Chuck Cooper Jr. spent his life as a trailblazer, even he was drafted by the Celtics out of Duquesne in 1950 and became the first African-American in the history of the NBA.
Cooper, honored by the Celtics and his son, Chuck Cooper III, as part of the team’s Heroes Among Us series during yesterday’s game against Sacramento, continued to make history when he went home to Pittsburgh.
“There were death threats,” Cooper III said of when his father became Pittsburgh’s Director of Parks and Recreation, thus becoming that city’s first African-American department chief.
Cooper III, who now heads his late father’s foundation, said that his dad’s time with the Celtics prepared him for all of his future challenges.