The National Industrial Basketball League was founded in 1947 to enable U.S. mill workers a chance to compete in basketball. The league was founded by the industrial teams belonging to the National Basketball League (NBL) that did not join the National Basketball Association when the NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America.
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.
The Denver Nuggets were a professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets joined the National Basketball League (NBL) for the 1948–49 season, and then joined the National Basketball Association when the NBL was absorbed by the Basketball Association of America to create the NBA for the 1949–50 season. The Nuggets were the first major professional sports franchise in Colorado.
Alexander Murray Hannum was a professional basketball player and coach. Hannum coached two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams and one American Basketball Association (ABA) team to league championships. He had a combined NBA-ABA record of 649–564 (.535) in the regular season and 61–46 (.570) in the playoffs over 16 seasons. In 1998, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.
James Clifford Pollard was an American professional basketball player and coach. As a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Pollard was considered one of the best forwards in the 1950s and was known for his leaping ability, earning him the nickname "The Kangaroo Kid". A five-time NBA champion and four-time NBA All-Star, Pollard spent his entire eight-year professional career with the Minneapolis Lakers.
Donald Argee Barksdale was an American professional basketball player. He was a pioneer as an African-American basketball player, becoming the first to be named NCAA All-American, the first to play on a United States men's Olympic basketball team, and the first to play in a National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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.
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.
James Carlos McNatt was an All-American basketball player for the Oklahoma Sooners and the AAU's Phillips 66ers. At Oklahoma, McNatt led his team to the first-ever NCAA final Four in 1939, and at Phillips 66, McNatt guided the 66ers to four consecutive AAU national championships. He was a two-time All-American at Oklahoma and a four-time AAU All-American for Phillips 66. The speedy player came to be known by his nickname “Scat” McNatt, a moniker originally traced back to the term “Boy Scats” which sportswriters had used to describe McNatt's fast-breaking, sophomore-led 1937-38 Oklahoma Sooners basketball team. McNatt grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, attended Norman High School, and then opted to stay in his hometown to play basketball for the University of Oklahoma.
The Amateur Athletic Union Men's Basketball All-Americans were players who competed in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) between 1920–21 and 1967–68 and were chosen as the best players in the league during their respective seasons. Founded in 1888, the Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit, volunteer, sports organizations in the United States. It is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.
Jerome Franklin Shipp was an American basketball player. He played for the U.S. national team at the 1963 FIBA World Championship, 1963 Pan American Games and 1964 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal at the latter two competitions. Shipp was also a three-time Amateur Athletic Union All-American for the Phillips 66ers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma during the 1960s.
The Phillips 66ers were an amateur basketball team located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and 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.
Ed Voss was an American basketball player.
Paul Walter Napolitano was an American basketball player. He played college basketball for the University of San Francisco before going on to play professionally. In 1948, he won the National Basketball League championship and the World Professional Basketball Tournament with the Minneapolis Lakers. A good shooter, Napolitano was known for his one-handed jumpshot at a time when two-handed shots where the norm, with coach John Kundla calling it the "California shot".
John Stanich is an American retired basketball player. He was an All-American college player at UCLA and represented the United States in the 1950 FIBA World Championship.
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.
Charles E. Hanger was an American basketball player, known for his career as a collegian at the University of California, Berkeley (Cal) and as an All-American player in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
