SWC75
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November
The Nat’s first November game wasn’t until Saturday, 11/6, when Red Auerbach’s hated Celtics blew the league favorites out of the Boston Garden, 84-107. The Celtics would be the highest scoring team in the league this season with 101.4 points per game, 5.8 more than any other team. They would also be the worst defensive team, giving up 101.5, 7.0 more than anybody else. They always liked to run. Everybody agreed what they really needed was a big, shot-blocking center to start up their fast break.
But this night, they were just fine. Cousy led the Celtics with 24 points, all from the field- quite a change from previous years- as he was 12 for 20 for the night. The Celtics, for the game, shot an “incandescent” 47 for 111 from the field, (42%) while the pitiful Nats were only 28 for 100. Shooting has advanced a bit over the eyars. Dolph Schayes claims defesne has declined but I think both aspects of the game have gotten better. The Nats were once again plagued by turnovers, although the actual number was not kept track of in those days.
Syracuse grabbed another train home to take on the Milwaukee Hawks, with their rookie star, Bob Pettit, as the second game of a double-header that included the Harlem Globetrotters, not an unusual situation in those days. NBA vied for Abe Saperstein’s favor in acquiring the Globies for these events as it would guarantee a large crowd, who might even stay to check out the local team.
Fortunately, the train ride did not prove too much for the team and they handled the Hawks, 97-80. It would be Billy Gabor’s last game before he had to leave the team. He scored 5 points. The Nats were never headed, bolting to a 13-2 lead and never falling behind, even though the Hawks got within one at 52-51. Pettit lead all scorers with 23. Schayes struggled with a 2 for 8 performance from the field but sank 12 of 16 from the foul line for 16 points. Four of his teammates were in double figures and the team was praised by the paper for its “ball-hawking”. One can imagine that Al Cervi had a thing or two to say to them after the Boston game. With the Trotters in town, there were 5,092 fannies in the seats. But that would not be the trend for the season.
The Steinbrenner of the 50’s
Another indication of the lack of prestige the NBA in those days is that the Nationals had to vacate the War Memorial until the 18th due to a series of more lucrative ice shows and a beauty contest. Their next game was at Fort Wayne. Fred Zollner, in some ways the Steinbrenner of the league in that era, had assembled what people figured was the most talented and highest paid team in the league. Big Larry Foust, (6-9 250), was possibly the league’s best center with the retirement of Mikan. George Yardley was a future league scoring champion. Mel Hutchins was good forward. Max Zaslofsky was a veteran guard who had been a star in the league from its earliest years. So was Andy Phillip, who had been an All-American for the high scoring Illinois “Whiz Kids” of the 40’s and at 6-3 and 200 loved to push around smaller guards like Syracuse’s 6-0 185 George King. Even stronger was Frank Brian who only scored 9.7 a game but loved to play against the Nats, having a big game seemingly every time.
Zollner didn’t mind spending money but he didn’t like being put into the background. He surprised everybody by hiring Charley Eckman, the referee who had quit after his encounter with “The Strangler”, as his coach, even though Eckman had no experience as a coach. After a Pistons-Lakers game the year before Eckman had boasted to George Mikan, “If I was coaching the Pistons, I’d beat you big clowns!” Zollner overheard him and, on a whim hired Charley for the 1954-55 season.
“He was a terrible coach”, said Yardley in David Ramsey’s book. “He had no idea what was going on.” Eckman said “I was a cheerleader and I kept everybody happy. It’s a simple game…we had only two plays and when we ran them I didn’t even know where the ball was.” He did say that as a ref who did 120 games a year, he knew the moves and skills of all the players intimately and that helped him decide which match-ups he wanted to see. He let the players run the show, which many feel is what Zollner wanted- he wanted credit for any success through his hiring of the players. He didn’t want a coach that would get any headlines. Later, after Yardley became a star, Zollner became jealous of him. When Yardley suffered a broken arm and Zollner used this as an excuse to get rid of him- by shipping him to the Nats. The Pistons never had a contender again until the championship teams of the late 80’s- 30 years later. But at least Zollner didn’t have to read about how great Yardley was anymore.
The Nats held on to win this one, 88-86, the first of seven victories in 9 games against the “Zollner Pistons” that regular season. Foust led all scorers with 23 but Schayes scored 22 and five Nats were in double figures. Cervi’s defense held the Pistons to a single basket from the field in the last quarter.
