Glasgow Native Charles Hunter Excelled on the Court and in the Boardroom
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When Charles Hunter graduated from Glasgow’s Ralph Bunche High School in 1962, the Division 1 basketball scholarship offers had been rolling in.
“I had several offers including Cincinnati, Kansas, Bradley University. The University of Louisville was one of the top offers I received, and I was the first African-American to be recruited to play basketball at U of L,” Hunter recalls. Yet it was Oklahoma City University that nabbed Ralph Bunche’s all-time leading scorer.
It was a decision he never regretted. Hunter scored 1,319 points and pulled down 584 rebounds during his college basketball career, and the team went to the NCAA Tournament all four years that he played. Hunter was recruited by the Boston Celtics, but an ankle injury suffered during his last college semester eventually ended his professional career.
Armed with his bachelor’s degree in education, Hunter took a job as a teacher and basketball coach at the Atterbury Job Corps Center in Edinburgh, Ind. Hunter’s rich career has included about 18 years in education and another 18 in industrial human resources.
Breaking down segregation barriers has been another pursuit. Hunter was one of the first black players on the Oklahoma City squad, and he remembers “some heckling and name calling” when the team played schools that weren’t integrated. Yet one of his top college memories is when his team faced Texas Western, which started five black players, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 1966. “We were the two top independents in the nation that year,” Hunter says. Oklahoma City lost the game, and Texas Western went on to win the national championship, beating an all-white University of Kentucky team 72-65. Texas Western’s exploits are featured in the 2006 Disney motion picture Glory Road.
Considering Charles Hunter’s athletic, academic and professional successes, you could say he has enjoyed a glory road of his own.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
