1936 Joe Fortenbery USA Basketball 1936 Pet Cremer Olympia #76 (PSA 1)

One of the earliest known basketball cards!

  • Lot number 4409688
  • Total views 51
  • Lot ended2021-01-20 20:00:00
  • Total bids 24
  • Winning bid $47.25
  • Buyer's premium $8.03
  • Total $55.28
  • DAILY NO RESERVE

Card has been graded (PSA) 1. Please see scans for details regarding the condition of the card.

Joe Fortenberry (April 1, 1911 – June 3, 1993) was an American basketball player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was a captain of the American basketball team, which won the gold medal in the first Olympics to include basketball.

He played two games at the Olympics, including the final. He was the high scorer in the gold medal game, scoring 8 points in a 19–8 victory,[2] and averaged a tournament-leading 14.5 points per game. The game was held in appalling conditions, outdoors on a muddy clay court, that made dribbling almost impossible, in steady rain and with winds that "blew the ball around wildly".[2]

After he played in the Olympics, Fortenberry played five seasons with the Phillips 66ers, the perennial power in the AAU basketball league, the premier basketball league in the United States before the NBA. He played from the 1936–1937 season through the 1940–1941 season, winning an AAU national championship in 1940.

He is credited with being one of the first to slam dunk the basketball; this appeared in a New York Times article by Pulitzer Prize winning sports reporter, Arthur Daley, in 1936.

Due to the uniqueness of each item, please refer to the photos provided in this auction. We offer high resolution images of each item rather than a written description of condition.

This item is being shipped from the Pristine Auction warehouse.