Jerry Harkness

Jerald B. "Jerry" Harkness (born May 7, 1940) is an American former professional basketball player. He played for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Indiana Pacers of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Harkness attended Loyola University Chicago, where he was captain of the team that won the 1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. He is a civil rights activist.

Early life and career

Harkness was born in Harlem. Before playing in the professional leagues, the 6'3" Harkness was a star at DeWitt Clinton High School and Loyola University Chicago.^[1] At Loyola, he served as captain of the team that upset the University of Cincinnati in overtime to win the 1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Harkness and the other four Loyola starters played the entire game, without substitution.

From that same tournament, a 111-42 first-round victory over Tennessee Tech on March 11, 1963 by Harkness and the Ramblers remains the largest margin of victory (69 points) in an NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament game.

He then moved on to the professional leagues, after being drafted by the Drafted by the New York Knicks in the 2nd round (10th pick overall) of the 1963 NBA Draft. Harknes played one season (1963–64) with the NBA's New York Knicks. He then played two seasons (1967–1969) with the ABA's Indiana Pacers.^[2]

Though his professional career was relatively short, he left his mark in the record books on November 13, 1967, when he hit a 92-foot (28 m)-long game-winning buzzer beater to lead the Pacers past the Dallas Chaparrals. This is still the longest shot ever made in any American professional basketball game.^[3]

Life after basketball

Harkness became the first African-American salesman for Quaker Oats.^[4][5] In 1970, Harkness became the first African-American fundraiser in Indianapolis, working for the United Way of Greater Indianapolis. He was Indianapolis' first African-American sportscaster.^[6]

He has also devoted much of his time to civil rights issues. He worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the early 1970s,^[7] and he currently serves as executive director of the Indianapolis Chapter of 100 Black Men, a national organization dedicated to supporting and training young African American males.^[8]

Awards and honors

On July 11, 2013, in the Oval Office of the White House, Harkness and former Loyola teammates John Egan, Les Hunter and Ron Miller met with President Barack Obama to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school's 1963 national championship.^[9] To date it remains the only NCAA Division I basketball championship won by a university from the state of Illinois.^[10] In September 2013, Harkness and the entire 1963 Loyola Ramblers NCAA Championship basketball team was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.^[11] The 1963 Loyola Ramblers were inducted in the College Basketball Hall of Fame in November 2013,^[12][13]

In June 2013, Harkness was awarded the Muhammad Ali Athlete Award.^[14] He is a member of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame^[15] and the Loyola Athletics Hall of Fame.^[16]

References

Further reading

• Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 - The Team That Changed the Color of College Basketball by Michael Lenehan, published by Agate Publishing, Feb 18, 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jerry Harkness.

• Career stats at basketball-reference.com
• Game Of Change: Pivotal Matchup Helped End Segregated Hoops
• Dan Carpenter: Indy's Jerry Harkness lived basketball and history, in black and white