The National Alliance of Basketball Leagues (NABL) is the descendant of the industrial-based basketball clubs that formed into the National Basketball League (NBL) in the early 1930s.
Bruce Drake was a college men's basketball coach. The Gentry, Texas native was head coach at the University of Oklahoma between 1938 and 1955, compiling a 200–181 record. He also coached the Air Force team to a 34–14 record in 1956.
Robert Albert Kurland was a 7 feet (2.13m) American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies basketball team. He has been credited as the first person to dunk in a college basketball game. He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rolland Douglas Todd is a former player and coach in the National Basketball Association, and a former player in the American Basketball League, who also coached basketball at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He was the first coach of the then-expansion Portland Trail Blazers, leading the team to a 29–53 record in its inaugural season ; though was let go the next season when the team failed to improve. According to Sports Illustrated his nickname while coaching the Blazers was "Mod Todd".
The Akron Goodyear Wingfoots are one of the oldest basketball teams in the United States. They were founded in 1918, by the workers at the Goodyear Tire Company, in Akron, Ohio. The teams, while giving workers recreation, also helped to promote one of the first canvas/rubber based shoes made specifically for athletics, the wingfoot.
The Cleveland Pipers were an American industrial basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Pipers are mostly known for having played in the short-lived American Basketball League from 1961–62. They were also a power in the day's Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball and the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) which peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Ronald Yngve Bontemps was an American basketball player who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was born in Taylorville, Illinois, and attended Beloit College. He was a captain of the United States men's basketball team, which won the gold medal in the 1952 Olympic Games. He played in all eight games. Bontemps died on May 13, 2017, in Peoria, Illinois, aged 90.
Howard Earl "Howie" Williams was an American basketball player who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Williams played collegiately at Purdue University where he was a 2x All-Big Ten guard ; he was selected as the Purdue team MVP in his junior and senior seasons and as Team Captain in 1949-50; posting a career total of 735 points. He led the Big Ten Conference in Free Throw Percentage (85.7%) for the 1948-49 season.
John Warren Womble, Jr. was an American basketball coach. He was the head coach of the Peoria Cats, a National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) team, located in Peoria, Illinois, and the head coach of the 1952 United States men's Olympic basketball team.
Gerald Tucker was the head coach on the 1956 USA Men's Basketball Gold Medal Olympic Team. He was the coach of Bartlesville Phillips 66ers for four seasons from 1954 to 1958 having the most wins in the National Industrial Basketball League in each of those 4 seasons. In 1955 Bartlesville Phillips 66ers won the AAU National Basketball Championship against the Luckett-Nix Clippers of Boulder, Colorado, winning 66-64 and in 1956 they were the runners-up to the Buchan Bakers of Seattle, losing 59–57.
Omar M. "Bud" Browning was an American basketball coach. In 1948, he became the United States' second Summer Olympics men's basketball head coach. Browning led 1948 USA team to a final record of 8–0, en route to a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics basketball tournament, in London. Browning became the winning-est coach in AAU tournament history, when his teams won AAU championships in 1962 and 1963.
Robert Eugene Jeangerard was an American basketball player who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Born in Evanston, Illinois, Jeangerard played collegiately at the University of Colorado. He then played for the Phillips 66ers in the NIBL. The Phillips 66ers won the Olympic Trials in 1956, and Jeangerard was one of five players from the Phillips 66ers selected for the 1956 Olympic team, along with their coach, Gerald Tucker. Bill Russell and K.C.Jones, two-time NCAA Champions from the University of San Francisco, were also on the 1956 Olympic team, which won the gold medal.
The Phillips 66ers were an amateur basketball team located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The 66ers were a national phenomenon that grew from a small-town team to an organization of accomplished amateur athletes receiving national and worldwide attention. Under the sponsorship of the company's owner, Frank Phillips, the team, which began playing in 1919, participated in the Amateur Athletic Union, the nation's premier basketball league before the National Basketball Association. Between 1920 and 1950, some of the strongest basketball teams in the United States were sponsored by corporations: Phillips 66, 20th Century Fox, Safeway Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and others.
John Paul "Pete" McCaffrey was an American basketball player. He played for the gold medal-winning United States men's national basketball team at the 1964 Summer Olympics. He also played for the fourth place squad at the 1963 FIBA World Championship.
The 1952 United States men's Olympic basketball team competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland from July 14 to August 2, 1952. Warren Womble was the team's head coach, and Phog Allen was the team's main assistant coach. The team won its third straight Summer Olympics basketball gold medal.
The Caterpillar Diesels was an amateur basketball team located in Peoria, Illinois and sponsored and run by the Caterpillar Inc. company. The Caterpillars were one of the most successful teams of the Amateur Athletic Union League in the 1950s and they became world-wide known in 1952 when five of their players represented the USA team in the Olympics, winning the gold medal.
The Buchan Bakers was an amateur basketball team located in Seattle, Washington and competed in the National Industrial Basketball League. The Bakers were one of the most popular teams of the Amateur Athletic Union, rising to fame in 1957 when the beat the Phillips 66ers in the AAU Tournament final. The team was sponsored by the Buchan Baking company, thus they adopted their name. During the 1955-56 season, the Buchan Bakers traveled to Asia, playing teams from Japan, China and they were the first AAU basketball team to play against Eastern European teams during the Cold War.
The Houston Ada Oilers was an amateur basketball club located in Houston, Texas, sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The team was created after the huge success the company's other team, the Phillips 66ers, had achieved in the 1940s and early 1950s.
The Santa Maria Golden Dukes were a community-run amateur club located in Santa Maria, California which competed in the AAU League and the NIBL in the 1940s and 1950s. The Dukes, though they were not corporate-sponsored, were members of the amateur National Industrial Basketball League for two years, between 1952 and 1954. It was the time that the NBA was in its infancy.For the town of Santa Maria, a Golden Dukes home basketball game was an always community happening. They played their home games in the old Armory Building at the Santa Maria Fairpark on the corner of Stowell and Thornburg in Santa Maria.
United States ![The 1963-64 Phillips 66ers, from left to right: [standing] Don Watkins (team manager), Jerry Shipp, Ken Charlton, Jim Hagan, Mike Moran, Terry Cerkvenik, Bud Browning, [kneeling] Ken Saylors, Del Ray Mounts, Denny Price, Larry Pursiful, Charlie Bowerman and Bob Turner. 1963-64 Phillips 66ers.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/1963-64_Phillips_66ers.jpg/220px-1963-64_Phillips_66ers.jpg)
