Walt Simon

Walter John Simon (December 1, 1939 – October 10, 1997) was an American basketball player. Born in Delcambre, Louisiana, the 6'6" small forward attended Benedict College, where he remains the only alumnus to play professionally at the ABA or NBA level.

Undrafted by the NBA out of college, Simon spent six seasons in the minor-league Eastern Professional Basketball League with the Allentown Jets. He was named EPBL Most Valuable Player in 1964 and averaged 24.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game across his 167-game EPBL career, leading the league in scoring once (1964–65) and finishing second twice (1963–64 and 1966–67). He won EPBL championships with the Jets in 1962, 1963 and 1965.

Simon moved to the American Basketball Association in 1967, playing seven seasons through 1974 for the New Jersey Americans/New York Nets and the Kentucky Colonels. He appeared in the 1969 ABA All-Star Game and scored 6,414 career points.

After retiring, he went to work for John Y. Brown, Jr.—who had owned the Kentucky Colonels with his wife, Ellie Brown—at Kentucky Fried Chicken, where Simon became the first black Vice President of a Fortune 500 company.