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Professional |
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Professional |
| Camden Post-Telegram - May 1, 1914 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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When James Naismith, a physical education instructor, was asked to create an indoor game that would provide an "athletic distraction" for a rowdy class through the brutal New England winter, he never would have imagined the world-wide impact of the game he would invent. Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of physical education at the School for Christian Workers (now Springfield College), Naismith had 14 days to create a game for a rowdy group of 18 students. Naismith came up with the game we know as basketball. Basketball became almost an immediate sensation, and with seven years of its invention, the first professional basketball league was organized, the National Basketball League. Camden NJ in the 1890s was a place that men with ideas for new and exciting things would come, a place where the latest inventions would not only be developed, but would be produced and gain world-wide fame. In many ways, Camden of these years could be compared to the Silicon Valley of the 1990s. Within a span of twenty years, new technologies such as the condensed soup made by the Campbell company and Eldridge Johnson's Victrola, as well as less well remembered inventions at the Warren Webster Company, the Esterbrook and C. Howard Hunt Pen Companies, Acme Staple and others put the words "Made in Camden, New Jersey" probably in the mouths of more people who did not speak English than did! It was only natural then, when the entrepreneurs who organized the National Basketball League looked for places for the new sport to be played, Camden was among the first chosen. The Camden Electrics, under owner and player-coach William E. "Billy" Morgenweck, had organized were playing the game as early as as 1895.
The Electrics were one of the six original professional teams when the league began play in the 1898-1899 season. Of the six teams, besides Camden, three were in Philadelphia, one in Millville NJ, and the other in Trenton. Two of the Philadelphia teams folded prior to New Years Eve 1898, but the other four completed the season, with the Trenton Nationals winning the first championship with an 18-2-1 record. Camden finished 11 games back, with 7 wins against 13 defeats and a tie.
The following season was more stable for the new league. The New York Wanderers joined, and only one team, out of Chester PA dropped out, and they were immediately replaced by the Millville team, which had originally elected not to participate that season. Trenton and Millville providing again to be the best teams in the loop, with Trenton gaining a disputed championship. Camden opened the season at home with a win over Bristol, but they finished the season only 2 games over the .500 mark.
The National Basketball League began the the 1900-1901 season with an expanded schedule of 32 games, and seven teams. Of the seven teams, six had participated in league play before, the only new entry, from Burlington NJ, failed to complete the season. With 5 of the seven teams finishing with records of .500 or better, NBL fans saw good competitive play from most teams throughout the season. In his season the Camden team also went by the handle of Camden Skeeters, apparently after what many call the New Jersey state bird, the mosquito! With the split season dropped, no playoffs were necessary, and the New York Wanderers captured the League title by three games.
The 1901-1902 season may have been the most successful year of the National Basketball League in terms of stability. The schedule expanded once again to 40 games, every game save one was played as scheduled, no teams dropped out, and there was only one rally weak team in the league. Camden finally became more than a .500 team, and lost the league crown to the Bristol Pile Drivers by only 3 games.
1902-1903 was the season that made brought Camden its first professional sports title, a season that would forever place the city in as the home of one of the greatest professional teams of all times. The league had returned to the split season format, but it hardly mattered, as the Coach Billy Morgenweck's Camden Electrics cruised to 36 wins against only 9 defeats, a winning percentage of .800 Coach Morgenweck's brother, Frank "Pop" Morgenweck, a future member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was a team owner and coach that year. No playoffs were necessary, needless to say
The National Basketball League however, fared less well than its best team. Two teams dropped out before the season finished. The Burlington team was doing so poorly that its owner-coach, Frank Reber, fired his entire team, purchased the Bristol franchise and used Bristol's players to represent Burlington. There was another mid-season ownership change as Frank Morgenweck disbanded his team, in order to purchase the Wilmington DE, ball club.
Things did not go very well during the off season in 1903 in the National Basketball League. Only five teams elected to play that year, more importantly, New York, Burlington, and Wilmington, all with experienced owners and coaches, failed to return. The league began the season with only five teams. Trenton dropped out on December 26, 1903, and Camden left on December 31st. The disbanded on National Basketball League January 4, 1904, not without controversy, and at least one law suit followed its demise. Billy Morgenweck was subsequently sued by investors in the team, including local businessman Sig Schoenagle.
