Integrating Pittsburgh Sports

David Finoli

Jan. 2023 · Arcadia Publishing

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Steel City Sports as a Catalyst for Change Though Pittsburgh athletics had many of the same barriers to equality and racial discrimination as the rest of the nation for far too long, the city has celebrated some of the most important moments in the integration of sports in the country. Pittsburgh was the only city with two Negro League teams, fielding such future Hall of Famers as Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and Satchel Paige. Local high school basketball stars Chuck Cooper, Bill Nunn, Jr., Dick Ricketts, Maurice Stokes, and Jack Twyman held integrated pick-up games at local parks such as Mellon Park in Shadyside in the 1950s. In college football, Connellsville native Jimmy Joe Robinson became the first African American player on Pitt's football team in 1945 as the school continued to integrate its squad ahead of federal desegregation. The Association of Gentleman Pittsburgh Journalists present the compelling, heartbreaking and courageous history of how Pittsburgh's integration of sport helped lead the nation.

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The Association of Gentleman Pittsburgh Journalists represent some of the most preeminent authors and sports historians of Western Pennsylvania, including David Finoli, Tom Rooney, Chris Fletcher, Robert Healy III, Josh Taylor, Gary Kinn, Richard Boyer and Douglas Cavanaugh. Samuel W. Black is the director of the African American Program at the Senator John Heinz History Center. He is a former president of the Association of African American Museums (2011-16) and served on the Executive Council and the Advisory Council of the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASALH 2003-6), as well as the program committee of the American Alliance of Museums (2010-11).