Charlie Black may have been one of the greatest basketball players to have played in Topeka, but he didn't do it long enough before leaving town to make the eligibility requirements for the Capital-Journal's Top 100 list.
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Following are 10 accomplished athletes with ties to Topeka who were deemed ineligible for Shawnee County’s Top 100 because they weren’t “raised” as Topekans.
Charlie Black: “The Hawk” was a four-time All-American for KU’s basketball team (1941-43, 1945-47) and played five seasons professionally. He attended Highland Park High School but graduated from a school in Kansas City, Mo.
Davey Lopes: The Los Angeles Dodgers great was selected for four All-Star games, won a Gold Glove and finished his 16 seasons in the majors with 1,671 hits and 557 stolen bases. The All-American hit .380 for the Washburn Ichabods in 1967. Lopes also earned All-America honors for the Ichabods basketball team but isn’t from Topeka.
Marilynn Smith: The LPGA Hall of Famer won 23 professional golf tournaments, including two majors. Smith was born in Topeka in 1929 but grew up in Wichita.
Jerry Robertson: The standout pitcher played two seasons in the major leagues (1969-70) for the Montreal Expos and the Detroit Tigers. Robertson was a star at Washburn for four seasons and has a field at Lake Shawnee named in his honor. However, he was born in Winchester and attended high school there.
Albert Guardado Jr.: The Washburn graduate competed in the quarterfinals of the 1996 Olympics in the 106-pound light flyweight division. Guardado didn’t grow up in Topeka.
Tony Chiaverini: The Washburn University Hall of Famer as a football player was a boxing contender in the middleweight division in the 1970s. Growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he finished his boxing career with a 39-9-2 record.
Jimmy Dykes: The basketball sportscaster and former player for the Arkansas Razorbacks attended Shawnee Heights High School as a freshman. However, he moved to Arkansas for the rest of his high school career.
Jennifer Harris: The Washburn basketball star led the Ichabods to an NCAA Division II national championship in 2005. She was drafted into the WNBA and later played overseas. However, Harris grew up in New Jersey.
Ross Grimsley Jr.: The left-handed pitcher, who was an All-Star in 1978, pitched 11 seasons in the majors for the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians. He was born in Topeka in 1950 but attended high school in Memphis, Tenn. Grimsley’s father was born in Americus, Kan., and played minor league baseball in Topeka in the late 1940s.
Anna Seaton: The competitive rower participated in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea and the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. At Barcelona, Seaton partnered with Stephanie Maxwell-Pierson to capture the bronze medal in women’s coxless pairs competition. The duo finished in 7:08.11, just behind the winning team from Canada at 7:06.22. Seaton was born in Topeka in 1964, but she grew up in Manhattan.
By Mark Schremmer Copyright 2011 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
There’s no doubt Charlie Black was one of the greatest athletes to ever live in Topeka.
Four seasons as an All-American for the Kansas Jayhawks and five seasons in professional basketball can surely attest to that.
However, just like Davey Lopes, Jerry Robertson, Marilynn Smith, Ross Grimsley Jr., and many others, Black is a great athlete with ties to Topeka who won’t be found on The Capital-Journal’s list of Shawnee County’s Top 100.
Through research from census records and city directories, it was determined Black lived in Topeka at the same address from at least 1930-38 and attended Highland Park High School his freshman and sophomore years. But Black is believed to have transferred after his sophomore year at Highland Park and graduated in 1940 from Southwest High School in Kansas City, Mo.
Thus, Black was deemed ineligible for The Capital-Journal’s list of greatest athletes.
Even so, Black’s talent and his place in Topeka history can’t be denied.
“Charlie was exceptional,” said Jerry Waugh, who lettered at KU from 1948-51 and practiced with the Jayhawks during Black’s senior season in 1947. “He didn’t have great quickness as I recall, but he was a good jumper and had an exceptionally long reach. Like most good rebounders, he had a sense of where the ball was going to come off the board. He would get in the right position and keep the ball in play.”
Nicknamed “The Hawk,” the 6-5 Black was known for his defense and ability around the basket. He was a four-time All-Big Six player, and the only four-time All-American in KU basketball history. He was the first Jayhawk to score 1,000 points in his career.
What makes Black’s story even more exceptional is that after earning All-America honors in 1942 and 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and flew 51 missions as a reconnaissance pilot during World War II. Black was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, then returned to KU in 1945 and earned first-team All-America honors his junior and senior seasons.
“No. 1, he was a great athlete,” Waugh said. “That doesn’t go away, but it was remarkable he could come back and sustain himself after the war. And it’s remarkable that he had the desire to do so.”
After college, Black played in the National Basketball League in 1948-49 before spending four seasons in the NBA with the Fort Wayne Pistons, Indianapolis Jets and Milwaukee Hawks. Black averaged 8.7 points for his NBA career.
KU’s locker room is named in his honor and his No. 10 jersey was retired at Allen Fieldhouse. He was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Black died in December 1992 at the age of 71.
Comment in other article.
Just got to say good stuff here by the CJ staff. Incredible undertaking, and looking forward to the top 100. Sure, some will be offended, but not by exhaustive research from the CJ staff. Job well done.
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