Joseph W. Young was born March 4, 1942 in Rayne, Louisiana to Whitney and Louanna Young. The family moved to Houston and resided in Fifth Ward area, later moving to the Fifth Ward area of Hardy St. Joe attended primary school at Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School and E.O. Smith Junior High. At  Smith, Joe would win three city championships and make the All-City Team each year under the direction of Coach Frankie Brazos, Sr. His move to the newly open Kashmere Gardens Jr Sr High School with several of his E. O. Smith teammates would separate a basketball dynasty, as E. O. Smith had been a Phillis Wheatley feeder school. Joe and several of his Smith teammates (pictured below) would arrived at Kashmere shortly after Weldon Drew completed his standout college career at Fisk University and became Kashmere’s head coach. With Coach Drew at the helm, Joe would blossom into the city’s premier guard and later credit Drew as being very instrumental in much of his basketball success. “Mighty Joe Young”, the nickname he was tabbed and widely known by was a three year varsity starter, three-time All City, All District and two-time All-State before graduating in 1960. Throughout his career he would break many school records at every level from junior high through college and had the opportunity to play with and complete against a host of great players. Mighty Joe was voted captain and team’s Most Valuable Player; he also was chosen Most Popular Male in the 1960 senior class. Joe also played baseball as an infielder for Coach Henry Stevenson.  In 1960 Kashmere’s basketball team would run the table in the city and had only Phillis Wheatley standing in the way of Kashmere advancing to the state tournament. This would be one of his basketball most gratified victory but the sad moment was defeating several of his former junior high teammates. Kashmere would win the first round of the state tournament and advance to the championship game against Dallas Madison, but due to an overcrowded arena the fire marshal cancel the game and declared both teams Co State Champs. Coach Drew 1960 team was considered by many as arguable his best team, as Joe would end his Kashmere career averaging 25.5 points his senior year. Through a poll taken on KCOH Sports Rap Show hosted by Ralph Cooper, Joe was ranked #7 of top ten players in Houston ( teammate Joe Lackey was #1) over a 20 year span 1950-1970.  Joe earned a basketball scholarship to play at Texas Southern University where his basketball success continue as he displayed his talents on the colligate level. He was named the reception of the Edwards H. Adams Memorial award for displaying exceptional leadership qualities as a student-athlete. TSU is where he would meet and marry his love Bessie Payton-Young. After college he would work for Goodyear Rubber Company before taking over the family business and operated it until his death in 1993. Joe and Bessie would create a family of 5 children Paul, Ivory, Rabis, Chandra and Karen.  His name and legacy has continue through his 7 grandchildren Tenisha, Payton, Ivory, Raven, Kaia, Jeremy and Jayce and three great grandsons (Fritz, JP and Princeton) some of whom have been and are currently avid athletes. Joe is also survived by his only sibling Mary Lynn Young-Newton and a host of other family members who are in attendance to celebrate this honor from the Kashmere Former Athletes Association.