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The first black pioneer of the NBA 75 years on

1st November 20251st November 2025 funtime65

IT seems unimaginable now that basketball that has created more Afro-American idols than any other was once a white preserve, so it is worth marking the first black pioneer of the NBA 75 years on.

Charles ‘Chuck’ Cooper may not have the global adulation.

Of a Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Magic Johnson or Shaquille O’Neal.

But were you to ask any one of those black colossuses of sport for his contribution to the sport.

And their passage into it they would as one place him on the highest pedestal.

Because on this day back in 1950 the Pittsburgh native became the first Afro-American to play in the NBA.

Featuring in the Boston Celtics‘ 107-84 loss to the Fort Wayne Pistons.

That it was the Celtics that broke the colour barrier is a matter of great pride for Bostonians.

Because, of course, others were not always as welcoming to athletic achieving black Americans.

Best of Chuck

The towering 6ft 5ins Chuck though bore, as so many did in those days, the humiliation with heroic grace.

Not that Walter A Brown’s and Red Auerbach’s Celtics stopped there.

With Chuck going on to form a holy trinity of African-American basketball players.

With Earl Lloyd and Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton, who would transform the parquet.

That the Celtics weren’t prepared to be dictated to by anyone who they would or wouldn’t play was clear when Brown hit out at the racists.

And said at the draft: ‘I don’t give a damn if he’s striped, plaid or polka dot. Boston takes Charles Cooper of Duquesne (College).’

The Holy Trinity

On a pedestal: With Red in Quincy Market in Boston

Even against, or perhaps because, of the maltreatment they would receive on the road they rose higher and greater.

Red’s Big Three faced discrimination in restaurants, hotels, and the very arenas in which they played.

Even when a new hotel on the exhibition circuit refused Chuck service or fans from a rival city shouted racial slurs.

The black and the green: The Celtics today

Chuck would also hold court for the Harlem Globetrotters, Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks.

And the team he faced in that historic first game 75 years ago today, Fort Wayne Pistons.

For the stattos out there, Chuck played a total of 409 games, scored 2,725 points for an average of 6.66 points per game.

He recorded 2,431 rebounds for an average of 5.9 per game, and had 733 assists for an average of 1.79 per game.

The pioneer

The most notable statistic though was that Chuck Cooper was the first, the first Afro-American to play in the NBA.

Chuck would be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame as late as 2019, some 35 years after he had died at the age of 57 of cancer.

But he has, of course, left a legacy that far outlasts his life as the first Afro-American to trod the parquet courts of the NBA.

And for us, and the great sports city of Boston, that is a real slam dunk.

We found an Aer Lingus flight from our home airport here in Edinburgh through Dublin with pre-clearance for a sample week’s return dates this month from £668.40.

America, Countries, Sport

Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics

18th June 202418th June 2024 funtime65

Eurocentrics listen up, there is other sport around the world, and the green bunting is up all around Beantown today as fans throw a Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics.

Bostonians rightly beam about their famous basketball team, and rightly so, as they are now inarguably the most successful NBA team of all time.

The Celtics had reluctantly shared that mantle with their greatest of rivals, the LA Lakers, on 17 titles before this week.

But the prospect of the exclusivity of an 18th title drove Jason Taytum, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics to a historic title.

With a 4-1 win over the game Dallas Mavericks.

Bostonians flying high

Now as well as the fanfare and receptions that will last all summer and right through to the resumption of the NBA.

The Celtics will earn an 18th pennant to be draped on the walls of Logan Airport alongside the other winners in New England’s proud history.

This millennium has been particularly kind to New England’s teams.

And not just because of Tom Brady at the Patriots.

Boston’s Big Four sports franchises have now delivered 14 titles this century.

And soon they’ll be needing to build another terminal at Logan.

To hang all their banners which includes the city’s other successes!

Now having been hosted like a Tom Brady or Larry Bird by the good people of Boston in the grand old city.

Back with my Boston buddies

It will be my pleasure to reciprocate this week in my adopted city of Edinburgh.

Where we will celebrate the Celtics’ success and hear what else is going down in New England.

As New Englanders, of course, the sports of the Olde Worlde have a foothold on the north-west coast.

And so the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough will be front and centre in two years’ time for the football World Cup.

With five group matches, a round of 32 match and a quarter-final booked for Boston.

Babe’s base and Tom’s temple

Now if you like your city break doused with history, culture, culinary.

And the best sports teams then Boston is waiting for you.

And following my travel mantra of going where people play and pray then see for yourself their sporting cathedrals.

The TD Garden for the Celtics and the Boston Bruins ice hockey team.

And Fenway Park, where they’ve been coming to watch the best baseball.

From Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Jim Rice through Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs to David Ortiz and beyond.

And Tom Brady’s temple at Foxburgh.

Frequent flier from Dublin

Around for tea: The Boston Tea Party Museum

Now whatever your sporting special is you’ll find it in New England where the action never stops.

And the stadium tours like the Sam Adams tour is always in tap.

As ever with all things transatlantic the best route is through Dublin Airport with pre-clearance and Aer Lingus.

So, if you’re in Beantown lap up the celebrations and the Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics.

And if not find yourself some New Englanders to break bread with and plan your next trip out to Boston Sports City.

America, Countries, Sport

Thanksgiving in New England

24th November 202224th November 2022 funtime65

Back in 1620 there was only Thanksgiving in New England and while all America doesn’t always appreciate New England, we do.

For those who follow such ball games a meme about the New England Patriots American Football team will be familiar.

When a recalibrated map went viral of America greened up and only a sliver around NE backing the Patriots.

Which for us with an Irish heritage and Irish-American cousins would always welcome.

Only this was a darker shade of green in support of the Eagles of Philadelphia, also a great sporting region.

Whether the original Pilgrims of Plymouth and the native Americans threw an oval ball we’ll never know.

And it was more likely the natives would have taught them their game, lacrosse.

Lacrosse the Atlantic

Still popular in the best colleges, of which NE boasts more than its fair share and further afield.

For those of us from other shores but with American connections the choice of a team, or teams, can be arbitrary.

You might adopt the team of your relatives and friends or latch onto those whose colours, name or top player appeals.

Or it could be that most unappetising of motives for following a team… glory hunting.

An accusation that could be levelled at me for adopting the New England Patriots, et al when I spent a summer in Massachusetts in 1987.

And the Boston teams, the baseball Red Sox, the basketball Celtics and the ice hockey Bruins.

Only my first brush with New England sport came decades before Brady.

New England sports

Back in the 80s when the Red Sox were still blighted by the Curse of the Bambino.

Which followed the sale of George ‘Babe’ Ruth to the New York Yankees.

And heralded in a period of success for New York and an 86-year drought for the Red Sox.

Until it was lifted in 2004 and corresponded with six Super Bowls around this time.

The Celtics had been the standard-bearers until then with 17 titles, matched later by, whisper it, the LA Lakers.

But what’s all the fuss, Boston did it first.

The Bruins too add to the roll call of national titles with six Stanley Cups.

And hope springs eternal for those masses of fans who march on game days to the TD Garden, this Bruinophile among them.

Banner headline

New England’s obsession with sports is as much a feature of the region as are the pilgrims.

With an exhibit of drapes, the Celebration of Championships greeting travellers to Logan Airport Terminal C.

And that includes the successes of Boston Cannons, exponents of the ancient Native American sport.

Which we are reminded may, or may not, have been the post-turkey and maize entertainment.

At that first Thanksgiving Day in New England.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING & MEET YOU ON THE ROAD