Good morning, Uni Watchers! I hope everyone had a good Christmas/first night of Hanukkah if you celebrate … my Christmas was rather somber, but good tidings and moods improved once the edibles kicked in later on.
UW pal/contributor/author Leo Strawn, Jr. joins us again today, with more looks at basketball uniforms from yore. If you missed Part I, click here.
Enjoy!
And now, here’s Leo with…
Hoops, Volume 2
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
This edition will focus on the early days of pro basketball.
I’ll start Volume 2 with the pic that mysteriously disappeared from last week’s sleeved uniform article: These are pics of the Sheboygan Red Skins of the National Basketball League. Not sure if the first one is a jersey or warm-up, though.
Eat bread for health and get an NBA card! Interesting shape on this Bruce Hale Indianapolis Olympians card. The bballjerseys.com database doesn’t show that uniform looking like this, but it appears the pic used for the card was a black & white photo colorized for 4-color printing. It’s very possible that the colors on the card were based on a verbal description rather than actual evidence. Still, a very cool and unusual item.
Here’s a circa 1948-50 Washington Capitols [sic] BAA/NBA game worn jersey.
MPLS.
Another Mikan/Minneapolis Lakers photo. This one is an action shot from a game against the Harlem Globetrotters. Today, we think of them as a comedy troupe on the hardwood, but it’s never a good idea to allow your ego to confuse kindness with weakness. This troupe of Trotters were in it for the win, not the show, v Mikan and his teammates. They defeated the Lakers, 61-59 on February 19 at Chicago. That was no minor feat. Minneapolis would go on to finish the final season of the BAA (which the NBA considers its third season) with a 44-16 record and win the 1948-49 championship v the Capitols.
Fred Zollner founded the Pistons in 1937 when he sponsored a semi-pro work team for his employees at Zollner Corporation, a piston manufacturing company. The team played in the NBL for seven seasons before jumping to the BAA in that league’s last season prior to the merger that formed the NBA. Here’s a rare shot of the jersey bearing his name from (I think) the 1954-55 NBA Finals, when some Fort Wayne players may have intentionally thrown the series, losing to the Syracuse Nationals (n.k.a., Philadelphia 76ers).
The next photos are two 1957-58 Cincinnati Royals Topps trading cards with players wearing uniforms from their last season in Rochester and a photo of those Royals in those beauties playing the Celtics in 1956.
This looks familiar.
Chicago had two NBA franchises before the Bulls came along. The first of those two teams was the Stags. The second was the Packers/Zephyrs (now the Washington Wizards) shown here playing in 1961, the only season (1961-62) when they were known as the Packers.
The following season they were renamed the Zephyrs. Below is a prototype jersey and publicity shot of Terry Dischinger.
The next season they would move to Baltimore where they were known as the Bullets. Imagine being an opponent and realizing Baltimore’s jerseys depicted a bullet heading for you! This photo from the 1965-66 season shows Gus Johnson laying up the shot with teammate Kevin Loughery in the background. The Knicks player wearing #5 is Dick Van Arsdale who would become “The Original Sun”, the first player chosen by Phoenix in the 1968 expansion draft. He also scored the first points for the Suns. Those Baltimore jerseys were worn from 1964-66, by the way.
I like seeing teams in their older color schemes. For example, the Warriors wore yellow unis for the first time while still using the same team colors they had in Philly during their first season in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the LA Lakers were still wearing double blue in this photo from the 1962-63 season, which was their third season on the west coast.
I’ll pick back up with the mid-sixties through ’70s NBA.
I hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thanks, Leo! Great stuff as always — can’t wait for Part III.
Readers? What say you?
GTGFTS
20 Oct 1988
Last pitch of the 1988 World Series as the Dodgers finish their unlikely run to beat the heavily favored OAKLAND A’s 4 games to 1.
GTGFTU
19 Sep 2010
Manning Bowl II
Peyton beats Eli 38-14
And that last pitch saw Tony Phillips strike out swinging to seal a complete game for Orel Hershiser.
Here’s a green-and-gold rabbit hole.
The Washington Capitols of the ABA were coached by Red Auerbach. So except for one season when he coached Tri-Cities, his whole pro coaching career was with green teams.
Meanwhile, when the Oakland Oaks of the ABA moved to Washington briefly as the “Caps”, they took their green and gold with them; but by coincidence that was the same color as Auerbach’s Capitals. Why were they they “Caps” and not “Capitals”? Put the letters CAPS over OAKS on a reused uniform and you’ll see.
Since the Oaks were created in early 1967, they were Oakland’s first green and gold team, a year before the A’s brought their colors with them from Kansas City, right?
Almost. There was another Oaks basketball team in the 1962 ABL. Also green and gold.
I would love to see that Zephyrs uni in full color. I’m not much of a basketball fan but it’s fun seeing these early uniforms and action shots. Thanks Leo!
Have never seen an original Zephyrs photo in color, but the Wizards did wear a Zephyrs throwback years ago.
link
I was going to say something similar; I don’t follow basketball at all, but so many of these old uniforms look amazing!
Different sport, but still…who thought naming a Chicago team the Packers was a good idea?
Good stuff today. Love those Bullets unis. And is there any way we can get an NBA team for Western NY? They could split games between Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
They played at the International Ampitheatre on Halsted at 30th, which was next to the Union Stockyards; hence “Chicago Packers”.