| Zack Clayton | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 17 April 1913 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Gloucester County, Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Death Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality: | American | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| High School: | Simon Gratz (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hof Player: | zachary-clayton | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Zachary M. Clayton (April 17, 1913 – November 20, 1997) was a basketball player for the New York Rens.[1] He was also a Negro league baseball player and a professional boxing referee. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.[2]
As a boy, Clayton's family moved from Virginia to Philadelphia. Clayton played at the Christian Street YMCA along with Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, Jackie Bethards and Bill Yancey. There they began four fruitful careers on a squad called the Tribune Men.[3] Clayton also played for the Harlem Globetrotters.[4] Clayton would win world championships with both teams.[4] Clayton is enshrined in the Philadelphia basketball Hall of Fame.[5] Clayton later became a boxing referee. His most famous bout was the 1974 Ali-Foreman "Rumble In The Jungle". Clayton also refereed Muhammad Ali's last fight, against Trevor Berbick in 1981.[6] Clayton was a lieutenant in the Philadelphia Fire Department for 26 years. He retired in 1979.
and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats and Seamheads