A bad road trip
The Nationals then traveled to Milwaukee where they got whipped, 72-85 by the team that would eventually finish with the worst record in the league. The ice-cold Syracuseans failed to score a single field goal in the first quarter and fell behind by an embarrassing 5-25 score. Red Holtzman’s team was 8 for 20 from the field in that quarter, the Nats an absurd 0 for 20. The visitors never got with 8 points after that disastrous start. Schayes had 24 points but got no help. Pettit had 21 but Chuck Cooper, the first black to be drafted by an NBA team, had 23. Syracuse’s backcourt of Paul Seymour and George King were 2 for 27 from the field in this game.
The team then moved on to Minneapolis, where they again lost to the Lakers, 92-99. Syracuse led virtually the entire first three quarters and 70-68 going into the fourth quarter but the home team scored 7 in a row to take a 70-75 lead they never relinquished. Jim Pollard led the Lakers with 25 points. Red Rocha led the Nats with 21 but had only 5 in the second half.
Double Headers
The team then went to play the first game of a an all-NBA double-header at Madison Square Garden, beating the previously unbeaten Philadelphia Warriors, (who would go on to finish last in the East with a 33-39 record but win the NBA title the next year), 86-85 on a “thoughtless error” by Warrior Jack George who tried a risky length of the court pass that was picked off by the heady George King, (George to George), with the Nats down 84-85 with 11 seconds left. The Nats called time and then got the ball to their main man, Dolph Schayes, for a drive. Dolph missed the shot but got the rebound and put it in at the buzzer. The soon to be defunct Baltimore Bullets set an MSG scoring record, downing the Knicks, 110-107 in the nightcap. This was a common set up in those days: four NBA teams would converge on one city to play a double header with the host team playing in the second game. It sure saved on the rent.
With the ice shows and beauty contests over for the moment, the Nats returned home to host an all-NBA double header of their own in the War Memorial. The Knicks beat the Warriors, 96-94. In the second game the Nats again beat Ft. Wayne, 91-82. The Pistons had never won a game in Syracuse. Their record on the season was 6-2, with the two losses being their games against the Nats. Earl Lloyd had a big game with 22 points. Larry Foust scored 30 for the Pistons, schooling the rookie Kerr. But Johnny made his presence felt for the first time with 19 points of his own. The Nats had six men in double figures.
The Nats had their first game with the Royals in Rochester on 11/20 in a Saturday game that was televised nationally by NBC. Syracuse pulled out a thriller, 80-79. Leading by 5 points with 15 seconds left, they twice let Royals score without fouling and held on for the win. Schayes led with 18 points.
Then the team outran the Celtics, 110-104 in the War Memorial to take over first place at 7 wins and 4 losses. Schayes, loving the full court action, scored 39 points, his most ever to that point in regulation, (he’d had 41 in a 1952 overtime game), King set a club record with 14 assists. Four other Nats were in double figures. Cousy had 26 for the Celtics but could not prevent them from falling behind by as many as 20 points at one point.
Spent Bullets
At this point, The Bullets folded. It was decided that the games played against them would not count in the standings and instead extra games would be scheduled against the other teams to make up for them. Also, their players would be distributed to the other teams in the league. The Nats won a drawing from a hat, giving them the first pick. Many thought they would pick Frank Selvy, who was leading the league in scoring at 22 points per game. But Cervi wanted veteran forward Connie Simmons who at 6-8 225 could help the team up front and was also known for hitting an occasional set shot. Jack Slattery explained the Nats would have to bench George King to play Selvy and Cervi didn’t care to do that. He said Simmons, at age 29 was ”not too old”.
The Nats then beat the Hawks, 91-85 on 11/25 in the War Memorial, scoring 11 straight to break a 78-78 tie. Pettit outscored Schayes, 22-23 but didn’t get quite as much help.
Now came three straight games against the Knicks, one in each city and one on a neutral court in another one of those double headers. The first was an 80-74 win in New York on 11/27, the Nat’s 6th straight win. The game was tied 64-64 when Billy Kenville stole the ball and fed his new teammate, Simmons, for a three point play. Simmons then hit one of his set shots to make it 69-64 and the Nats were never headed. Schayes scored only 4 points in “limited service”. He played with two fingers of his left hand taped due to a “knuckle hemorrhage”. He later said that the injury to his right hand was from the previous year, which forced him to use his left hand more, and this injury to his left hand, which forced him to use his right hand exclusively, made him a better, more versatile player.
The Nats won in the War Memorial, 79-77. Down 74-77, Seymour hit a long set shot and Schayes used the glass to bank one in to make it 78-77 with 22 seconds left. Seymour made a free throw and Harry Gallatin missed at the buzzer. A fight had broken out in the third period with Ray Felix matching up with Kerr after Sweetwater Clifton shoved Johnny in the face.
The Nats ended the month in first place at 10-4. The Pistons led the West with an 11-4 record.
