Cliff Barker

---

title: "Cliff Barker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1921-births", "1998-deaths", "american-men's-basketball-players", "basketball-coaches-from-indiana", "basketball-players-at-the-1948-summer-olympics", "basketball-players-from-indiana", "guards-(basketball)", "indianapolis-olympians-coaches", "indianapolis-olympians-players", "kentucky-wildcats-men's-basketball-players", "medalists-at-the-1948-summer-olympics", "military-personnel-from-indiana", "olympic-gold-medalists-for-the-united-states-in-basketball", "people-from-yorktown,-indiana", "united-states-men's-national-basketball-team-players", "washington-capitols-draft-picks", "united-states-army-air-forces-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "world-war-ii-prisoners-of-war-held-by-germany", "united-states-army-air-forces-soldiers", "american-prisoners-of-war-in-world-war-ii", "20th-century-american-sportsmen", "sportspeople-from-delaware-county,-indiana"] description: "American basketball player (1921–1998)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Barker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American basketball player (1921–1998) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox basketball biography"]

Field	Value
name	Cliff Barker
position	Guard
height_ft	6
height_in	2
weight_lb	185
number	10
birth_date
birth_place	Yorktown, Indiana, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Satsuma, Florida, U.S.
high_school	Yorktown (Yorktown, Indiana)
college	Kentucky (1946–1949)
draft_round	5
draft_pick	52
draft_year	1949
draft_team	Washington Capitols
career_start	1949
career_end	1952
years1	–
team1	Indianapolis Olympians
stat1label	Points
stat1value	557
stat2label	Rebounds
stat2value	181
stat3label	Assists
stat3value	294
bbr	barkecl01
::

| name = Cliff Barker | image = | width = | caption = | position = Guard | height_ft = 6 | height_in = 2 | weight_lb = 185 | number = 10 | birth_date = | birth_place = Yorktown, Indiana, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Satsuma, Florida, U.S. | high_school = Yorktown (Yorktown, Indiana) | college = Kentucky (1946–1949) | draft_round = 5 | draft_pick = 52 | draft_year = 1949 | draft_team = Washington Capitols | career_start = 1949 | career_end = 1952 | years1 = – | team1 = Indianapolis Olympians | highlights =

• 2× NCAA champion (1948, 1949)
• Second-team All-SEC (1949) | stat1label = Points | stat1value = 557 | stat2label = Rebounds | stat2value = 181 | stat3label = Assists | stat3value = 294 | bbr = barkecl01 | medal_templates =

Clifford Eugene Barker (January 15, 1921 – March 17, 1998) was an American basketball player who won the gold medal with the USA national basketball team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and two national championships at the University of Kentucky.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Cliff-Barker-jersey.jpg" caption="A jersey honoring Barker hangs in [[Rupp Arena]]."] ::

While at the University of Kentucky, Barker was an All-SEC (Second Team) and All-SEC Tournament guard during the 1947–48 and 1948–49 seasons.

A member of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, Barker was a B-17 Flying Fortress waist gunner and spent 16 months as a prisoner-of-war. "Fancy Nancy III," the B-17 he was assigned to was shot down in the vicinity of Konigslutter. "Fancy Nancy III" was assigned to the 612 Bombardment Squadron, a unit of the 401st Bombardment Group.

Career statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

::data[format=table]

Year	Team	GP	MPG	FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	PPG
1949–50	Indianapolis	49		.372	.708		2.2	5.7
1950–51	Indianapolis	56		.252	.649	1.8	2.1	2.7
1951–52	Indianapolis	44	11.2	.298	.588	1.8	1.6	2.9
Career	149	11.2	.316	.662	1.8	2.0	3.7
::

Playoffs

::data[format=table]

Year	Team	GP	FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	PPG
1949–50	Indianapolis	6	.387	.667		2.2	5.7
1950–51	Indianapolis	3	.211	.000	5.0	3.3	2.7
Career	9	.320	.556	5.0	2.6	4.7
::

Head coaching record

NBA

|- | style="text-align:left;"|Indianapolis | style="text-align:left;"| |64||39||25|||| style="text-align:center;"|1st in Western||6||3||3|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in Division finals |- | style="text-align:left;"|Indianapolis | style="text-align:left;"| |56||24||32|||| style="text-align:center;"|(resigned)||—||—||—||— | style="text-align:center;"|Missed Playoffs |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career ||120||63||57|||| ||6||3||3||

References

References

1. "UK Career Statistics and Bio for Cliff Barker".
2. "Cliff Barker".
3. "Clifford Eugene Barker".
4. "42-37856 Fancy Nancy III".
5. "UK Career Statistics and Bio for Cliff Barker".
6. "Cliff Barker". Sports Reference LLC.
7. "Cliff Barker Coaching Record". Sports Reference LLC.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::