Charles ‘Tarzan’ Cooper
“Here is one of the marvels of the athletic world. Cooper, now around 33, has been on top in the basketball world as the game’s greatest center since the mid-twenties when he broke in with the Rens after a celebrated debut around Philadelphia.”
— Art Carter, Baltimore Afro-American, 1942
Charles ‘Tarzan’ Cooper.
Teams: Philadelphia Panthers, New York Renaissance, Washington Bears
Home: Philadelphia
Born: 1907
Died: 1980
Charles “Tarzan” Cooper was considered perhaps the greatest center of his time. He played from the mid-1920s through the mid-1940s.
Cooper, a Philadelphia native, starred in the Christian Street YMCA’s Senior Interscholastic League before joining the all-black Philadelphia Panthers semi-pro team in 1926.
His size (6′-5″, 215 lbs.) and tenacious rebounding produced the nickname “Long Boy” and then “Tarzan.”
Cooper joined the New York Rens in 1929, leading them to an 88-game winning streak in 1933 and a World’s Championship title in 1939.
In 1941, Cooper left the Rens to sign a better-paying contract with the all-black Washington Bears and led them to a World’s Championship in 1943.
He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977, as the first African American player to be inducted as an individual.
