Tommy Woods (basketball)

James Thomas Woods, Jr. (born June 10, 1943) is a retired American professional basketball player.[1] He played for the Kentucky Colonels during the 1967–68 ABA season after a collegiate career at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).[1] He also played internationally for a time after his one season in the ABA.[2]

Woods was a racial integration pioneer in college.[2] When he enrolled at ETSU as a freshman in 1963–64 to play basketball, he became the first African-American player in school history.[3] In a segregated southern United States, Woods was harshly booed early in his college career.[3] His final three seasons from 1964 to 1967, in which he was eligible to play for the varsity team, saw Woods have an ETSU Hall of Fame career.[4] He was a two-time All-Ohio Valley Conference Team selection and set still-unbroken school records for rebounds in a game (38), career (1,034) and career per-game average (16.2).[3] By the end of his career, the same fans who had been booing him as a freshman were giving him "loudest and longest" standing ovation on senior night that a local reporter had ever seen.[3]

After college, Woods played in the American Basketball Association for the Kentucky Colonels for one season.[1] After a brief stint playing internationally, he retired due to an injury.[3] Woods then served as a police officer in Louisville, Kentucky for the next 30-plus years.[3] In 1996, ETSU inducted him into their hall of fame.[4] On November 3, 2012, in a ceremony prior to the school's 2012–13 season, the men's basketball locker room was named in his honor.[3]