His name is a tribute to Donald Angelo Barksdale, the first African-American player of the ABA/NBA team Baltimore Bullets.
The rest of the Olympic team, consisting of AAU Champion Phillips 66ers and Kentucky team members, later scrimmaged on Stoll Field, then the home of the Kentucky football team, in front of 14,000 spectators, the largest crowd to watch basketball in Kentucky at that time.
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He joined the team in Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and became the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball.
Don Quixote | Don Giovanni | Don Cherry | Don | Don (honorific) | Don Cheadle | Rostov-on-Don | Don Williams | Don Juan | Don Knotts | Don Imus | Don Carlos | Don Rickles | Don Omar | Don Henley | Salesians of Don Bosco | Don Johnson | Don Drysdale | Don Pasquale | Don Messick | Don Bluth | Don King (boxing promoter) | Don King | Don Shula | Don LaFontaine | Don Cherry (jazz) | Don Burrows | Don't Look Now | Don Siegel | Don McLean |
Grove Park and San Pablo Park have been the training grounds for many well-known athletes, including Don Barksdale, Claudell Washington, Phil Chenier, Shooty Babitt and Jason Kidd.