Willie Woo Woo

Willie Woo Woo Playground
Chinatown
Sacramento Street and Waverly Place

Willie Wong (b:1926,d:2005) was a Chinese-American basketball player who was born and raised in Chinatown, San Francisco. Though Wong was only 5’5″ tall, he excelled, and was known as one of the finest Chinese-American basketball players in the 1940s. He was nicknamed Willie “Woo Woo” Wong by a local sportswriter because fans would shout “Woo Woo” when he scored. He starred at Poly and Lowell high schools in San Francisco before being recruited to the University of San Francisco (USF). After playing for USF, Wong continued to compete at various local and national tournaments as part of the San Francisco Saints team. Wong died on September 5, 2005 at the age of 79 in Fremont, CA.

This mural was painted by Jim Dong in 1986. Dong is now the Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Graphic Design, Digital/Film Photography and Art History teacher at Kamehameha High School/Kapalama Campus of Hawaii. He holds a  Master of Arts Degree in Printmaking & Drawing from California State University,  San Francisco and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Printmaking & Drawing from San Francisco State College. He was the Art Instructor for the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the San Francisco State University.  He was the Director of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country.