The Nat’s first November game wasn’t until Saturday, 11/6, when Red Auerbach’s hated Celtics blew the league favorites out of the Boston Garden, 84-107. The Celtics would be the highest scoring team in the league this season with 101.4 points per game, 5.8 more than any other team. They would also be the worst defensive team, giving up 101.5, 7.0 more than anybody else. They always liked to run. Everybody agreed what they really needed was a big, shot-blocking center to start up their fast break.
But this night, they were just fine. Cousy led the Celtics with 24 points, all from the field- quite a change from previous years- as he was 12 for 20 for the night. The Celtics, for the game, shot an “incandescent” 47 for 111 from the field, (42%) while the pitiful Nats were only 28 for 100. Shooting has advanced a bit over the eyars. Dolph Schayes claims defesne has declined but I think both aspects of the game have gotten better. The Nats were once again plagued by turnovers, although the actual number was not kept track of in those days.
Syracuse grabbed another train home to take on the Milwaukee Hawks, with their rookie star, Bob Pettit, as the second game of a double-header that included the Harlem Globetrotters, not an unusual situation in those days. NBA vied for Abe Saperstein’s favor in acquiring the Globies for these events as it would guarantee a large crowd, who might even stay to check out the local team.
Fortunately, the train ride did not prove too much for the team and they handled the Hawks, 97-80. It would be Billy Gabor’s last game before he had to leave the team. He scored 5 points. The Nats were never headed, bolting to a 13-2 lead and never falling behind, even though the Hawks got within one at 52-51. Pettit lead all scorers with 23. Schayes struggled with a 2 for 8 performance from the field but sank 12 of 16 from the foul line for 16 points. Four of his teammates were in double figures and the team was praised by the paper for its “ball-hawking”. One can imagine that Al Cervi had a thing or two to say to them after the Boston game. With the Trotters in town, there were 5,092 fannies in the seats. But that would not be the trend for the season.
The Steinbrenner of the 50’s
Another indication of the lack of prestige the NBA in those days is that the Nationals had to vacate the War Memorial until the 18th due to a series of more lucrative ice shows and a beauty contest. Their next game was at Fort Wayne. Fred Zollner, in some ways the Steinbrenner of the league in that era, had assembled what people figured was the most talented and highest paid team in the league. Big Larry Foust, (6-9 250), was possibly the league’s best center with the retirement of Mikan. George Yardley was a future league scoring champion. Mel Hutchins was good forward. Max Zaslofsky was a veteran guard who had been a star in the league from its earliest years. So was Andy Phillip, who had been an All-American for the high scoring Illinois “Whiz Kids” of the 40’s and at 6-3 and 200 loved to push around smaller guards like Syracuse’s 6-0 185 George King. Even stronger was Frank Brian who only scored 9.7 a game but loved to play against the Nats, having a big game seemingly every time.
Zollner didn’t mind spending money but he didn’t like being put into the background. He surprised everybody by hiring Charley Eckman, the referee who had quit after his encounter with “The Strangler”, as his coach, even though Eckman had no experience as a coach. After a Pistons-Lakers game the year before Eckman had boasted to George Mikan, “If I was coaching the Pistons, I’d beat you big clowns!” Zollner overheard him and, on a whim hired Charley for the 1954-55 season.
“He was a terrible coach”, said Yardley in David Ramsey’s book. “He had no idea what was going on.” Eckman said “I was a cheerleader and I kept everybody happy. It’s a simple game…we had only two plays and when we ran them I didn’t even know where the ball was.” He did say that as a ref who did 120 games a year, he knew the moves and skills of all the players intimately and that helped him decide which match-ups he wanted to see. He let the players run the show, which many feel is what Zollner wanted- he wanted credit for any success through his hiring of the players. He didn’t want a coach that would get any headlines. Later, after Yardley became a star, Zollner became jealous of him. When Yardley suffered a broken arm and Zollner used this as an excuse to get rid of him- by shipping him to the Nats. The Pistons never had a contender again until the championship teams of the late 80’s- 30 years later. But at least Zollner didn’t have to read about how great Yardley was anymore.
The Nats held on to win this one, 88-86, the first of seven victories in 9 games against the “Zollner Pistons” that regular season. Foust led all scorers with 23 but Schayes scored 22 and five Nats were in double figures. Cervi’s defense held the Pistons to a single basket from the field in the last quarter.
