Charles Paulk (June 14, 1946 – October 1, 2014) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player who spent four seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA).

High school career

Paulk played basketball for Lester High School in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

. Along with him, the 1964 team also featured Rich Jones and

Claude Humphrey Claude B. Humphrey (June 29, 1944 – December 3, 2021) was an American professional football player who played as a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles. Humphrey was inducted into ...

College career

Due to the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

not admitting African-American players at the time, he went to the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin ...

. After one year, he transferred to Northeastern State, an NAIA school at the time.

NBA career

Paulk was drafted by the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

in the first round of the 1968 NBA draft. That same year, he was drafted by the Army. In his first season, he played just 17 games, scoring three points per game and garnering 4.6 rebounds per game. He sat out the 1969-70 season due to military service, serving a tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1970, the Bucks traded him along with

Flynn Robinson Flynn James Robinson (April 28, 1941 – May 23, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. Early life Flynn was born April 28, 1941, from the union of Sam Hopkins and Dorothy Mae Robinson. Later Flynn's mother married Johnnie Hodg ...

to the

Cincinnati Royals The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

for

Oscar Robertson Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938), nicknamed "the Big O", is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Robertson played ...

. The following year, he was traded to the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on Januar ...

for

Matt Guokas Matthew George Guokas Jr. (; born February 25, 1944) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. His father, Matt Sr. and uncle, Al, have also played in the NBA. Guokas and his father, Matt Sr., were the first father-son ...

and a future draft pick. Later that year, he was again traded, this time to the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associa ...

for a second-round draft pick.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

, - , align="left" , 1968–69 , align="left" ,

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, 17 , , - , , 12.8 , , .226 , , - , , .565 , , 4.6 , , 0.2 , , - , , - , , 3.0 , - , align="left" , 1970–71 , align="left" ,

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

, 68 , , - , , 17.8 , , .430 , , - , , .603 , , 4.7 , , 0.4 , , - , , - , , 9.2 , - , align="left" , 1971–72 , align="left" ,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, 7 , , - , , 8.6 , , .286 , , - , , .778 , , 2.1 , , 0.6 , , - , , - , , 3.3 , - , align="left" , 1971–72 , align="left" ,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, 28 , , - , , 5.4 , , .267 , , - , , .667 , , 1.8 , , 0.3 , , - , , - , , 1.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 120 , , - , , 13.7 , , .392 , , - , , .611 , , 3.9 , , 0.3 , , - , , - , , 6.2

Playoffs

, - , align="left" , 1971–72 , align="left" ,

, 7 , , - , , 1.9 , , .300 , , - , , .000 , , 0.7 , , 0.0 , , - , , - , , 0.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 7 , , - , , 1.9 , , .300 , , - , , .000 , , 0.7 , , 0.0 , , - , , - , , 0.9

Personal life and death

After his career, he became a road promotions manager for bands in the New Orleans area. Paulk had six siblings, five sisters, and one brother. He had two children, Derrek Paulk and Zonna Whitlow. He married Jacqueline Newby in 1990. Together he and Jacqueline (also an educator) co-founded Lincoln High School Boys Basketball Foundation, dedicated to teaching kids life skills using basketball. The foundation now known as Ground-Up is run by Shaun Manning, Jacqueline's son and Charles' stepson. On October 1, 2014, Paulk died of a heart attack at 68.

References

1946 births 2014 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Chicago Bulls players Cincinnati Royals players Milwaukee Bucks draft picks Milwaukee Bucks players New York Knicks players Northeastern State RiverHawks men's basketball players People from Fitzgerald, Georgia Power forwards (basketball) Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball players 1967 FIBA World Championship players United States men's national basketball team players {{1940s-US-basketball-bio-stub