Cumberland Posey
Cumberland “Cum†Posey, Jr. enrolled at Penn State in 1909 as the school’s first colored student athlete. He played on the freshman basketball team (1909-1910), the varsity basketball team (1910-1911), and the freshman baseball team (1910).
He left Penn State after just two years and joined the Monticello Athletic Association, which later became the Loendi Big Five. By the following year, Posey was the star player and operator (which included managing, booking, and promoting) of the club. Loendi won the Colored Basketball World Championship four years in a row from 1920-1923.
Posey went on to become one of the great entrepreneurs of professional sports. He played for and then owned the Pittsburgh-based Homestead Grays, one of the most successful franchises in Negro Baseball League history. He owned the Negro Baseball powerhouse until his death on March 28, 1946.
Posey was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
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