Joseph Brennan

From Hoopedia

Joseph R. (Joe or Poison) Brennan (November 15, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York - May 10, 1989) was an early professional basketball player. He began playing pro ball in 1919 and retired in 1936.

He attended St. Augustine's Academy in Brooklyn. He lettered all four years and was named captain his senior year.

Brennan played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Metropolitan League in 1922, when he led the league in scoring and took his team to the league championship. He also did a season (1926-27) with the Paterson Crescents in the Metropolitan League and led the league in scoring. In that same season he played for the Brooklyn Visitations in the National Basketball League (1926-27) (the only year of that league's existence), and led them to the league championship. (The Visitations also played in the NBL against the Crescents and it is not known how their head-to-head games turned out.) The Visitations joined the American Basketball League in the 1927-28 season, and Brennan led them to three league championships (1929, 1931 & 1935). Brennan scored the winning basket when Brooklyn upset the Original Celtics, then at the peak of their considerable skills, in a 1925 game in Madison Square Garden.

In the years before exclusive contracts, Brennan played for many different teams. For example, in the 1922-23 season records indicate that he played for six different teams in four different leagues. At various times he played for the Troy Trojans, the Trenton Royal Bengals, and teams in Holyoke, Massachusetts; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia.

All along during his playing career, he worked at a bank. After he retired from playing, he coached St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and continued to work full-time at the bank. He coached at St. Francis from 1941-48, compiling a 96-46 record.

He later became president of Atlantic Savings and Loan Bank in Brooklyn.

Joseph Brennan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 as a player. He is also a member of the St. Francis College Athletics Hall of Fame.

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