York City with the Harlem Renaissance, for several years beginning in 1938–39. He became one of the early black players in the NBL in 1946. Later he played for and coached the Harlem Globetrotters. Gates is one of the few athletes who went directly from a high school championship team (Benjamin Franklin, New York, 1938) to a World Professional Champion (Rens, 1939).

Gates was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989.