The Roaming Photographer: The Atlanta Hawks

Photo Credit:
https://logos-world.net/atlanta-hawks-
logo/#google_vignette

1946-1953: Buffalo, Tri-Cities and Milwaukee

The origins of the Atlanta Hawks can be traced back to the Buffalo Bison franchise, which was founded in 1946. The Bisons were a member of the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their games at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. The club was organized by Leo Ferris and the Erie County American Legion and was coached by Nat Hickey(1). Their first game – a 50-39 victory of the Syracuse Nationals – was played on November 8th, 1946. On the team was William “Pop” Gates, who, along with William “Dolly” King, was one of the first two African-American players in the NBL(2). The team, which needed to draw 3,600 fans per game to break even, struggled to draw 1,000 fans per game to the Auditorium. The franchise lasted only 38 games (13 games) in Buffalo when, on December 25th, 1946, Leo Ferris, the team’s general manager and co-owner, announced that the team would be moving to Moline, Illinois, which at that time was part of an area then known as the “Tri-Cities”: Moline, IL, Rock Island, IL, and Davenport, IA(3).

Upon relocation to Moline, the team was renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and played their home games at Wharton Field House, a 6,000-seat arena in Moline(4). The team featured guard/forward and coach Deangelo King and was owned by Leo Ferris and Ben Kerner(5). Pop Gates remained on the Blackhawks roster and finished second on the team in scoring behind future 1949 NBL MVP Don Otten. A Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member, Gates helped integrate the league and later became the first African-American coach in a major sports league, coaching Dayton in 1948(6).

In 1949, the Blackhawks became one of the National Basketball Association’s 17 original teams after a merger of the 12-year-old NBL and the three-year-old Basketball Association of America (BAA). They reached the playoffs in the NBA’s inaugural year under the leadership of coach Red Auerbach. The following season, they drafted three-time-All-American Bob Cousy, but they were unable to reach a deal and traded him to the Chicago Stags (who would later surrender him in a dispersal draft to the Boston Celtics when the Stags folded). The Blackhawks finished last in the Western Division and missed the playoffs. By then, it was obvious that the Tri-Cities area was too small to support an NBA team. After the season, the franchise relocated to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Hawks.

1954-1965: St. Louis and The Bob Pettit era

In 1954, the Hawks drafted Bob Pettit, a future NBA MVP. Despite this, the Hawks were one of the league’s worst teams, and in 1955, the Hawks moved, this time to St. Louis, Missouri, Milwaukee’s rival in the beer industry, and became the St. Louis Hawks.

In 1956, Bob Pettit captured the league’s first official Most Valuable Player Award, and the St. Louis Hawks drafted legendary Bill Russell in the first round (second overall pick). They immediately traded Russell to the Boston Celtics for Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley, both Hall of Fame members(7)(8)(9)

In 1957, the Hawks finished four games under .500. However, the Western Division was extremely weak that year; no team in the division had a winning record. They won the division title and a bye to the division finals after defeating the Minneapolis Lakers and Fort Wayne Pistons in one-game tiebreakers. They then defeated the Lakers in the division finals to advance to the Finals, losing to the Boston Celtics in a double-overtime thriller in game seven. In 1958, after tallying their first winning record, they again advanced to the Finals, where they avenged their defeat against the Celtics from the previous year, winning the series 4-2 and giving their first and only NBA Championship. Bob Pettit scored 50 points in the final game of the series. The following season Bob Pettit led the Hawks to a Western Division-best 49-23 record, helping him capture his second MVP award(10).

The Hawks remained on the NBA’s premier teams for the next decade. In 1960, under coach Ed Macauley, the team advanced to the Finals but lost to the Celtics in a game seven thriller. The following year, with the acquisition of rookie Lenny Wilkens, the Hawks repeated their success, but met the Celtics in the 1961 NBA Finals again and lost in five games. They would remain contenders for most of the 1960’s, advancing deep into the playoffs and also capturing several division titles.

Photo Credit:
https://www.foxsports.com/watch/
131525699621