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Elmore Morgenthaler

American professional basketball player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ3723595
Source-derived summary

Elmore Robert Morgenthaler (August 3, 1922 – November 25, 1997) was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Providence Steamrollers and the Philadelphia Warriors in the Basketball Association of America (BAA), among other franchises and leagues. Standing at 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m), Morgenthaler is officially recognized as the first seven-foot player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Morgenthaler was raised in Mart, Texas. He attended Hobbs High School in Hobbs, New Mexico, after he had been recruited by coach Charles Finley. Morgenthaler followed Finley to play college basketball for the New Mexico Mines and he finished second in the nation in scoring with 21.8 points per game after playing for just the second semester of the 1945–46 season. The Mines were abolished at the end of the season and Morgenthaler transferred to play for the Boston College Eagles for the 1946–47 season. He quit college basketball at the end of February 1947 to play professionally for the Providence Steamrollers of the BAA. 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.

Morgenthaler's health deteriorated after his retirement. He worked at a liquor distillery to support himself.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Elmore Morgenthaler” as american professional basketball player. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1922, 1997, 1945, 1946—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1922-08-03. The account is most persuasive where Elmore, Morgenthaler and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american professional basketball player. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3723595. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1997, 1945 and 1946.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Elmore Morgenthaler”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Elmore Morgenthaler primary sources, Elmore Morgenthaler archive and Elmore research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Elmore Morgenthaler”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Elmore Morgenthaler” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.