Basketball 1920-1929
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Basketball was a recent invention (1891), but by 1920 it was well
established in colleges and professionally.
There were significant differences between the quality of play and
the fan base for pro and college basketball.
Many of the professionals never went to college and some did not
even complete high school.
The result was a much rougher professional game, with mostly lowerand working-class fans thriving on the rugged action.
Many newspapers would not cover pro basketball because they did
not feel that their readers would find it appealing.
For much of the decade this was true of the New York Times, even
though there were many professional leagues in the region and the
top pro basketball team was located and associated with the city,
the Original New York Celtics.
Basketball 1920-1929
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The rules of the game were still in flux and court size, for
example, was not standardized.
Foul shots were taken by 1 designated player on a team,
though this began to change in the 1920s.
During this time, the professional game was played in a cage,
usually of wire mesh, to both protect the players and make the
game faster, since the ball was always in play, even off the
cage itself.
The cage had been developed in New York State in the early
1900s, but was phased out in the late 1920s.
The term “cagers” remained to identify designated players on
a team.
Basketball 1920-1929
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The Celtics were the dominant team of the 1920s, winning
many league titles and playing games throughout the
nation.
They brought many regions their 1st opportunity to see the
swiftness of pro basketball and they were real pioneers of
the game.
Traveling by train, they would often play 2 games in a
day at 2 different sites, usually winning both contests.
They learned to keep games close in order to make sure
that there would be interest in their games the next time
they came to town.
Basketball 1920-1929
Most pro basketball leagues were regional and
many players played in more than 1 league since
only the Celtics had exclusivity clauses in their
contracts.
 Players were able to renegotiate contract terms with
teams, sometimes on a daily or weekly basis.
 Pro basketball was wildly disorganized, but games
often drew large crowds of more than 10,000 to
armories or arenas where the games were played.
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Basketball 1920-1929
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The Eastern League, mostly centered around the Philadelphia
region, was the longest-lived league, lasting from 1909 - 1923
(then reappearing in 1925 – 1926).
Other top leagues were the New York State League, which ran
from 1911 - 1924 (with a hiatus for World War I).
The Pennsylvania State League, from 1914 - 1921 in the
Wyoming Valley area in the northeastern part of the state.
The Interstate League, which moved its location and franchises
frequently from 1915 - 1923 (with various stoppages).
And the Metropolitan League, which went from 1921 - 1928,
when it suspended operations for 3 years.
Basketball 1920-1929
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The 1st truly, national professional basketball league was the American
Basketball League (ABL), which began operations in 1925 in 9 large
cities, stretching from Boston to Chicago.
In 1926 the Celtics were “forced” to join the league because the
league members would no longer play teams outside the league.
The Celtics won the league titles in both 1926–1927 and 1927–1928,
before the league disbanded them and the players were redistributed
among other ABL teams.
In their final season in the league, the Celtics went 40–9, with the nextclosest league team having a record of 30–21. In 1928–1929 and
1929–1930, the Cleveland Rosenblooms, with former Celtics Joe
Lapchick, Henry “Dutch” Dehnert, and Pete Barry, won the ABL titles.
Basketball 1920-1929
Ethnicity in Pro Basketball
African Americans began playing basketball soon
after its invention, with players in New York and
Washington, D.C., the best organized and dominant
in most play.
 Edwin Henderson, an outstanding player in the
Washington area in the early 20th century, became
an outstanding coach and promoter of the game into
the 1960s.
 The Harvard-educated leader died in 1977 at the
age of 93.
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Basketball 1920-1929
Ethnicity in Pro Basketball
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In 1923 Robert “Bob” Douglas formed a team that
played its initial home games on the floor of the
Renaissance Casino in Harlem and became known as
the Renaissance Big 5 or the New York Renaissance.
By 1927 the Rens were the acknowledged top African
American team in basketball and they became one of
the top professional teams of the 1930s.
The Rens stars were Clarence “Fat” Jenkins, James
“Pappy” Ricks, Eyre “Bruiser” Saitch (also a top-ranked
tennis player), Hilton “Kid” Slocum, and Charles
“Tarzan” Cooper.
