Philadelphia Sphas
| Philadelphia Sphas | |
|---|---|
| Conference | American League of Philadelphia (1917-1922) Manufacturer's League (1923) Philadelphia League (1923-25) Eastern League (1925-26) American Basketball League (1926-27, as Warriors) Independent (1928-1929) Eastern Basketball League (1929-33) American Basketball League (1933-1949, as Sphas) |
| Founded | 1917 |
| Folded | December 31st, 1959[1] |
| History | Philadelphia YMHA (1917), Philadelphia Sphas (1918-1921, 1922-1926, 1927-1933, 1937-1949), Philadelphia Passion, Gottlieb, Black (1921-1923 in the Manufacturers League), Philadelphia Warriors (1926-1928 in the American Basketball League), Philadelphia Hebrews (1933-1937), Atlantic City Tides (1949)[2] |
| Arena | Broadwood Hotel |
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Team colors | Red, white, blue |
| General manager | Eddie Gottlieb |
| Head coach | Eddie Gottlieb (1917-1927) Harry Litwack |
| Championships | 12 (1 in Philadelphia League, 1 in Philadelphia Basket Ball League, 3 in EBL, 7 in ABL) |
The Philadelphia Sphas, also stylized SPHAs or SPHAS, were an American basketball franchise that existed in professional, semi-professional, and exhibition forms. They played their home games in the ballroom of Philadelphia's Broadwood Hotel. The team's name is acronym, derived from South Philadelphia Hebrew Association (the group that initially funded the team), and the team's players were primarily Jewish. Future Philadelphia Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb founded the team as an amateur group shortly after he and some close friends graduated high school, and the team evolved into a professional unit that played in many leagues around the Philadelphia area and the East Coast, most notably the the Eastern Basketball League and the American Basketball League, between which the Sphas won 10 championships. The Sphas won a total of 12 championships, their first two coming from the early Philadelphia League and Philadelphia Basket Ball League.
With the advent of the Basketball Association of America, the immediate predecessor of the NBA, the ABL became a minor-league, and the Sphas would remain there as a semi-professional team until 1949. Gottlieb sold the team in 1950 to Red Klotz, a former Spha. 1949 would be the last year the Sphas were affiliated with a league, but thanks to former owner Eddie Gottlieb's friendship with Abe Saperstein, president and owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, the Sphas lived on as one of the exhibition teams that the Globetrotters would play, although they would retain only the franchise name, not the Jewish makeup of the team.[3]
Despite popular wisdom, the Sphas did not directly involve into the Washington Generals, instead Saperstein had asked Klotz to create a separate exhibition team because the Sphas had beaten the Globetrotters on more than one occasion.[4][5] After creating the Generals, Klotz sold the Sphas to one of his players, Pete Monska, who coached the team "for a year or two until it disbanded [in October 1959.]"[5] The Sphas played their last game as the original team on October 17th, 1959, losing to the Globetrotters in a double-header exhibition game. The Sphas were then reconstituted as the Baltimore Rockets, another Globetrotters exhibition team.[6]
History
The Sphas were organized in 1917 as an amateur team by neighborhood friends Eddie Gottlieb, Harry Passon, and Hughie Black after their high school graduation. From 1933 to 1946 the Sphas were among the most dominant team in the professional American Basketball League (ABL), winning seven league championships in 13 seasons.
Called the Sphas because the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association bought the players uniforms, the team featured many eastern U.S. top college graduates, including Harry Litwack (IJSHOF honoree), Asher, Cy Kasselman, Davey Banks, Moe Goldman (ABL MVP 1937–38), Shiky Gotthofer, Mendy Snyder, Irv Torgoff, Red Wolfe, Max Posnack, Gil Fitch, Jerry Fleishman and many others. All but a few Sphas players were Jewish during the club's many years of amateur and professional existence. Originally an independent team sponsored by the Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA), the players found a new home in 1921 at the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association when the YMHA withdrew its sponsorship. Their area victories earned the team a place in the Philadelphia League, where the Sphas won two consecutive championships, after which the league disbanded. The Sphas then joined the Eastern League for 1925–26, but it went out of business that same season.
Refusing to keep his team idle, owner-coach Gottlieb promoted a series of exhibition games against leading professional teams from New York's Metropolitan League and the new ABL, in its first year of operation. When the Sphas won five of six games, losing only to the ABL's top team, the Cleveland Rosenblums, Gottlieb arranged for best-of-three series against both the Original Celtics and the New York Renaissance. The Sphas defeated the Celtics in three games, and the Rens twice, 36–33 in overtime and 40–39. Within approximately six weeks, the Sphas had won 9 of 11 matches against the top teams in professional basketball.
When the Eastern League reformed in 1929, the Sphas joined its ranks and won three championships in four seasons. This led to an invitation from the newly reorganized ABL, dormant for two Depression years, which the Sphas joined for 1933. The team captured three League championships in four years, and would win seven titles in 13 years, and were twice runners-up. In 1946, following World War II, the Basketball Association of America, forerunner of the NBA, debuted, and the ABL ceased to be a major league. With Gottlieb establishing the Philadelphia Warriors as his BAA franchise, his Sphas continued with the minor league ABL and as a touring opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters. Gottlieb sold the team in 1950 to former Sphas star Red Klotz.
Season-by-season records
Players
References
- ^ Stark, xiv.
- ^ Stark, Douglas (2011). The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team. Temple University Press. pp. 267–287.
- ^ Stark, xiv.
- ^ "A Basketball Carol". Joe Posnanski. 2011-01-05. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
- ^ a b Stark, Douglas (2011). The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team. Temple University Press. p. 219.
- ^ Stark, xiv.