Chapter 2 / The Pro Game: Gladiators With a Ball

It had been 10 years since the game of basketball was born. The sport recently had turned professional, and Westfield was now home to a major professional basketball team. But it’s very important that I set the picture as to what this game may have looked like and how it was played, as it barely resembles today’s professional game.


The Player

The professional game at the turn of the century was a sort of a traveling troupe, for the most part. Players knew one another. At some point they had played with or against each other, and they showed up in the next professional basketball-friendly region. Many of the players who played for and against the Westfield team from 1902 through 1904 were not locals but rather from the New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia regions, traveling directly north via rail, with an occasional New Englander in the mix. Prior to coming to play in the New England leagues, these young men, mostly in their late teens and early 20s, started in the professional leagues in New Jersey and Philadelphia. After a short two-year stint in Western Massachusetts, most of the players moved on to other professional leagues that cropped up. These leagues included the New England Basket Ball Association (no teams based in Western Massachusetts), the Philadelphia Basket Ball League, the Central Basket Ball League (teams based in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania), the Eastern League (teams based in Eastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey) and the Hudson River League. At the time, basketball received zero national press. Even though the game was played on the college level, playing beyond college in the professional ranks, in any sport, was considered foolish by many and not a wise career choice for an educated young man. That is not to say there were no college-educated players, but they were certainly in the minority. The typical professional player at the time was from a hard upbringing and was considered a ruffian. In reality, the only difference today is that, in most cases, a professional basketball player is college educated.

With the professional game still in development, these young ruffians, mostly of recent Jewish, Irish, German and Polish descent, crafted their rough style of play in the settlement houses and YMCAs in the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — much like today’s amateur “street-ball” players of the same region — ironically playing in a cage. The early professional leagues and barnstorming teams from the region developed out of successful amateur tournaments that were making money. A few smart entrepreneurs, such as Frank Morgenweck (more on him and his connection to Westfield in a later chapter), saw this growth in the sport as an opportunity and, in 1898, organized the first professional league, known as the National Basket Ball League.


Big Men Need Not Apply

In the early days of professional basketball, a six-foot-tall player was a rarity.

In fact, based on the needs of the game at the time, tall players were a hindrance.

The lack of backboards meant rebounding was not as critical as it is today. Rather, as Robert Peterson said, “speed and agility” were more important features than height. However, the one position for the tall man was, of course, center. This was because of the two primary roles the center played. First, he would participate in the tip-off, a key play, as a jump ball was made after every score. Then he would proceed to “hang” under or near his scoring basket and stay there. The tall man at the time had a stigma of being slow, awkward and freakish, not desired characteristics for the fast-paced, quick-passing game of the early professionals. In 1952, Frank Basloe wrote: “Our quick razzle-dazzle type of ball handling would put to shame the so-called pass work on today’s court. In the old days the players did not depend on speed or height alone to overwhelm the other team. There was an exact skill to handling the ball. There are too many clumsy players in basketball today. Every coach or manager wants a seven-foot giant on his team.”


The Cage

Before mentioning anything else, it is important that I explain the most interesting underlying aspect of the early professional game: These guys played in a cage. The entire playing floor was surrounded by a 10 to 12 foot high, wood-framed structure with chicken wire and two to four doors. The reason for the cage was two-fold: First, it kept the spectators off the floor, away from the players and the action. And second, the ball would never leave play, making for a faster game and, it was originally thought, a safer one. Needless to say, this is where the term “cager” (a word often used today to describe a basketball player) comes from, although I highly doubt the “cager” of today would make it back then.

The typical basketball arena was small, with little room for spectators. Something needed to be done to keep fans out of the in-bounds. At the turn of the century, gymnasiums did not have a basketball court, like today’s gyms do, but rather stationary gymnastic apparatus. The professional basketball arena at the time was nothing more than a “hall” used for public gatherings, with few accommodations, and it required makeshift arrangements. Masonic Halls, armories and roller rinks (the roller skating craze raised the demand for roller rinks) were the closest structures available with the floor and capacity needed. Westfield had a roller rink known as the Gem Roller Rink.