Nationality American Number 7, 17 Height 2.16 m Listed height 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) Name Elmore Morgenthaler Weight 104 kg | Listed weight 230 lb (104 kg) Role Basketball Player Position Center Pro career 1947–1953 Died November 25, 1997 | |
Born August 3, 1922
Amarillo, Texas ( 1922-08-03 ) College New Mexico Tech (1946)
Boston College (1946–1947) Education New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | ||
Elmore Robert Morgenthaler (August 3, 1922 – November 25, 1997) was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Providence Steamrollers and the Philadelphia Warriors in the Basketball Association of America, among other franchises and leagues. At 7'1", Morgenthaler is officially recognized as the National Basketball Association's first seven-foot player.
Morgenthaler attended the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for just the second semester of the 1945–46 season and was near the top of the nation in scoring. He then transferred to Boston College and played most of the 1946–47 season before quitting college basketball at the end of February 1947 to play professionally. The Providence Steamrollers, for whom he played in the second half of the 1946–47 season, was a member of the Basketball Association of America (which later became the NBA, thus its history was adopted by the NBA). He was waived by the Steamrollers on September 27, 1947, and did not return to the BAA until he signed with the Philadelphia Warriors on November 18, 1948.
In 1996, aged 74, Morgenthaler was living by himself in a rundown apartment building in Marlin, Texas. His right arm and a part of his left leg were paralyzed from a stroke he suffered in 1984. Like other former professional basketball players in the 1940s and 1950s, Morgenthaler did not receive a pension from the NBA and lived his final years in poverty. He died on November 25, 1997.