Chuck Taylor: Basketball player turned master shoe salesman

More details about the life and the influence of Chuck Taylor on the game of basketball can be found in the book "Chuck Taylor, All Star" (ISBN 0-253-34698-3), available from the Indiana University Press or your favorite bookseller.

The story of Charles H. ("Chuck") Taylor, Hoosier,  basketball player, and master shoe salesman:

• 1901 - Born in Indiana.
• 1908 - Marquis M. Converse started the "Converse Rubber Company."
• 1917 - Converse Rubber Company brought out a shoe very much like today's "All Star."
• 1921 - Converse hired Chuck Taylor from the Akron Firestone Non-Skids basketball team. Chuck Taylor conducted basketball clinics for Converse.
• 1932 - Chuck Taylor got his signature on the basketball shoe now associated with his name.
• World War II - Chuck coaches the Army Air Forces "Air-Tecs" basketball team at Wright Field, Ohio.
• 1958 - Inducted into the National Sporting Goods Hall of Fame.
• 1968 - Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
• 1969 - Passed away, probably as his namesake basketball shoe reached the height of its popularity.

Here are some of the shoes with Chuck's name on them:

• Chuck's basketball shoe
• Chuck's football shoe
• Chuck's golf shoe
• Chuck's track training shoe
• Chuck's wrestling shoe

Chuck Taylor rumors I've heard, and what I found out about them:

• Chuck Taylor was the basketball coach at Stanford University:
  • No, but another man named Chuck Taylor played football at Stanford in 1943, later to become football coach from 1951-1957. Chuck Taylor of Stanford football fame passed away in 2004 at the age of 74.

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Last Updated: 25 February 2017

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Charlie's Sneaker Pages copyright 1995-2024 by Charles L. Perrin.

READERS PLEASE NOTE: Names of athletic shoe manufacturers, shoe styles, and technologies may be trademarked by the manufacturers. Charlie's Sneaker Pages uses these names solely to describe the shoes with the same familiar nomenclature used by the manufacturer and recognized by the reader.