Cumberland Posey began his career in 1911 playing outfield for the Homestead Grays, a local black team in his Pennsylvania hometown. He soon became the squad's driving force as they dominated semi-pro ball in the Pittsburgh area. By the late 1930s the Grays were at the top of the Negro Leagues with nine straight pennant wins. Posey was also a League officer; he served 13 years as the first black member of the Homestead school board; and he wrote an outspoken sports column for the African American weekly newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier. He was also regarded as one of the best black basketball players in the East, organizer of a team that held the consensus national black championship five years running. Ten years after his induction into the baseball Hall of Fame, he became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame--one of only two athletes to be honored by two pro sports halls.