Basketball 1920-1929
Ethnicity in Pro Basketball
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There were a number of excellent African American teams
barnstorming during this decade, most notably the Harlem
Globetrotters (actually from Chicago) who began in 1927 and
rivaled the Rens for success during the 30s & 40s.
In the 1950s the Globetrotters would become more
“entertainment” than a legitimate team, after the National
Basketball Association came into being and began signing
African American players.
The African American squads received excellent media
coverage in the black press.
The Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, the New York
Amsterdam News, among many others all covered the various
teams in the newspapers' weekly publications.
Basketball 1920-1929
Ethnicity in Pro Basketball
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In the 1920s there were many teams composed of
players of similar ethnicity and the team names often
reflected this such as the Brooklyn Visitation (Irish Roman
Catholic) and the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association
squad. (The latter team was one of the top teams of the
late 1920s and 1930s, chief rivals to the Celtics and the
Rens.)
The SPHAs played in a number of leagues, but mostly
barnstormed in the 1920s and perpetuated an early
stereotype that Jews were good in basketball through
their cleverness and sleight of hand.
George “Horse” Haggerty of the
Palace Club holding basketball upside
down with one hand.
Basketball 1920-1929
Basketball Transportation
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Pro basketball in the 1920s was successful largely because of the
U.S. railroad system.
Most of the top pro players were essentially independent
contractors who played for the highest bidder on a regular basis.
The Pennsylvania State League was composed of cities located on
the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia and Erie, and the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western railroads.
Many players would meet in Grand Central Station in New York
City and compare game salaries and destinations with their peers.
This made pro basketball a seller-driven economy, players had
greater economic leverage than the owners, the buyers of the
players' services.
Basketball 1920-1929
Basketball Transportation
Some barnstorming teams, like the New York Rens,
purchased a bus and traveled in that manner.
 This gave them flexibility to go to any town, even
those not on rail lines.
 It also gave them a place to eat or sleep in case
they faced either Jim Crow laws or hotels or
restaurants that would not serve African Americans.
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Basketball 1920-1929
Women’s Basketball
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Basketball was one sport that attracted women early on, and
not just as spectators. Shortly after the invention of the game,
interscholastic and college teams were formed and women
enjoyed the game greatly.
Senda Berenson of Smith College created a set of rules that
adapted the men's game for women's “more delicate”
constitutions.
Players had assigned areas on the court and could not go to
other areas.
The game had 3 zones and players could only play in 2
contiguous zones. The game became a 6 person game with play
at each offensive end, 3 on 3.
Over time, the playing on a competitive basis was altered to
emphasize sportsmanship, exhibited at “play days.”
Basketball 1920-1929
College Basketball
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The college game was different from the professional basketball game,
because it was not as rough and had a limited number of fouls allowed
before a player could be disqualified.
There were no national tournaments.
Nat Holman, the Celtics' star, was also the coach of the City College of New
York team. CCNY was a top squad in the New York region, as was New York
University, where Howard Cann starred and later coached.
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A number of legendary coaches led top teams.
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Justin “Sam” Barry and his Iowa Hawkeyes won the Big Ten title in 1923.
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Everett Dean was a top player and coach at Indiana University, leading them
to the 1926 Big Ten title.
At Wisconsin, Walter “Doc” Meanwell had a 22 year coaching career from
1912 -1934. The Badgers won Big Ten titles in 1921, 1923, 1924, & 1929.
Basketball 1920-1929
College Basketball
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Because there was no playoff system, the National Invitation
Tournament [NIT] began in 1938, the National Collegiate
Athletic Association [NCAA] Tournament in 1939.
The University of Pittsburgh, coached by Cliff Carlson, was
undefeated in 1928 (21–0) and was acclaimed as the national
champions by most writers and coaches.
In 1923 & 1924 Forrest “Phog” Allen, another Hall of Fame
coach, from the University of Kansas, led his Jayhawks to
national championships, as proclaimed by the Helms Athletic
Foundation.
Allen was also a founder of the National Association of
Basketball Coaches in 1927 and served as its 1st president.