Chuck Taylor

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Charles Hollis "Chuck" Taylor (June 24, 1901 – June 23, 1969) was an American basketball player and basketball shoe salesman/product marketer who is best known for his association with the Chuck Taylor All-Stars, which he helped to improve and promote.

Early life and education

Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor was born in rural Brown County, Indiana, on June 24, 1901. Taylor, a graduate of Columbus High School in Columbus, Indiana, in 1919, played guard position on the school's basketball team. He became captain of the varsity team while a high school sophomore, and was also a two-time all-state team selection.

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Career

Taylor started his basketball career in 1919 and served as the player-manager for the Converse All-Stars basketball team in the mid-1920s, but later in life, he became known as a salesman and promoter of Converse All Star basketball shoes. Taylor toured the country, performing special appearances and consulting with clients in local sporting goods stores to market the company's basketball shoes. He coached the Wright Field Air-Tecs basketball team from 1944–45 and served as a physical fitness instructor for the US military before returning to Converse as a traveling salesman. In 1968, Taylor resigned from service. In 1969, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Taylor made his semi-professional basketball debut on March 19, 1919, while still playing for the Columbus Commercials when he was seventeen years old. During the final three minutes of the game, Taylor served as a replacement for another of the team's players, but no points were scored) Taylor continued to play basketball, including for the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, a semi-professional team, and Chicago, Illinois, where he also competed for other semi-professional teams. Despite Taylor's participation with professional and semi-professional teams for 11 years, no records have been found to prove Taylor's affiliation with the Buffalo Germans and Original Celtics as some have claimed. Taylor did not clarify the allegations.

Taylor's career as a member of a semi-professional team came to an end in Chicago in the 1920s, when he became a traveling salesman and product promoter for the Converse Rubber Shoe Company. Nevertheless, Taylor was a player-manager of the All-Stars, the Chicago-based touring team that the Converse company sponsored to promote the selling of its Converse All Star basketball shoes during the 1926–27 season.

Converse began manufacturing one of the first basketball shoes in 1917, when Taylor was still in high school. According to at least one source, Taylor wore Converse Non-Skids, the canvas and rubber shoe that was the forerunner to the Converse All Stars in 1918.

When Taylor visited the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Chicago in 1921, S. R. "Bob" Pletz, a keen sportsman, hired Taylor as a salesman for the Converse Rubber Shoe Company. Converse All Stars had been released earlier this year as one of the first basketball shoes specifically made to be worn. The company had accepted Taylor's suggestion of redesigning the Converse All Star shoe's look to give greater flexibility and assistance within a year. On the patch that covered the ankle, the restyled shoe also had a distinctive star-shape logo. They were called Chuck Taylor All Stars after Taylor's signature was added to the All Star logo on the shoe patch.

Taylor, Converse's marketing rep, worked as a salesman who traveled around the country to provide basketball clinics and sell shoes. He stayed in motels year round, roaming around the country with a trunk full of shoe samples. A Taylor biographer, Abraham Aamidor, points out that Taylor was not sparing in his usage of the Converse expense account. Converse listed Taylor's name as the corporate headquarters of its regional headquarters in downtown Chicago, and later in Melrose Park, Illinois, rather than a permanent residence. Joe Dean, one of Taylor's former coworkers, also remembered that Taylor owned a locker in the Chicago warehouse and exchanged seasonal clothing items. Taylor was paid a salary, but he was not charged for any of the 600 million pairs of Chuck Taylor shoes that had been sold.

Joe Dean, a sales executive for Converse for nearly 30 years before becoming the athletic director at Louisiana State University, told Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer, "It was impossible not to like him and he knew everybody." Chuck Taylor, if you were a coach and wanted to find a career, would have been able to find one. As they were looking for a mentor, athletic directors used to talking to him all the time.

Taylor's main weapon in promoting basketball was the basketball clinic. In 1922 at North Carolina State University, he founded his first informal clinic and continued the effort for years, making it a regular feature of his sales promotions. Fielding Yost at the University of Michigan was followed by Columbia and then Pitt for Doc Carlson. Taylor's free basketball clinics continued for almost 30 years in high school and college gyms, as well as YMCAs around the country. "Chuck's gimmick was to go to a small town, romance the coach, and open a clinic," says Steve Stone, a former Converse president. He'll teach basketball and work with the local sporting goods store, but not without encroaching on the coach's personal system." Taylor, as well as the clinics, toured the country with the Converse All-Star basketball staff and made several television appearances, including playing with local teams.

The annual Converse Basketball Yearbook, which Taylor created in 1922 and was extended in 1929, was another of Taylor's marketing devices. The yearbook honored the best players, runners, squads, and highlight moments of the game, as well as generating lots of buzz about Taylor's clinics and Converse's All Star basketball shoes. Taylor also made his own All-American picks.

Taylor, in addition to selling Converse All Star shoes and running basketball clinics, was instrumental in the sport's growth in other ways. He invented a "stitchless" basketball that was easier to handle in 1935. Taylor has also promoted basketball internationally. He created a white high-top model with blue and red trim for the 1936 Olympic Games, making basketball a Olympic sport in 1936. From 1936 to 1968, the Converse All Star shoe was the Olympic team's official shoe.

Taylor was sent in the US Navy and later transferred to the US Army during World War II, but he was too old to serve in combat. During the 1944-45 season, Taylor's most notable contribution during the war was coaching the Wright Field Air-Tecs basketball team at the United States Army Air Forces base in Dayton, Ohio, USA. Taylor had recruited pilots and became a fitness consultant for the US military before leaving the military in 1945, as well as providing physical fitness classes to new recruits. GIs were soon calisthenics while wearing Chuck Taylor All Stars, which had become the US armed forces' "official" basketball shoe.

In 1950, Taylor immigrated to Los Angeles, California. He continued to travel to military bases, and during 1957, he went to South America on behalf of the US State Department. In 1958, he was inducted into the Sporting Goods Hall of Fame.

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