The fifth of seven children, Reece Tatum attended Booker T. Washington High School in El Dorado, Arkansas, where he was a three-sport star in baseball, basketball and football.

[2] After high school, Tatum pursued a career in professional baseball and joined the Louisville Black Colonels in 1937.

At the time of his release, he was making a reported $53,000 per year, which The Detroit Tribune noted was the highest salary made by a professional basketball player.

Saperstein told the press Tatum's release was due to his violation of team rules and repeated absences from games.

In February 1955, Tatum filed a lawsuit against the owners of the San Francisco, California based Pan-American Bar for refusing to serve him, his wife and three companions on account of their race.

He allegedly owed his ex-wife $7,000 in alimony and was ordered by Judge Anthony Roszkowski to pay $60 a week pending a final judgment.

Tatum has been described as the original "clown prince"—a term first applied to seminal Chicago Crusader/Philadelphia Giant Jackie Bethards in 1933[8]—of the Trotters.