Joe Fulks
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Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks (October 26 1921 - March 21 1976) was a United States basketball player, sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was born in Birmingham, Kentucky, a small town in the state's far-western Purchase region that was inundated in the 1940s after the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake.
During the brief days of the BAA (Basketball Association of America) from 1946 to 1950, he was considered the association's greatest offensive player, and he led the league in scoring. Fulks averaged 24 points per game at a time when, before the 24-second clock, games rarely scored over 70 points. The 6'5" (1.96 m) Fulks was known both for his athletic drives to the basket as well as his shooting. He was perhaps most remembered as one of the pioneers of the modern jump shot.
Fulks joined the BAA's Philadelphia Warriors in his 20s, and the team won the BAA title in 1947. He played college ball at Murray State University and was one of the first enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.