Buffalo Germans

The Buffalo Germans win the Pan American Championships in 1903

The Buffalo Germans were an American basketball team that made it into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as one of currently only ten teams .

history

The team, founded in 1895, initially consisted of six players (including John I. Maier and Henry J. Faust ) who played basketball together at the YMCA in the East Side of Buffalo . Other team members were: Philip Dischinger, Alfred A. Heerdt (captain), Edward Linneborn, Albert W. Manweiler, Edward C. Miller, Harry J. Miller, Charles P. Monahan, George L. Redlein, Edmund Reimann, Williams C. Rhode and George Schell. Your coach, Dr. Fred W. Burkhardt , let them compete against other teams. Until 1898, the Germans were considered unbeatable, having won the title three times in a row. In the following two years they won 48 of 52 games, setting a record.

In 1901 they took part in the Pan American Championships and won 10-1 victories. The 1903 Buffalo Germans had reached their climax with their 134-0 victory over Hobart College . A year later they won the III. Olympic Games in St. Louis (although the IOC regards the basketball tournament as a demonstration sport). From the 1907/08 season to the 1910/11 season, the Buffalo Germans won 111 games in a row, setting a new record.

In 1925 the team broke up after a record of 792 wins and 86 losses. The Buffalo Germans were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961 as the third team . The Germans are among the best and most dominant teams of all time.

literature

• Glenn Dickey: The History of Professional Basketball Since 1896 , New York 1982. ISBN 0-8128-2823-2
• Al Hirshberg: Basketball's Greatest Teams , New York 1965.
• Robert W. Peterson: Cages to Jump Shots. Pro Basketball's Early Years , Lincoln (NE) 2002. ISBN 0-8032-8772-0

See also

• List of members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Web links

• Buffalo Germans in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame At: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018 (in English).
• The 1904 Basketball Championship or Were the Buffalo Germans the original Dream Team? (PDF file; 19 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ben Gould: On the Rebound. Out: Brooklyn Eagle; Brooklyn, NY, February 27, 1943 (page 10).