DAVAGE “DAVE” MINOR

Davage “Dave” Minor was a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He  was a 1941 graduate of Gary Froebel High School where he gained notice as the first player in Northwest Indiana to develop a  jump shot. As a senior captain, his shot was so unstoppable  that he used it to take the Froebel Blue Devils all the way to their first and only state finals appearance, earning himself all-state honors. The Gary, Indiana sportswriters called him "The Wheelhorse of Steel City." At the University of Toledo, he averaged sixteen points per game and gained 2nd team All-American recognition before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.  Following the war, he enrolled at UCLA, where in 1947 and 1948, he received 1st team PCC All-Conference honors. He was a member of the 1949 Oakland Bittners AAU National Champions, a participant in the Pan-American Games in Buenos Aires, and he played briefly with the Harlem Globetrotters.  He made further history in 1951 when he joined the Baltimore Bullets, becoming the first African-American to play for an NBA team south of the Mason-Dixon line, the first African-American from Indiana to play in the NBA, and he was one of the first five African-Americans ever to play in the NBA. In two seasons with Baltimore and the Milwaukee Hawks, he totaled 877 points and 527 rebounds in 116 games. In December of 2019, he was inducted into the 2020 Class of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.