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Cleveland Pipers
The Cleveland Pipers were an American industrial basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Pipers are mostly known for having played in the short-lived American Basketball League (1961–1962). They were also a power in the day's Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball and the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) which peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The team was first owned and run by Ed Sweeny, a shareholder in a company which handled plumbing, heating and air conditioning services for a number of companies and buildings in Cleveland. Sweeny handled sponsorship for a number of Cleveland recreational sports teams and leagues, including what became Cleveland Pipers. The team was purchased by the ambitious young George Steinbrenner, then a 30-year-old son of a Cleveland trading company owner, as his first entry into pro sports ownership. The team's precarious financial situation was such that its home games took place in eight different arenas and gyms. These ranged from the team's primary homes at either Cleveland Public Hall or the Cleveland Arena, to local colleges such as Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, to high school facilities in Ohio: Ashtabula, Lorain and Sandusky, and as far south as Columbus.
General Manager Mike Cleary later hired John McLendon, the first African American head coach in professional basketball, to lead the squad. Upon his hiring, McClendon was able to convince a former college player he had coached, Dick Barnett, to relocate from the NBA's Syracuse Nationals to the Pipers. After the team's first season, Steinbrenner signed Ohio State University All-American Jerry Lucas. In the latter case, the signing enraged the rival National Basketball Association (NBA), which attempted to lure Steinbrenner and the Pipers into changing leagues. Under McLendon, and later coach Bill Sharman, the team won the league's 1961–62 championship, the only full-season title in the league's short history.
Steinbrenner was considered meddlesome and irrepressible. Basketball lore indicates that at the November 22, 1961 game against the Hawaii Chiefs, he sold player Grady McCollum to the Chiefs at halftime. Mounting debts and costs of that move proved too much for Steinbrenner, who folded the team just months later.
The team sponsored by Ed Sweeny Co started in the Industrial A League. Opponents included Cleveland Twist Drill, East Ohio Gas and White Motors in this small eight-team division.[citation needed]
AAU and industrial basketball were popular in Cleveland then, as the city was not a college basketball hotbed, and professional basketball, such as the then-struggling NBA, was not yet strong in the city. The city's various sponsored industrial teams and local high school action therefore dominated then.
In 1958, the Sweeny Pipers won their league and they were then invited to join the nine-team Greater Cleveland Muny League, the top league in the city, for the 1958–59 season. Opponents included Bruscino Construction, Carney Auditors, Blepp-Coombs, and Cotton Club Beverage. The Sweeny team went 28–0 to win the league in 1959.[citation needed]
The team had strong local connections, with Cleary, coach Tom Nolan (a former star player at Cleveland area John Carroll University), and guard John Hollis. Their first big star was 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) Cornelius "Corney" Freeman, a former top scorer on Xavier University's 1957 National Invitational Tournament (NIT) team.
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Cleveland Pipers
The Cleveland Pipers were an American industrial basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Pipers are mostly known for having played in the short-lived American Basketball League (1961–1962). They were also a power in the day's Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball and the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) which peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The team was first owned and run by Ed Sweeny, a shareholder in a company which handled plumbing, heating and air conditioning services for a number of companies and buildings in Cleveland. Sweeny handled sponsorship for a number of Cleveland recreational sports teams and leagues, including what became Cleveland Pipers. The team was purchased by the ambitious young George Steinbrenner, then a 30-year-old son of a Cleveland trading company owner, as his first entry into pro sports ownership. The team's precarious financial situation was such that its home games took place in eight different arenas and gyms. These ranged from the team's primary homes at either Cleveland Public Hall or the Cleveland Arena, to local colleges such as Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, to high school facilities in Ohio: Ashtabula, Lorain and Sandusky, and as far south as Columbus.
General Manager Mike Cleary later hired John McLendon, the first African American head coach in professional basketball, to lead the squad. Upon his hiring, McClendon was able to convince a former college player he had coached, Dick Barnett, to relocate from the NBA's Syracuse Nationals to the Pipers. After the team's first season, Steinbrenner signed Ohio State University All-American Jerry Lucas. In the latter case, the signing enraged the rival National Basketball Association (NBA), which attempted to lure Steinbrenner and the Pipers into changing leagues. Under McLendon, and later coach Bill Sharman, the team won the league's 1961–62 championship, the only full-season title in the league's short history.
Steinbrenner was considered meddlesome and irrepressible. Basketball lore indicates that at the November 22, 1961 game against the Hawaii Chiefs, he sold player Grady McCollum to the Chiefs at halftime. Mounting debts and costs of that move proved too much for Steinbrenner, who folded the team just months later.
The team sponsored by Ed Sweeny Co started in the Industrial A League. Opponents included Cleveland Twist Drill, East Ohio Gas and White Motors in this small eight-team division.[citation needed]
AAU and industrial basketball were popular in Cleveland then, as the city was not a college basketball hotbed, and professional basketball, such as the then-struggling NBA, was not yet strong in the city. The city's various sponsored industrial teams and local high school action therefore dominated then.
In 1958, the Sweeny Pipers won their league and they were then invited to join the nine-team Greater Cleveland Muny League, the top league in the city, for the 1958–59 season. Opponents included Bruscino Construction, Carney Auditors, Blepp-Coombs, and Cotton Club Beverage. The Sweeny team went 28–0 to win the league in 1959.[citation needed]
The team had strong local connections, with Cleary, coach Tom Nolan (a former star player at Cleveland area John Carroll University), and guard John Hollis. Their first big star was 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) Cornelius "Corney" Freeman, a former top scorer on Xavier University's 1957 National Invitational Tournament (NIT) team.