5 best NBA, NFL and MLB players to ever come from an HBCU
By Dante Pryor
These are five of the best NBA, NFL and MLB players HBCU sports programs have ever produced.
Historically black colleges and universities have been a bedrock of athletics for young black men and women for over 100 years; when professional sports began to assimilate black athletes into the professional ranks, many historically white universities were segregated.
Professional leagues sent scouts to HBCUs to find the best black athletes in the country. Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association have benefitted from HBCU athletics through the years.
HBCUs have produced players like second baseman Rickie Weeks who played 18 major league seasons. Weeks played baseball at Southern University. Morgan State product Joe Black was the first black pitcher to win a World Series game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Junious “Buck” Buchanan was the first black player drafted first overall in professional football when the Kansas City Chiefs selected him in the 1963 AFL Draft. Former Grambling State quarterback Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to start and win a football game.
Tennessee State basketball star Anthony Mason played 13 seasons in the NBA. Mason’s teammate with the Knicks, Charles Oakley, played his college ball at Virginia Union, the same school as Ben Wallace (who is on this list).
Those are some of the many great black athletes who played professionally in America’s three most popular sports. Here are five of the best MLB, NFL and NBA players from HBCUs.
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