Duquesne is the only school to have back-to-back first overall picks in the National Basketball Association draft (Dick Ricketts by the Saint Louis Hawks in 1955 and Sihugo Green by the Rochester Royals in 1956).

The Dukes men's basketball program can also claim the first African-American player selected in an NBA draft (Chuck Cooper by the Boston Celtics in 1950).

When a proper gymnasium was constructed in 1923, Duquesne Basketball was finally allowed to come into its own, as the previous court was in reality a stage below the chapel and was not only slanted but demarcated by a steel cage on its perimeter.

Coach "Chick" Davies initiated a new era in the basketball program, filling the 1,200-seat gymnasium and bringing the team into national prominence.

The university tried to hold on to basketball during World War II, having reworked the gymnasium in 1942 to seat an extra 800 spectators, but was forced to drop the sport at the end of the 1943 season (Rishel 81–82).

During this first postwar season, the University of Tennessee refused to play a scheduled game against Duquesne at the McKeesport (PA) Vocational High School because the Dukes had a black player--Chuck Cooper.

In 1950, Cooper became the first African-American drafted to play professional basketball when he joined the Boston Celtics (Rishel 101).

Dukes Basketball continued to impress with a new coach in the 1948–49 season--Donald "Dudey" Moore, who had also played for Duquesne.

The 1950s marked an age of immense success for Dukes Basketball, with Moore leading his team to six NIT bids (1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956).

However, in a gesture which athletic director Doc Skender called "one of the finest acts of sportsmanship I've ever known," long-standing rival the University of Pittsburgh allowed the Dukes use of the Fitzgerald Field House for home games (Rishel 138).

Coach Red Manning, initially unpopular, soon led the Dukes to another era of postseason play, ending up in the Final Four in the 1962 NIT tournament, with further appearances in the NIT in 1964, 1968, and 1970, plus appearances in the NCAA Tournament in 1969 and 1971. Notable in this decade was Willie Somerset, nicknamed by the press as "Wonderful Willie."

The decade was relatively lackluster, although it saw the likes of "the greatest guard in Duquesne basketball history"--Norm Nixon (Rishel 216).

The 1980s were marked by problems with many players' academic eligibility—calling into question the university's recruiting and support procedures—and are best described as "trying times" for the Dukes (Rishel 246).

On January 27, 2001, during the halftime of a game against Xavier University, the Duquesne University Department of Athletics retired the jersey numbers of five of its all-time greatest players: Chuck Cooper, Sihugo Green, Norm Nixon, Dick Ricketts and Willie Somerset.