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30-654: The team was founded in 1946 as a charter BAA team; it became a charter NBA team in 1949. It folded on January 9, 1951 (with a 10–25 record). The Capitols were one of seven teams that quickly left the NBA: The NBA contracted after the 1949–1950 season, losing six teams: The Anderson Packers , Sheboygan Red Skins and Waterloo Hawks jumped to the NPBL , while the Chicago Stags , Denver Nuggets and St. Louis Bombers folded. The league went from 17 teams to 11 before

60-565: A rugged 6' 4" (1.93 m) center named Leroy "Cowboy" Edwards . Edwards was a consensus NCAA "All American" and Helms Foundation "College Player of the Year" as a member of the 1934–35 University of Kentucky Wildcats . He left Kentucky after two years to pursue a professional basketball career, which was unheard of at the time. He led the NBL in scoring for three consecutive seasons, 1937–1940. He set numerous NBL and professional basketball scoring records and

90-641: Is generally credited with the introduction of the "3 second rule" in basketball which is still in existence today. Edwards played in all 12 NBL seasons with the Oshkosh All-Stars, and retired just prior to its merger with the BAA to form the NBA. The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons —so nicknamed because they were owned by Fred Zollner , whose company made pistons for engines—were led by tough veteran Bobby McDermott . The Pistons finished second in 1942 and 1943 and won

120-783: The Brooklyn Dodgers . Neither team fared well. Toledo signed several black players to start the season, including Bill Jones , who had starred at the University of Toledo , but the team lost its first four games and folded due to financial difficulties. Chicago stocked its roster with several members of the Harlem Globetrotters , who worked during the week at the Studebaker plant, but it also folded after compiling an 8–15 record. Five current National Basketball Association (NBA) teams trace their history back to

150-846: The Los Angeles Lakers , the Philadelphia 76ers , and the Sacramento Kings . The league was initially founded as the Midwest Basketball Conference (MBC) in 1935. It changed its name in 1937 in an attempt to attract a larger audience and avoid confusion with the Big Ten Conference , ofted referred to as the Midwest Conference. The league was created by three corporations: General Electric , Firestone and Goodyear . It

180-607: The National Basketball Association for the 1949–50 season . The franchise withdrew from the NBA on April 11, 1950, when the organization was absorbed by the league. After that season the team moved to the National Professional Basketball League , which folded entirely at the end of their only (1950–1951) season. Key: National Basketball League (United States) The National Basketball League ( NBL )

210-623: The Oshkosh All-Stars and their center Leroy "Cowboy" Edwards . The middle years saw the emergence of the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons , who were later instrumental in the survival of the NBA during its infancy. The final period of note during the NBL's existence centered on George Mikan and the emergence of the big man in basketball. The Oshkosh All-Stars appeared in the championship series for five consecutive years (1938–42). They won two titles, they were led by

240-626: The 1949–50 NBL season. When the NBL and BAA merged, this team joined the NBA without playing a single NBL game. Also still surviving are the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots , the initial NBL champion in 1938. The Wingfoots suspended operations for World War II and were not included in the NBL/BAA merger. Instead, they remained in the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL), which in 1961 became

270-768: The 1950–1951 season started. Midway through the 1950–1951 season, the Washington Capitols folded as well, bringing the number of teams in the league down to ten. Earl Lloyd , the first African American athlete to play for an NBA team, debuted for the Capitols in Rochester, New York on October 31, 1950. The franchise played the 1951–52 season in the American Basketball League , but the team folded again in January, 1952. The main reason why

300-822: The Detroit Vagabond Kings. That franchise was awarded to a famous barnstorming team, the New York Rens , composed entirely of African Americans, to play out the season in Dayton, Ohio , as the Dayton Rens . In 1949, after a three-year battle with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) for fans and players, the NBL merged with the BAA and became the National Basketball Association. A few years after

330-640: The Hughes-Curry Packing Co. of Anderson in 1946, at which time the brothers founded the Anderson Packers. John Duffey was president of the club, and its secretary-treasurer was Ike. The Duffeys profitably sold their Anderson packing plant three years later, although they retained ownership of the team until its demise. The Packers played in the National Basketball League from 1946 to 1949. The team moved into

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360-656: The NBA's longest until 1969. The 15–0 start of the 1948–49 team was the best in NBA history until the Golden State Warriors broke it in 2015–16 by starting 24–0, though the Houston Rockets had previously tied the Capitols' record in 1993–94 , and later, tied by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2024–25 . The Capitols played in historic Uline Arena , located at 1132, 1140, and 1146 3rd St. NE, Washington, District of Columbia. The capacity

390-977: The NBL. Three teams joined the BAA in 1948: the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers ), the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings ), and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (now the Detroit Pistons ). Two more teams were part of the merger that created the NBA in 1949: the Buffalo Bisons/ Tri-Cities Blackhawks (now the Atlanta Hawks ), and the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers ). Five former NBA teams also trace their history back to

420-723: The NBL: the Anderson Packers , Denver Nuggets , Indianapolis Jets (as the Kautskys), Sheboygan Red Skins and Waterloo Hawks played in the NBL/BAA/NBA. The Jets played in the BAA for the 1948–49 season only; the remaining teams for the 1949–50 season only. Anderson, Sheboygan, and Waterloo joined the National Professional Basketball League in 1950. The NBL also created the Indianapolis Olympians for

450-653: The Zollner Pistons and Oshkosh for supremacy were the Sheboygan Red Skins . Beginning in 1941, the season before Fort Wayne joined the NBL, Sheboygan appeared in five of six championship series. They lost to Oshkosh in the 1941 finals, beat Fort Wayne for the title in 1943 but lost to the Zollner Pistons in 1944 and 1945, and were swept in the 1946 finals by the league's newest member, the powerhouse Rochester Royals , who boasted Hall of Famers Al Cervi , Bob Davies and Red Holzman . The NBL's third era