After
the dissolution of the Eastern League, the Camden Electrics carried on as
a semi-pro team. Pro basketball would return to Camden in 1910 in a reborn
Eastern Basket Ball League. The Camden Electrics, however, were not a part
of the new league, the new team being the Camden Alphas. The Electrics
were, however, active in semipro circles, and from the 1906-1907 season
through the 1908-1909 season lost only one game, with a club featuring
Horace Parker, Louis Urban, Frank Eames, Louis Ballinger, Earl Scott, and
future major league baseball player and coach Russell "Lena"
Blackburne. They were still active as late as 1914, when they went
16-3-1, won the New Jersey independent championship and came within a game
of winning a Pennsylvania championship.
Although the Eastern League folded, basketball remained quite popular in the are and elsewhere. A professional league was organized in Philadelphia, but no Camden franchise ever joined this league. Besides the semi-pro Camden Electrics, a number of other teams were organized. One of the most successful and enduring of these were the Camden Alphas, sponsored by the Alpha Club, a social club headquartered on Broadway in South Camden. The Alphas and other teams such as the Third Regiment NJ National Guard team operated in loose confederation of independent teams. The Alphas were Camden city champions during the 1909-1910 season, and joined the Eastern Basket Ball League the next year.
The Alpha Club retained ownership of the team until January of 1915, when they sold it to a group headed by Camden veterinarian Dr. Charles B. Helm. The Alphas finished in a three-way tie for first in 1913-1914, losing in the playoffs, and in a two-way tie the next season, where no playoff was held. They were pretty much a .500 team through the beginning of the 1917-1918 season, when play was suspended due to America's involvement in World War I. During these years the Alphas star player was Jackie Adams. Other mainstays included Roy Steele, Jimmy Brown, Eddie Dolin, Eddie Ferat, and Neil Deighan. The Eastern Basket Ball League resumed play in 1919, with Dolin, Steele, and Neil Deighan returning. New players included James "Soup" Campbell, Joe Hyde, Sam Lennox, Dave Kerr and Rich Deigan, Neil's younger brother. Re-named, the Camden Crusaders totally dominated the league, winning both the first and second halves and eliminating a need for a playoff. Campbell lead the league in scoring, with Dolin, Steele, and Kerr also being among the league's top 10. The Crusaders were good in 1920-1921, but not good enough, finishing one game out of first place in both half seasons. The team was again renamed for the 1921-1922 season, and as the Camden Skeeters, they again were good but not the best, finishing second in both halves once again. The 1922-1923 season looked to be more of the same, as the Skeeters were second in the first half. Sadly, with only three games played in the second half, the league suspended operations. Interestingly enough, five of the 1919-1920 championship team became mainstays in the bar and restaurant business in Camden for many years after their sporting days were over. Neil Deighan built the establishment known since the 1950s as The PUB, which is still thriving on the Airport Circe in Pennsauken 85 years after that championship season. Roy Steele had a bar on Carman Street east of Broadway for years, built a floating nightclub on the Cooper River, and a bar and restaurant at the Jersey shore. Joe Hyde took over his father's bar in the old Eighth Ward, Soup Campbell had a spot just off of Federal Street, and Sam Lennox was involved at the old Hudson Tavern. After two seasons off, the Eastern Basketball League returned for the 1925-1926 season, but was by this time pretty much a semi-pro organization. The Camden team went 1-11 in the first half and did not play at all in the second. After another two-year hiatus, a reorganized EBL returned for the 1929-1930 season. The Camden team featured one of the Deighans, Joe Hyde, and Sam Lennox, all past their primes and was arguably the worst team in the league. They were somewhat better during the 1930-1931 season but were again awful in their final year, 1931-1932. over the next few years before bowing out. Another Camden team played during the 1934-1935 season and were the second-half champions, losing in the playoffs to the Philadelphia Phillies, who were not affiliated with the baseball club. During these years players of note included Bart Sheehan, Ed Lobley, and Grover "Worm" Wearshing. The Eastern League folded after that. Pro basketball would not return to Camden for over 25 years, when the Camden Bullets arrived.
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STATISTICS
of CAMDEN PLAYERS in the EASTERN BASKET BALL LEAGUE |
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1910-11
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT
TP PPG 1911-12
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT
TP
PPG 1912-13
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG
1913-14
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG 1914-15
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG 1915-16
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG 1916-17
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG 1917-18
EBL CAMDEN
ALPHAS
G
FG
FT TP PPG 1919-20
EBL CAMDEN
CRUSADERS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG 1920-21
EBL CAMDEN
CRUSADERS
G
FG
FT TP
PPG 1921-22
EBL CAMDEN
SKEETERS
G
FG
FT
TP
PPG 1922-23
EBL CAMDEN
SKEETERS
G
FG
FT
TP
PPG |
