Where Was Your Favorite NBA Team in 1949?

What happened to the pro basketball leagues from the early 1940s? Jeff Nilsson explores what happened to the Providence Steamrollers and other teams of yore.

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Pro basketball has come a long way since August 3, 1949. That was the day that two struggling basketball leagues — the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and its rival, the National Basketball League (NBL) — merged to form the National Basketball Association.

The future of professional basketball was far from certain at that time. Baseball and football were much more popular around the country, and many basketball teams were located in small, Midwestern cities that had trouble generating enough revenue to stay alive.

But popular enthusiasm for basketball started growing in the mid-1950s, thanks in large part to the performance of the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Zollner Pistons.

The team was named after Fred Zollner, who manufactured automobile and truck pistons. It was Zollner who brought the BAA and NBL together to form a single pro league. And it was Zollner who hired Charley Eckman away from officiating to coach his Pistons.

The team had won the national championship in 1944 and 1945 but had lost momentum under coach Frank Birch. Eckman seemed to fire up the Pistons again. For the next three years, the Pistons made the playoffs, though they fell just short of the championship.

Shortly after “Coaching the Pros Is Easy” appeared in the Post in 1955, Zollner moved the Pistons to Detroit. As he told author Stanley Frank, a community the size of Fort Wayne couldn’t support more than one home game a week.

Eckman went along with the team but didn’t stay long. He was let go after starting the season with a 9-16 record. He returned to refereeing and eventually moved into broadcasting.

The Pistons’ move was typical. Of the original 17 professional basketball teams in the two leagues, most have survived by changing their home towns and their names. Only two of the original teams have remained unchanged: the New York Knickerbockers and the Boston Celtics.

Here is where the other 14 teams went:

Team League Founded Fate
Baltimore Bullets BAA 1944 Folded in 1954 (Not to be confused with the Baltimore Bullets of 1963, who were originally the Chicago Packers, and are now the Washington Wizards)
Cleveland Rebels BAA 1946 Folded in 1947
Detroit Falcons BAA 1946 Folded in 1948
Minneapolis Lakers NBL 1947 Became the Los Angeles Lakers in 1960
Philadelphia Warriors BAA 1946 Became the San Francisco Warriors in 1962 and the Golden State Warriors in 1971
Pittsburgh Ironmen BAA 1946 Folded in 1947
Providence Steamrollers BAA 1946 Folded in 1949
Rochester Royals BAA 1948 Became the Cincinnati Royals in 1975; the Kansas City-Omaha Kings in 1972; the Kansas City Kings in 1975; and the Sacramento Kings in 1985
St. Louis Bombers BAA 1946 Folded in 1950
Syracuse Nationals NBL 1946 Became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963
Tri-City Blackhawks NBL 1946 Became the Milwaukee Hawks in 1951; the St. Louis Hawks in 1955; and the Atlanta Hawks in 1968
Toronto Huskies BAA 1946 Folded in 1947
Washington Capitols BAA 1946 Folded in 1951
Click to read “Coaching the Pros by Stanley Frank from the February 19, 1955, issue of the Post. 

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