Chuck Harmon

American baseball player (1924–2019)

Charles Byron Harmon (April 23, 1924 – March 19, 2019) was an American professional baseball utility player in Major League Baseball (MLB), who played for the Cincinnati Redlegs (1954–1956), St. Louis Cardinals (1956–1957), and Philadelphia Phillies (1957). He batted and threw right handed.

The tenth of twelve children, Chuck Harmon was schooled as an athlete at Dunbar Elementary by legendary Franklin Wonder Five basketball player Burl Friddle, Harmon played for the Washington High School Hatchets, who won two consecutive Indiana state basketball championships in 1941 and 1942. His brother Bill also played for the 1941 team. Harmon served in the Navy during World War II spending all 3 years stateside at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, playing baseball.

Harmon and longtime teammate and friend Art Grove then reunited with Friddle to play for the University of Toledo, where they helped an all freshman squad (that included Gary, Indiana's Davage Minor) advance to the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), losing to St. John's. Grove and Minor went on to play professional basketball. After a three year stint in the U. S. Navy, Harmon was also a baseball star for the Rockets. During the summer of 1947, Harmon briefly played professional baseball with the Negro league Indianapolis Clowns, using the alias "Charlie Fine" to preserve his collegiate eligibility.

For its 1950–51 season, the National Basketball Association (NBA) was integrated. Harmon tried out for the Boston Celtics but was cut along with Isaac "Rabbit" Walthour, another black star, although Chuck Cooper did make the Celtics squad. Harmon finished that season as player coach of Utica in the American Basketball League, becoming one of, if not the first, African American to coach an integrated professional basketball team.