A ticket stub from a historically important 1937 game between the New York Rens and the Oshkosh All Stars.
A few weeks ago I did a post about the 1937 “World Series of Basketball” staged between the New York Rens and the Oshkosh All Stars in and around Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
You may recall that some of the games took place in the University Fieldhouse of the University of Wisconsin.
A ticket stub from a historically important 1937 game between the New York Rens and the Oshkosh All Stars.
Well, I wanted to share with you a ticket stub from that series of games.
Here it is.
Sometimes it’s really cool to see an actual artifact from something that was previously only research.
Kinda makes it real.
Like meeting a famous person.
It makes history now.
It’s one of the reasons I’m developing a Black Fives Era museum exhibit and historical archive.
Anyway, now that you’ve read the earlier post, do you appreciate this ticket stub more?
While the NBA integrated in 1950 or so, a large part of basketball history is neglected — that being the history of the National Basketball League. And it did have African-Americans playing in it, years before the NBA (originally the BAA) was formed in 1946.
Historians should pay more attention to the NBL, which had been around for years, arguably had superior talent to the fledgling BAA for a few years, was integrated, and ONLY collapsed, in the form of a merger, after the BAA had raided its franchises and players.
Historians should never forget that professional basketball did not start in this country in 1946. It had been around for awhile, and when the current NBA started out, it had the money and the major cities and facilities — but didn’t have the talent. That was in the NBL, and it was, as we would say today, diverse.
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Hey Greg,
You’re so right. I can point you to Murry Nelson of Penn State, who’s done extensive research on the N.B.L. and is in my opinion the leading expert on that league. His book on the N.B.L. is forthcoming with Macfarland Press.
The N.B.A.’s revisionist history doesn’t help the situation, claiming they started in 1946 when everyone knows it was in 1950 … and disowning the N.B.L. in favor of the B.A.A.
Thanks!
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