Hallows' Eve 1950
A web of snapshots in the early NBA
During the course of my dissertation writing last month, I came across the sports page of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle dated November 1, 1950. Naturally the coverage on All Saints’ Day recapped the happenings of the previous day: October 31, 1950.
That Halloween saw the Washington Capitols open their season on the road versus the Rochester Royals. The proceedings around the game provide a great snapshot of pro basketball at the time and insight into why my dissertation is taking forever.
This jack-o-lantern is laughing at my slow dissertation progress.
The NBA’s president in 1950 was Maurice Podoloff… who also served as head of the American Hockey League… who also moonlighted as a bank president. Much like players of the era, the head of the NBA was holding down multiple gigs.
Respect the hustle, I s’pose.
Podoloff was in Rochester for the season opener and prior to the game gave some interesting remarks. Given his vantage point overseeing two different sports league, Poodles concluded that major pro hockey and pro basketball could not co-exist in the same city except in Boston and New York.
It was quite the statement from Podoloff, who had also previously served as president of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which was founded by a bunch of hockey men looking to make basketball and hockey co-exist in their big city stadiums.
The gambit was deemed a failure as Podoloff surmised, “pro basketball and pro hockey cannot survive together. One of the two sports must suffer. It just won’t work.” Hard to argue with Podoloff given that by the end of 1951 only three of the BAA’s original 11 franchises survived: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, and Philadelphia Warriors.
The NBA impresario reassured the Royals that they were on the right side of sporting history thanks to the efforts of Lester Harrison: founder, owner, and coach of the Royals.
“Les Harrison’s devotion to basketball, which goes back more than a decade, will keep the Rochester Royals in the game’s major league all the time. Teams will come and go, even leagues might come and go, but the Royals will always be in the country’s best competition.”
In 1956, Rochester acquired an expansion AHL hockey team, the Americans. In the spring of 1957, the basketball Royals departed Rochester for Cincinnati.
Guess Poodles was right. Only Boston and New York could support a hockey and basketball team back then. At least the Americans still play in Rochester as members of the AHL.
Coaching the Caps in October 1950 was Horace “Bones” McKinney.
The affable, 32-year-old North Carolinian also happened to be in the twilight of his playing career. He wasn’t adjusting well to manning the sideline instead of playing full time.
“Just plain agony, nothing but agony,” was McKinney’s response to a question about coaching his first game. “If you’re playing, you lose that pressure and tension the minute you first grab hold of that ball.”
The pain of coaching was apparently unbearable as McKinney repeated with a giant grin, “It’s agony.”
Guess the frail frame is how he got the nicknames “Bones”
Over the previous four seasons with the Caps in the BAA and then NBA, McKinney had averaged 11.4 points per game. In the BAA’s inaugural season of 1946-47, he was named to the All-BAA 1st Team. That Capitols club, coached by Red Auerbach, started the season on a 19-3 tear and finished 49-11 overall for the best record in the league. Didn’t matter in the playoffs as they were convincingly upset by the Chicago Stags.
(The Stags would be inaugural members of the NBA in 1949-50, but folded after that season).
McKinney’s coaching misery was soon over as the Capitols couldn’t even wait till after the season to fold. Just 35 games into the 1950-51 campaign they collapsed and ceased operations. Freed from his coaching duties, McKinney was picked up by his old friend Auerbach to join the Boston Celtics where he played the rest of that season. After one more year in Boston (1951-52), McKinney retired from the pros. In 1957 he became head coach at Wake Forest University back in North Carolina.
McKinney’s time back in the Tar Heel State paid huge dividends for Boston. Bones tipped Red off to another great North Carolinian basketball player. A little known guard from North Carolina Central named Sam Jones was drafted (sight unseen) by Boston in 1957 on the good word and testimony of McKinney.
Jones helped Boston to 10 championships.
Observing the contest between Rochester and Washington was Herm Schaefer.
Schaefer had an accomplished playing career dating back to 1941-42 when he had joined the Fort Wayne Pistons of the National Basketball League (NBL). That season the Pistons won the NBL title. Like many players Schaefer’s career was rudely interrupted by military service in World War II. Sam Jones would also have Uncle Sam disrupt his basketball career. He was a 24-year-old rookie with the Celtics because he had a two-year hitch in the military.
Typical for players of the 1940s and 1950s.
When Herm got back into pro hoops following World War II, he fortuitously hooked up with the Minneapolis Lakers helping them to three consecutive titles: 1948 in the NBL, 1949 in the BAA, 1950 in the NBA.
The sprite guard averaged a healthy 3.2 APG in 1949 and 1950. For the era, this was a really good assist average. Considering his main job was feeding George Mikan, he had an easy time racking up assists, I suppose.
Well by 1950, Schaefer was nearing 32 years of age like McKinney. He was now deemed more useful as a scout for the Lakers. However, he was still on the Lakers’ reserve list just in case the military swooped in to take another player unexpectedly.
Uncle Sam did not come knocking that season and Schaefer never suited up again in the NBA.
Historically, this night is worth remembering because of “Earl Lloyd, rugged Negro guard, who appears to be a ‘find.’” That’s how the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle described him. Other than that, the press made no breathless mention about The NBA’s color barrier being broken.
As Podoloff had mentioned earlier, teams come and go, indeed leagues come and go. And in all that coming and going, integration had come and gone before.
The Rochester Royals themselves had employed Black players before (Dolly King and Wilmeth Sidat-Singh in the 1940s). So, what’s the big deal about Earl Lloyd showing up in 1950 for the Caps?
The previous day’s edition of the paper was only slightly energized by the occasion.
“Earl Lloyd, 6-6, Negro from W. Virginia State. Boston and New York are the only other teams in the NBA carrying Negro players this season, an innovation in the circuit.” An innovation for the circuit, not the sport.
Lloyd only had so much time to make an impact.
After a mere seven games, Lloyd was—you guessed it—drafted by the military. He would next appear in the NBA with the Syracuse Nationals in the 1952-53 season.
Oh, as for the game…
Fred Scolari led Washington with 18 points, while Arnie Risen had 20 for Rochester. The Royals beat the Caps 78-70.
Risen would have his best season in the NBA that year averaging 16.3 PPG, 12.0 RPG, and 2.4 APG. The gangly center led Rochester to their second championship averaging 21.7 PPG and 14.3 RPG versus the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.
Risen would capture another NBA title in 1957 as a reserve center for the Boston Celtics. His understudy that year was a rookie named Bill Russell.
Russ and Risen in 2007
Auerbach was partially convinced to acquire Russell thanks to the insistence of Scolari, who—you guessed it—served in the military with Auerbach during World War II. Scolari was also an alumni of the University of San Francisco, the school Russell had just led to back-to-back NCAA titles.
The San Franciscan guard told Red what was up.
“Red, this kid can’t shoot to save his ass. He can’t hit the side of the basket. He’s only the greatest basketball player I ever saw.” Auerbach challenged the assessment. “I told you,” an adamant Scolari bellowed. “You want an affidavit?”
Anyhoo, that’s enough web-weaving for this Halloween. Taking one night, one game, can lead to an infinite tapestry of interrelated NBA stories. This is why my dissertation is taking so long. What stories to keep? What to drop? How to tie them all together?
Good thing y’all are here to read these stories left on the cutting room floor.