Ken Hudson

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Kenneth Samuel "Ken" Hudson (* 24. September 1939 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ; † 9. May 2012 in Atlanta , Georgia at the age of 72 years and 228 days) was an American basketball - referee , sports official , Sales Manager and Director of Public Relations for the Coca-Cola Company .

biography

Hudson was born to John and Jane Hudson and grew up in a white, middle-class neighborhood. He attended Westinghouse High School, of which he was accepted as a member of the Hall of Fame. He was a baseball - sports scholarship of Central State University granted in Wilberforce, Ohio, a historically black college . There he was responsible for looking after the basketball team, as a result of which he was trained as a referee. After college, he worked for Gulf Oil in Boston. He was previously known and befriended the Boston Celtics players Sam Jones and Bill Russell . Since Hudson was volunteering as a basketball referee at the Boys & Girls Club , a nationwide afternoon care facility for children and teenagers, Russel introduced him to Red Auerbach , who let him whistle for training games for the Boston Celtics. The NBA soon used him in the New York Knicks' summer camps, and in 1968 Hudson not only moved to the Coca-Cola Company as sales director, to which he would remain loyal for 22 years, but was also the first African-American referee on television that same year broadcast NBA game. He remained a referee for four years until Coca-Cola asked him to choose one of the two careers. In 1988 Coca-Cola transferred him to Atlanta, but he returned to Boston in 1990 and, with the blessing of the owner, became Vice President, but resigned after just a year. From 2002 onwards, he assessed and evaluated the performance of the NBA referees on behalf of the NBA. Ken Hudson died of prostate cancer in the hospice in 2012.

Hudson was the author of A Tree Stump in the Valley of Redwoods , his biography that doubles as a motivational guide. He founded the Amateur Athletic Union's Boston Shootout High School tournament in 1972 and initiated numerous other youth programs. Ken Hudson was honored with the 2009 Mannie Jackson Basketball's Human Spirit Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his commitment .

literature

  • Ken Hudson: A Tree Stump in the Valley of Redwoods. 2006: Publishing Associates, Inc. ISBN 978-0-942683-40-0 (in English).
  • Better than the Best. Black Athletes Speak, 1920-2007 , edited by John C. Walter and Malina Iida. Seattle / London, 2010: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99053-8 (pages 98-113, in English).
  • Mike Lynch: Not Your Average Tree Stump On: Valley Hockey League website; Haverhill, MA, May 17, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2017 (in English).
personal data
SURNAME Hudson, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hudson, Kenneth Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American basketball referee and official
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 2012
Place of death Atlanta , Georgia , USA