Trailblazing Duquesne star Jim Tucker dies at 87

If not for the Jim Crow laws in Kentucky in the 1950s, Jim Tucker might have been the first black basketball player at Kentucky.

Instead, legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp recommended Tucker to his friend, Duquesne coach Chick Davies. And a year after Duquesne’s Chuck Cooper became the first African-American drafted by the NBA, Tucker began his own trailblazing career with the Dukes.

Tucker, who became a two-time All-American at Duquesne, died May 14 in Jacksonville, Fla., of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87.

[1/2] The Philadelphia 76ers organization sends its condolences to the family of Jim Tucker, a member of our 1955 Syracuse Nationals championship team, who passed away this week. Jim and Earl Lloyd were the first two African-American players ever to capture an @NBA title. pic.twitter.com/PAAtHAhrJC

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 16, 2020

Rupp had watched Tucker play in high school and spoke to him one night after a game.

“I knew who he was,” Tucker said in 2005 for the Dick Gabriel-produced documentary, “Adolph Rupp: Myth, Legend and Fact.”

“He said to me, ‘I’d like you to come to Kentucky, but you know our situation here. But what I’d like to do is contact some of my friends in the coaching community and see if they might have an interest in you because I think you have the ability to become an All-American and a good basketball player.”

And so he did.

Tucker averaged a double-double over three seasons at Duquesne (16 points, 13.4 rebounds) from 1952-54. With Tucker and Sid Dambrot, father of Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot, the Dukes finished in the Associated Press’ Top 10 in all three seasons (Nos. 4, 9 and 5, respectively).

Tucker was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals in 1954 and a year later joined Earl Lloyd as the first black players to win an NBA championship.

The Nationals, whose owner Danny Biasone established the league’s first 24-second shot clock, received their championship trophy in November, 1955. But that wasn’t the most memorable event of the day.

Tucker’s apartment building caught fire that afternoon, and he entered the burning building to retrieve a $5,000 paycheck. On the way out, he discovered a 20-month-old girl on the second floor, gathered her up in his arms and fled the building.

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Tucker said in an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard nearly 60 years later, “and that could happen to anybody.”

On Nov. 17, 1955, the Syracuse Nationals officially received the franchise's first NBA championship trophy.

Biggest news of that day, however, was Nats forward Jim Tucker rescuing a 20-month-old girl from an apartment fire.

? Syracuse Post-Standard pic.twitter.com/IhYKzCBbbz

— Sixers History (@SixersHistory) May 17, 2020

With the Nationals, who eventually moved to Philadelphia and became the 76ers, he averaged 4.1 points and 3.5 rebounds over three seasons.

But he set a record in 1955 that stood for 63 years, coming off the bench to record a triple-double in 17 minutes against the New York Knicks (12 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds) at the Onondaga War Memorial in Syracuse. It was the fastest triple-double in NBA history until the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic did it in 14 minutes, 33 seconds in 2018 against the Milwaukee Bucks.

The event is chronicled in the 2019 Emmy-winning documentary, “Let ’Em Know You’re There: The Story of Big Jim and the Triple Double.”

“To be honest, I didn’t know who Jim was before I did this,” Jokic said in the documentary. “After that, I know that his team brought the shot clock in, he made the fastest triple-double ever and then he’s one of the first African Americans who played in the league.

“So, he brought something to this game, too, you know, so that’s kind of cool to remember those kind of people.”