Professional Basketball player. Joseph Franklin Fulks was to basketball what Babe Ruth was to baseball and has been referred to by many as the "father of the modern game." Jumping, spinning and scoring from everywhere on the court, the lanky western Kentucky lad helped pave the way for professional basketball to become the sport it is today. Fulks alone was credited with introducing the modern-day jump shot that revolutionized professional basketball - thus earning him the nickname "jumping Joe" Fulks. On February 10, 1949 he recorded one of the greatest individual performances in the history of the game, scoring 63 points with the Philadelphia Warriors. That record endured for ten years. In World War II, as a Marine sergeant, he saw action in Iwo Jima and Guam.
Professional Basketball player. Joseph Franklin Fulks was to basketball what Babe Ruth was to baseball and has been referred to by many as the "father of the modern game." Jumping, spinning and scoring from everywhere on the court, the lanky western Kentucky lad helped pave the way for professional basketball to become the sport it is today. Fulks alone was credited with introducing the modern-day jump shot that revolutionized professional basketball - thus earning him the nickname "jumping Joe" Fulks. On February 10, 1949 he recorded one of the greatest individual performances in the history of the game, scoring 63 points with the Philadelphia Warriors. That record endured for ten years. In World War II, as a Marine sergeant, he saw action in Iwo Jima and Guam.
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