Dave Bing - Early Life in DC

Early Life in DC

Bing was born and raised in northeast Washington, D.C., as a son of a bricklayer. At age five, Bing accidentally poked his left eye with a nail of a wooden horse that he improvised. With the family unable to afford an eye operation, the eye healed on its own but left Bing with fuzzy vision since then.

Bing's basketball career began in 1959 at Spingarn High School in Washington D.C., where he played in the footsteps of the great Elgin Baylor who had set all the city scoring records playing there in 1954. At Spingarn, Bing played in 3 straight Interhigh championship games. In 1960 and 1961, he teamed up with the great Ollie Johnson, and Spingarn won easily over Dunbar (67-53) and Eastern (81-64). The Green Wave went on to defeat DeMatha 63-50 for the 61 City championship. Bing averaged 16.2 and 16.9 ppg in 1961 and 1962.

Bing was a three-year letter winner, all–Inter High, All-Metro, and All-East member. In 1962, Bing was in Parade magazine and made the All-American Team.

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