The Providence Steam Rollers were a professional American football team based in Providence, Rhode Island in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1931. Providence was the first New England team to win an NFL championship. The Steam Roller won the league's championship in 1928, which is the latest NFL championship win by a defunct team to date. Most of their home games were played at the Cycledrome, a 10,000-seat stadium that was built as a velodrome for bicycle races.
Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks was an American professional basketball player. The NBA's first scoring champion, he was sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was posthumously enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.
The New England Steamrollers were a former Arena Football League team based in Providence, Rhode Island. The team played in the AFL's 1988 season. The Steamrollers were one of four teams to enter the AFL in 1988, and along with the New York Knights and Los Angeles Cobras were folded following the season.
The Baltimore Bullets were a professional basketball team based in Baltimore. The Bullets competed in the American Basketball League (1944–1947), the Basketball Association of America (1947–1949), and the National Basketball Association (1949–1954). On November 27, 1954, the team folded with a 3–11 record on the season, making the Bullets the last NBA franchise to fold. Out of all defunct NBA teams, the Bullets were members of the association for the longest time and the only defunct team to win a championship.
The 1949–50 NBA season was the fourth season of the National Basketball Association. It was the first season after the merger of the 3-year-old BAA and 12-year-old NBL. The 1950 NBA playoffs ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Syracuse Nationals in 6 games in the NBA Finals.
The 1946–47 BAA season was the inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America. The league launched with 11 teams playing a 60-game schedule. The postseason tournament at its conclusion, ended with the Philadelphia Warriors becoming the first BAA Champion, beating the Chicago Stags 4 games to 1 in the BAA Finals.
Ernest A. Calverley was an American professional basketball player. He was an All-American while playing for the University of Rhode Island. He played professionally with the Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America for three seasons from 1946 to 1949. Calverley led the league in assists and was an All-BAA Second Team selection in his first season in the league.
Howard Shannon was an American basketball player and coach. He played professionally in the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the early years of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He later coached at the high school and college levels.
The 1949 BAA draft was the third annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The draft was held on April 21, 1949, before the 1949–50 season. In this draft, eleven BAA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. The draft consisted of 8 rounds and a regional selection period, with 75 players selected. This was the final BAA Draft before the league merged with the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association (NBA) in August 1949. The 75 players selected matched the same number of players selected in the 1989 draft; both drafts have the fewest picks selected prior to 1989.
Nicholas J. "Nat" Hickey was a Croatian-American professional basketball coach/player and baseball player. He turned to coaching basketball after his retirement from playing full-time in 1942 but occasionally activated himself as a player for the teams he was coaching. In 1948, at the age of 45, Hickey played two games with the Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) while serving as the team's head coach, making him the oldest player in NBA history, a mark he still holds today.
Albert Henry Soar was an American football running back and defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) who went on to have a long career as an umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB). Soar played nine seasons for the New York Giants, and caught the game-winning touchdown pass in the 1938 NFL Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers at the Polo Grounds.
The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to become the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the 1948–49 season. In this draft, eight BAA teams along with four teams who moved from the NBL, took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players.
The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Richard Fitzgerald was an American professional basketball player.
The 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats season was the 8th season of the Charlotte Bobcats in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the 22nd overall season of NBA basketball in Charlotte. Considered to be the worst NBA team of all time, the Bobcats failed to improve on their 34–48 record from the previous season and set the record for the worst winning percentage in a season with a .106 winning percentage, surpassing the 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers (.110) for the lowest winning percentage in NBA history. They were eliminated from playoff contention on March 28, 2012, after an 88–83 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, with a record of 7–41. On March 17, 2012, the Bobcats had their final win of the season against the Toronto Raptors, narrowly avoiding tying the 1947–48 Providence Steamrollers for the record of the lowest number of wins in NBA history. April was particularly unsuccessful, with the team failing to secure a single victory, embarking on a 23-game losing streak that lasted until the start of the following season. The Bobcats clinched the worst record in NBA history, in a shortened season or otherwise, by losing 104–84 to the New York Knicks in their final regular season game on April 26, 2012.
Benedict Michael Scharnus was a professional basketball player. He played for the Cleveland Rebels and the Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America.
Raymond A. Wertis was a professional basketball player. He played for the Cleveland Rebels, Toronto Huskies, and Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America.
The 1947–48 Providence Steamrollers season was the second season of the Providence Steamrollers. This season is also infamous for the lowest number of wins by a team in BAA/NBA history with only six total wins recorded by the Steamrollers throughout this entire season. The only other NBA teams to end their seasons with single-digit victories as of 2023 are the 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers, the 1998–99 Vancouver Grizzlies, the 1998–99 Los Angeles Clippers, and the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats, who hold the worst win percentage in NBA history. This season is also noteworthy for featuring the oldest player in BAA/NBA history, with head coach Nat Hickey suiting up for two games with the Steamrollers near his 46th birthday, making him the oldest player in league history at 45 years, 363 days old. That record still stands as of 2024.
