Wataru “Wat” Misaka, the first person of Japanese descent to play in the NBA, died at the age of 95 on Wednesday, the University of Utah announced in a news release Thursday.
Misaka led the school to titles in 1944 and 1947 before being drafted into the Basketball Association of America in 1947, where he became the first non-white player in BAA history.
"We are saddened to learn of the passing of Wat Misaka," Utah Director of Athletics Mark Harlan said in a statement." He was a part of the Utah teams that won national championships in the 1940s, but Wat was bigger than the game of basketball, blazing trails into places nobody of his descent had gone before.