Bill Garrett
From Hoopedia
William Leon Garrett (b. April 4, 1929 - d. August 7, 1974) was the first African American basketball star player in the Big Ten athletic conference.
Born in Shelbyville, Indiana, he was Indiana Mr. Basketball in 1947, the year he graduated from Shelbyville High School. At Indiana University, he became the first African American to play on the school's varsity men's basketball team and also the first African American to star on any basketball team in the Big Ten. He was All-American when he graduated in 1951. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the 1951 NBA draft.
Shortly thereafter, Garrett was called into military duty. After two years in the U.S. Army, Garrett returned home to find that he had been cut from the Celtics. He then began playing with the Harlem Globetrotters. Following a three year stint with the Globetrotters, he began teaching and coaching basketball at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis. He coached Attucks for 10 years and led the Tigers to the 1959 Indiana State High School championship.
He was assistant dean for student services at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis at the time of his death from a heart attack, aged 45. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
An insightful biography of Garrett was published in 2006. Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball by Tom Graham and Rachel Graham Cody traces the ups and downs of this Hoosier legend's life.
Garrett was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1974.
