Pop Gates - HOF BB Players

Pop Gates
(1917-1999)

Hall of Fame Induction: 1989

Card Shown:
1992-93 Hall of Fame Postcard
by Ron Lewis

Position: F/G
Height: 6’3″

William “Pop” Gates was one of the top basketball players in the late 1930s and 1940s. He starred for the New York Renaissance (Rens) and also won a title with the Washington Bears. Pop played for a number of teams during his professional basketball career, finishing in the 1950s as a player-coach for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Gates played in over 1,500 games during his professional career and averaged 14 points a game in an era where 14 points was much more significant than it seems today. He was a tremendous all-around player. Pop had speed, played excellent defense, and was a top scorer on his teams. He could also handle the ball and was a strong rebounder.

Awards and Honors

Gates led Benjamin Franklin High School in New York City to the city championship in 1938.
Pop went straight from high school to playing professionally for the New York Renaissance during the 1938-39 season. That year the Rens won the first ever World Championship of Professional Basketball.
The following year, in 1940, Gates was to the World Championship of Professional Basketball’s All-Tournament Team.
Pop joined the Washington Bears for the 1941-42 season. Playing alongside future Hall of Famers Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, John Isaacs, and Zack Clayton, the Bears won the World Championship of Professional Basketball in 1943. Gates was selected as a member of the All-Tournament First Team.
Gates was named a World Tournament All-Pro eight times.

Points of Interest

Pop is the only player that played in all ten of the World Championship of Basketball Tournaments that took place from 1939-1948.
In 1946, Gates was one of only four black players to play in the National Basketball League (NBL). He was one of the pioneers in helping to integrate the game of professional basketball. Gates played in the NBL before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball.
Pop entered the NBL with the Buffalo Bisons. The name of the team was later changed to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The team was later to become the Milwaukee Hawks, then the St. Louis Hawks, and finally the Atlanta Hawks team that still exists today.
Bobby McDermott and Pop Gates were contemporaries who were overlooked for a long period of time before finally being recognized as Hall of Famers. Gates, in a New York Times article [1], said that the two players were rated one and two when they played. Pop waited 34 years before he was selected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. McDermott had been inducted the year before.
Pop got his nickname because he played stickball with older players. That caused his peers to think that he was older than he really was.
At the end of his basketball career, Gates was a player-coach for the Harlem Globetrotters. On the Globetrotters, Pop played with basketball greats Goose Tatum, Marques Haynes, and Sweetwater Clifton.