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Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks was an American professional basketball player, sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was one of the first players, albeit posthumously, enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.
Fulks was born in Birmingham, Kentucky, a small town in the state's far-western Purchase region that was inundated in the 1940s after the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake. He played college ball at Murray State University for two years before leaving school to join the Marines. His number 26 hangs in the rafters at the CFSB Center.
Fulks joined the BAA's Philadelphia Warriors in 1946, at age 25, and in his rookie season he won the league's first scoring title with a 23.2 points per game average and the Warriors won the BAA title. Fulks again had the league's highest scoring average in the 1947-48 season at 22.1 points per game, but lost the scoring title to Max Zaslofsky, who had more total points. Fulks had a career best 26.0 points per game average in the 1948-49 season. Fulks led the NBA in field goal percentage during the 1950-51 season.
Fulks set the BAA/NBA single game scoring record four different times. On December 3, 1946, in just his eight game as a professional, Fulks became the league's record holder for most points scored in a single game when he scored 37 points, making 16 field goals and five free throws, in Philadelphia's 76 to 68 win over the Providence Steam Rollers. Just 20 games later on January 14, 1947, Fulks set a new single game scoring record when he scored 41 points, making 15 field goals and 11 free throws, in Philadelphia's 104 to 74 win over the Toronto Huskies. The following season on December 18, 1948, Fulks again set a single game scoring record when he scored 47 points, making 18 field goals and 11 free throws, in Philadelphia's 71 to 99 loss to the New York Knickerbockers.
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