Sonny Boswell
(1919-1964)
Hall of Fame Induction: 2022
Card Shown: (Photo from
Pro Basketball Encyclopedia)
Position: G
Height: 6’1″
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Wyatt “Sonny” Boswell was one of the early Harlem Globetrotters. He played on a number of barnstorming teams, traveling the country to entertain basketball fans. Boswell was known as a talented outside shooter. He won a championship with the Trotters in the World Professional Basketball Tournament and helped integrate professional basketball.
Awards and Honors
- At the age of eighteen, Boswell began to play professional basketball with the Jesse Owens’ Olympians team in 1937. He would go on to play for the Anderson Chiefs, Chicago Monarchs, Dayton Mets, and the world famous Harlem Globetrotters among others.
- Perhaps a distant precursor to Stephen Curry, Sonny was known as one of the great long distance shooters of his era.
- In 1940, Boswell was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Professional Basketball Tournament as he led the Harlem Globetrotters to the title over the Chicago Bruins. Sonny scored eleven points as the Trotters won 31-29.
- Sonny made seven consecutive appearances in the World Professional Basketball Tournament.
- In 1943, Boswell was named to the All-NBL Second Team. Also on the Second Team that year was Buddy Jeannette, while Bobby McDermott received All-NBL First Team honors.
Points of Interest
- Boswell was born in Greenville, Mississippi, but grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He and basketball teams barnstormed the country, before he eventually settled in Chicago.
- Sonny probably never could have imagined that the Globetrotter team that he was a part of would continue to exist for nearly 100 years and would entertain over 140 million fans and counting.
- Boswell joined the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1942 to play with the Chicago Studebaker Flyers. Sonny joined other former Globetrotters who helped integrate a previously all-white league when some of its players were drafted to serve in World War II.
- During the 1942-43 season, Sonny led the Studebaker Flyers in scoring with an average of 10.4 points per game over 22 contests. Chicago lost in the NBL semifinals (2-1) to a Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons team that was led by Bobby McDermott.
- After retiring from professional basketball, Boswell became a successful businessman in Chicago. He managed the Pershing Hotel and later owned a bowling alley called Sonny Boswell’s South Park Bowl.
Statistics
Sonny Boswell Statistics
provided by Basketball-Reference.com
Sonny Boswell Videos
(Globetrotters Biography)