- published: 07 Oct 2009
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William John "Billy" Cunningham (born June 3, 1943) is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid. He spent a total of 17 seasons with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers (nine as player, eight as coach), and two seasons as a player with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA.
Billy Cunningham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His fame began while he was playing at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where he was the MVP in the Brooklyn League in 1961. That year, he was the First-Team All-New York City, and a member of the Parade Magazine All-America Team.
Cunningham then went to the University of North Carolina, where he excelled. He once grabbed a record 27 rebounds in a game vs. Clemson on February 16, 1963. Cunningham also set a single-game North Carolina record with 48 points against Tulane on December 10, 1964. In his UNC career, he scored 1,709 points (24.8 points per game), and grabbed 1,062 rebounds (15.4 rebounds per game). Upon graduation, his 1,062 rebounds were the best in North Carolina history and he held seasonal records for most rebounds (379 in 1964) and rebound average (16.1 in 1963).
Actors: John Badham (producer), Eriq La Salle (director), Clarence Williams III (actor), Eriq La Salle (actor), Loretta Devine (actress), Forest Whitaker (actor), Glynn Turman (actor), Michael Beach (actor), Don Cheadle (actor), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (actor), Harvey Atkin (actor), Ronny Cox (actor), James Earl Jones (actor), Charles Taylor (miscellaneous crew), Wayne Fitzgerald (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.
Keywords: 1960s, 1970s, african-american, basketball, basketball-movie, black-american, character-name-in-title, college, drug-abuse, drug-lord