nanan i laa tN

 

 

ORIGINAL CELTICS (1920)

(Standing, left to right) Chris Leonard,
Bart Meany, James A. Furey, Megr.,
Tom Furey, John Whitty, George Hag-
gerty.

(Seated, left to right) Mike Smolick,
John Beckman, Ernie Reich, Nat Hol-
man, Pete Barry.

hostile crowds and officials, were encountered by
the New Yorkers, but they carried the torch so
adequately in hamlets as well as in prominent
cities, that few blemishes such as occasional defeats
marred their escutcheons. Their scientific perform-
ances left a lasting impression upon all. Thou-
sands of victories crowned their efforts, and while
few of the original Shamrock wearers cavort on
the wooden runway today, the name is still capably
carried on the road by successors.

The past ten years have marked the rise to prom-
inence of two great colored teams in the Renais-
sance Club of New York City and the Harlem
Globe Trotters of Chicago. Both of these knights
of the road are exponents of the higher type of
basketball perfection, and brilliant records have
been compiled by them all over the United States
and Canada during the period of their organization.

The Metropolitan League started a successful
eight-year period of activity in 1921, and in turn
produced another crop of newer stars among its
clubs, located entirely in the Greater New York
area, with prominence created principally through
the development of a remarkable Brooklyn Visita-
tion combination.

A prominent group of sportsmen then saw the
possibility for professional basketball in the Mid-
West, and in 1925 the American League was estab-
lished, to assume a position of more important
national aspect than any of the others since 1891.
The assemblage of clubs in its roster included teams
from Boston, Mass., to Chicago, IIl., and in a few
months practically all of the better known Eastern
stars were enrolled on the rosters of clubs in that

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circuit. Salaries were paid to a considerable number
as high as $1,000 per month, to a selected group as
high as $1,500 per month, and in one instance
$2,000 per month. This league functioned with vari-
ous changes until 1931 when it was felt that the
serious setback suffered by all sports due to the

depression made it necessary to suspend Eastern
and Western engagements for a short period of
time. The majority of the Celtics played and won
several championships for the Cleveland Rosen-
blums during this period.

For two years the American League remained
dormant, only to be reorganized in 1933 to operate
solely in Eastern cities, where it is still functioning.
In this phase of the game’s development a new
contender has arisen to claim a spot in the basket-
ball firmament, equally as effulgent as any of its
predecessors, in the Philadelphia Sphas, winners of
five American League titles in the past eight years.

The heritage left by the players of bygone days
has provided a tradition and record unsurpassed
by any other professional sport in the annals of
American history. Former Governors, Senators,
Congressmen, a Chairman of the National Base-
ball Commission, Mayors, Judges, Executives in re-
sponsible charge of industrial companies, Bankers,
State Officials high in legislative chambers, Police
Inspectors, Surgeons of international recognition,
High School Principals and others in all walks of
life can attribute part of their success to the ideas
inculcated in their years of professional basketball

activities.