Holcombe Rucker
From Hoopedia
Holcombe Rucker (born March 2, 1926, died March 1965) dedicated his life to his community. Although he died young, his memory endures because of the major basketball tournament he founded. Rucker grew up in Manhattan, attended Benjamin Franklin High School, and between 1948 and 1964 worked for Parks as a playground director in numerous Harlem locales. He died of cancer in 1965 at the age of 38.
In 1947, the year that Rucker married Mary Thomas, he started a basketball tournament in Harlem. The Rucker League’s motto was “each one, teach one,” and it stressed education in combination with recreation. Rucker personally taught participants reading fundamentals, graded their homework, and let success on report cards influence who would play. Throughout the course of the tournaments, Rucker helped to obtain over 700 college athletic scholarships for the participants.
Rucker attended college while working full-time. He completed his requirements in three years and graduated from the City College of New York in 1962 with a degree in Education. He then taught English at J.H.S. 139.
In the 1960s, Rucker transformed his local league into a basketball institution by organizing games where his best players shared the court with professionals such as Wilt Chamberlain. Although Rucker died at age 38 due to complications from cancer, the 1960s and 1970s represented a high point for the Pro Rucker League when greats such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came to play. By the early 1980s, professional athletes became reluctant to risk injury during non-season play, and the league returned to its amateur roots; Rucker’s original tournament, however, is still played today in Colonel Charles Young Playground.
A number of basketball tournaments for children, high school, college, and professional players now take place in Rucker Playground, including the Entertainer's Basketball Classic and the Each One Teach One tournament. Holcombe Rucker, the Rucker court and the top players it attracts have also been the subjects of several films, including The Real, Above The Rim and On Hallowed Ground. These films secure the park’s place in urban and basketball history.
In 1974, the New York City Council changed the name of P.S. 156 Playground to Holcombe Rucker Playground, but is known simply as "the Rucker."
The Pro Am Tournament is now the most famous streetball tournament in the world, played on the most famous streetball court in the world. Chris Rucker, Holcombe's grandson, continues the family tradition, running the Rucker League at Col. Young Park.