480-712: The bigger stars. NBL teams dominated the World Professional Basketball Tournament , an annual invitational tournament held in Chicago and sponsored by the Chicago Herald American . NBL teams won seven out of ten editions of the tournament. On August 3, 1949, representatives from the 12-year-old NBL and 3 year old BAA met at the BAA offices in New York's Empire State Building to finalize a merger. Maurice Podoloff ,

510-467: The first two games, both at home, by 16 points each and lost the series four games to two; every game but the last was decided by at least 10 points.) Meanwhile, four runners-up played best-of-three matches to determine the other finalist. Philadelphia, second in the East, won that runners-up bracket and defeated Chicago in a best-of-seven series to win the BAA championship. ‡ The Capitols folded midway during

540-454: The league title in 1944 and 1945. Like many teams of that era, it was not uncommon for Fort Wayne to play its games in taverns, armories, high-school gyms or ballrooms. Under Zollner, the Pistons would eventually play an important role in the survival and growth of the NBA. Zollner's financial support of the NBA helped the league stay afloat during its tumultuous formative years. Challenging

570-664: The merger, the NBA adopted the BAA history as its own. The NBL contributed significantly to the foundation of the NBA, but it also had major accomplishments in other areas, most notably in offering opportunities for African-American players. In the 1942–43 season, with many players in the armed forces, two NBL clubs, the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets and the Chicago Studebakers , filled their rosters by signing African-Americans—five years before Jackie Robinson would break baseball's color barrier with

600-679: The president of BAA, became the president of the NBA while Ike Duffey , president of the NBL, became the chairman. The new National Basketball Association (NBA) was made up of 17 teams that represented both small towns and large cities across the country. The NBA claims the BAA's history as its own and considers the 1949 deal as an expansion, not a merger. For example, at NBA History online, its table of one-line "NBA Season Recaps" begins 1946–47 without comment. It celebrated "NBA at 50" in 1996, with announcement of its 50 Greatest Players among other things. The NBA does not recognize NBL records and statistics except under certain circumstances. As such,

630-451: The records and statistics of the BAA and NBL prior to the merger in 1949 are considered in official NBA history only if a player, coach, or team participated in the newly formed NBA after 1949 for one or more seasons. The history of the NBL falls into three eras, each contributing significantly to the growth of professional basketball and the emergence of the NBA . The first dynasty centered on

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660-620: The season on January 9, 1951. Anderson Packers The Anderson Packers , also known as the Anderson Duffey Packers and the Chief Anderson Meat Packers , were a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana , in the 1940s and 1950s. The team was founded and owned by brothers Ike W. and John B. Duffey, founders of meat packing company Duffey's Incorporated, which had purchased

690-732: The team folded for the second time was related to them and the ABL being sued by the NBA if the new Capitols tried to take the NBA team name's history from them as well. The teams wore green and white. The NBA returned to the Washington, D.C. area in 1973 , when the Baltimore Bullets became the Capital Bullets, now known as the Washington Wizards . The Capitols' 81.7 win percentage in the BAA's inaugural season

720-534: Was 7,500. The facility still exists and has been repurposed into retail and office space. Notes: † The inaugural 1947 BAA Playoffs did not establish Eastern and Western champions and generated one finalist from the East, one from the West, only by coincidence. Washington and Chicago won the Eastern and Western Divisions and met in a best-of-seven series to determine one league championship finalist. (Washington lost

750-563: Was a professional basketball league in the United States. Established in 1935 as the Midwest Basketball Conference , it changed its name to the NBL in 1937. After the 1948–49 season, its twelfth, it merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). Five current NBA teams trace their history back to the NBL: the Atlanta Hawks , the Detroit Pistons ,

780-573: Was dominated by George Mikan , the 6'10" (2.08 m), three-time NCAA "All-American" center from DePaul University in Chicago. As a rookie, he led the Chicago American Gears to the 1947 NBL title, but before the next season, owner Maurice White pulled his team out of the league and formed his own 24-team circuit called the Professional Basketball League of America . That venture quickly failed, and Mikan

810-537: Was made by the home team. Some of the teams were independent, while others were owned by companies that also found jobs for their players. Chicago newspaper sports editor Leo Fischer acted as president of the NBL from 1940 to 1944. In 1946, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) incorporated resulting in a three-year battle with the NBL to win both players and fans. The BAA played its games in larger cities and venues. However, NBL tended to have

840-511: Was primarily made up of Great Lakes area small-market and corporate teams. The league began rather informally. Scheduling was left to the discretion of each of the teams, as long as the team played at least ten games and four of them were on the road. Games played increased yearly as the popularity of professional basketball and the NBL grew in America. Games consisted either of four ten-minute quarters or three fifteen-minute periods. The choice

870-531: Was signed by the NBL's Minneapolis Lakers , where he teamed with the versatile Jim Pollard to win the 1948 championship. After the 1947–48 season, Mikan's Lakers quit the League to join the Basketball Association of America (BAA), along with three other NBL clubs: Rochester, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis. The NBL added an all-black team in December of its final season, when one of its replacement clubs folded,

900-478: Was the highest in the NBA until surpassed by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1966–67. The Capitols captured two Divisional Championships: ( 1946–47 and 1948–49 ) and made the playoffs in ( 1947 , 1948 tie-breaker, 1949 and 1950 ). The Washington Capitols are also noteworthy for two long win streaks during their short history. In 1946, the Capitols won 17 straight games — a single season streak that remained

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