History
Fort Wayne has been home to a few sports firsts. On June 2, 1883, Fort Wayne hosted the Quincy Professionals for one of the first lighted baseball games ever recorded. [1] [2] Fort Wayne has been credited for being the birthplace of the NBA when Fort Wayne Pistons owner Fred Zollner brokered the merger of the BAA and the NBL in 1949 from his kitchen table. [1] [3] Also, on March 10, 1961, Wilt Chamberlain became the first player in the NBA to reach 3,000 points in a single season while competing at Memorial Coliseum. [1]
Fort Wayne hosted two NBA Finals Games in 1955 and 1956, as well as the third city to host the NBA All-Star Game in 1953. [4] The Allen County War Memorial Coliseum was also venue to the 2000 NCAA Men's Division I Volleyball Championship matches, in addition to hosting the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Mid-Continent Conference men's basketball tournaments. Fort Wayne also annually hosts the U.S.S.S.A. National and Boys State Championships, held at Spiece Fieldhouse. [5]
On November 22, 1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers with a final score of 19 to 18 in the lowest scoring game in NBA history. [6]
Fort Wayne hosted another major league team in a Big Four sport, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas of the National Association. The National Association was the first professional baseball league and the forerunner of the National League; it is sometimes considered to have been a major league, and sometimes not. The Kekiongas were a founding member of the national association (in 1871), and played and won the first National Association game, but disbanded partway through the 1871 season.
Wildcat Baseball League was a baseball league in Fort Wayne formed by Dale McMillen in April 1960 as an alternative to Little League Baseball. [7] [8] Fort Wayne was rated the "Best Place in the Country for Minor League Sports" in a 2007 issue of Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. [9]