A bad road trip
The Nationals then traveled to Milwaukee where they got whipped, 72-85 by the team that would eventually finish with the worst record in the league. The ice-cold Syracuseans failed to score a single field goal in the first quarter and fell behind by an embarrassing 5-25 score. Red Holtzman’s team was 8 for 20 from the field in that quarter, the Nats an absurd 0 for 20. The visitors never got with 8 points after that disastrous start. Schayes had 24 points but got no help. Pettit had 21 but Chuck Cooper, the first black to be drafted by an NBA team, had 23. Syracuse’s backcourt of Paul Seymour and George King were 2 for 27 from the field in this game.
The team then moved on to Minneapolis, where they again lost to the Lakers, 92-99. Syracuse led virtually the entire first three quarters and 70-68 going into the fourth quarter but the home team scored 7 in a row to take a 70-75 lead they never relinquished. Jim Pollard led the Lakers with 25 points. Red Rocha led the Nats with 21 but had only 5 in the second half.
Double Headers
The team then went to play the first game of a an all-NBA double-header at Madison Square Garden, beating the previously unbeaten Philadelphia Warriors, (who would go on to finish last in the East with a 33-39 record but win the NBA title the next year), 86-85 on a “thoughtless error” by Warrior Jack George who tried a risky length of the court pass that was picked off by the heady George King, (George to George), with the Nats down 84-85 with 11 seconds left. The Nats called time and then got the ball to their main man, Dolph Schayes, for a drive. Dolph missed the shot but got the rebound and put it in at the buzzer. The soon to be defunct Baltimore Bullets set an MSG scoring record, downing the Knicks, 110-107 in the nightcap. This was a common set up in those days: four NBA teams would converge on one city to play a double header with the host team playing in the second game. It sure saved on the rent.
With the ice shows and beauty contests over for the moment, the Nats returned home to host an all-NBA double header of their own in the War Memorial. The Knicks beat the Warriors, 96-94. In the second game the Nats again beat Ft. Wayne, 91-82. The Pistons had never won a game in Syracuse. Their record on the season was 6-2, with the two losses being their games against the Nats. Earl Lloyd had a big game with 22 points. Larry Foust scored 30 for the Pistons, schooling the rookie Kerr. But Johnny made his presence felt for the first time with 19 points of his own. The Nats had six men in double figures.
The Nats had their first game with the Royals in Rochester on 11/20 in a Saturday game that was televised nationally by NBC. Syracuse pulled out a thriller, 80-79. Leading by 5 points with 15 seconds left, they twice let Royals score without fouling and held on for the win. Schayes led with 18 points.
Then the team outran the Celtics, 110-104 in the War Memorial to take over first place at 7 wins and 4 losses. Schayes, loving the full court action, scored 39 points, his most ever to that point in regulation, (he’d had 41 in a 1952 overtime game), King set a club record with 14 assists. Four other Nats were in double figures. Cousy had 26 for the Celtics but could not prevent them from falling behind by as many as 20 points at one point.
Spent Bullets
At this point, The Bullets folded. It was decided that the games played against them would not count in the standings and instead extra games would be scheduled against the other teams to make up for them. Also, their players would be distributed to the other teams in the league. The Nats won a drawing from a hat, giving them the first pick. Many thought they would pick Frank Selvy, who was leading the league in scoring at 22 points per game. But Cervi wanted veteran forward Connie Simmons who at 6-8 225 could help the team up front and was also known for hitting an occasional set shot. Jack Slattery explained the Nats would have to bench George King to play Selvy and Cervi didn’t care to do that. He said Simmons, at age 29 was ”not too old”.
The Nats then beat the Hawks, 91-85 on 11/25 in the War Memorial, scoring 11 straight to break a 78-78 tie. Pettit outscored Schayes, 22-23 but didn’t get quite as much help.
Now came three straight games against the Knicks, one in each city and one on a neutral court in another one of those double headers. The first was an 80-74 win in New York on 11/27, the Nat’s 6th straight win. The game was tied 64-64 when Billy Kenville stole the ball and fed his new teammate, Simmons, for a three point play. Simmons then hit one of his set shots to make it 69-64 and the Nats were never headed. Schayes scored only 4 points in “limited service”. He played with two fingers of his left hand taped due to a “knuckle hemorrhage”. He later said that the injury to his right hand was from the previous year, which forced him to use his left hand more, and this injury to his left hand, which forced him to use his right hand exclusively, made him a better, more versatile player.
The Nats won in the War Memorial, 79-77. Down 74-77, Seymour hit a long set shot and Schayes used the glass to bank one in to make it 78-77 with 22 seconds left. Seymour made a free throw and Harry Gallatin missed at the buzzer. A fight had broken out in the third period with Ray Felix matching up with Kerr after Sweetwater Clifton shoved Johnny in the face.
The Nats ended the month in first place at 10-4. The Pistons led the West with an 11-4 record.
