Buffalo Germans
From Hoopedia
The Buffalo Germans was an early team, formed in 1895 at the Genesee Street YMCA on Buffalo, New York's East Side. The team came into being when a young man, a recent graduate of the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Mass., was hired as the Y's physical education director. Dr. Fred Burkhardt had completed Dr. James Naismith's Phys Ed class in 1891, where Dr. Naismith introduced his new game, "Basket Ball." Serving as the coach of a team of youngsters, Burkhardt formed a junior team which simply would not lose. As the boys grew they took on more challenging opponents, and continued their successful ways. At one point they won 111 games in a row.
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Players
Team members recognized by the Hall of Fame were:
- Dr. Fred Burkhardt (coach)
- Philip Dischinger
- Henry J. Faust
- Al Heerdt (captain)
- Edward Linneborn
- John I. Maier
- Albert W. Nanweiler
- Edward C. Miller
- Harry J. Miller
- Charles P. Monahan
- George L. Redlein
- Edmund Reimann
- Williams C. Rhode
- George Schell
Apparently famed shoes salesman Chuck Taylor (yes, that Chuck Taylor) claimed to have played for the Germans. Basketball historians have never found any documentary evidence to support that claim.
Pan American Exposition
The Germans first rose to national attention in 1901, when they won the tournament held at the Pan American Exposition held in Buffalo. They beat each of the other seven teams who entered, all of them from the Northeast. Their closest game, a 16-5 contest, came against the eventual runner-up, Entre Nous Athletic Club of Paterson, New Jersey. The core of the Entre Nous squad soon became the highly successful professional Paterson Crescents.
1904 Olympics
Beginning in 1897 the AAU had organized, somewhat sporadically, a national tournament. In 1904 that tournament was scheduled to take place as part of the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. It was not, strictly speaking, an official event at the Olympics. Today we characterize such a competition as a "demonstration sport" at the Olympics.
Nevertheless, six teams converged on St. Louis that summer to engage in a round-robin tournament. The Germans emerged undefeated.
Results
- Buffalo 78, Turner's Tigers (San Francisco; possibly Los Angeles) 6
- Buffalo 87, St. Louis Central YMCA 35
- Buffalo 97, Missouri Athletic Club 8
- Buffalo 38, New York Xavier 29
- Buffalo 39, Chicago Central YMCA 28
On July 15 the Buffalo Germans won that tournament with relative ease. Henceforth they referred to themselves as "Olympics World Basketball Champions".
Barnstorming
Whatever the validity of that claim, they were a powerful force on the court. From 1908 to 1910 the team won 111 straight games. Their most impressive victory was a 134-0 win over Hobart College. The streak came to an end at the hands of the 31st Separate National Guard, one of Frank Basloe's professional squads from Herkimer, New York.
Some informed observers note that many of these wins came against unaccomplished small town teams and that none of them came against the competitive teams of the Eastern, Central or Hudson River professional leagues. While the Germans never joined one of these pro leagues, it is fair to note that the travel costs from Buffalo would have been prohibitive.
Probably because of the pervasive aversion toward things German during World War I, the team changed its name to the "Orioles" in 1915. The team disbanded in the 1920s (some say 1925, others 1929) after compiling a 792-86 record.
Al Heerdt kept his hand in basketball, however, managing the Buffalo Bisons and playing in the professional American Basketball League which lasted for only one unsuccessful season.
The team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961, one of only four teams to be elected as a whole.
