Elmore Morgenthaler


Elmore Robert Morgenthaler 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. 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. At the time of his death, he was residing at Bremond Nursing Home in Bremond, Texas. Morgenthaler died due to pneumonia at Falls Community Hospital in Marlin.

BAA career statistics

Regular season