Philadelphia Warriors
From Hoopedia
The Philadelphia Warriors were founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1946 as a charter member of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the forerunner to the National Basketball Association. They were owned by Peter Tyrrell, who also owned the Philadelphia Ramblers of the American Hockey League. Tyrell hired Eddie Gottlieb, a longtime basketball player, coach, owner and promoter in the Philadelphia, as coach and general manager. He named the team after an early professional team in the city.
Led by early scoring sensation Joe Fulks, they won the championship in the league's inaugural 1946-47 season by defeating the Chicago Stags, four games to one. Gottlieb bought the team in 1951.
The Warriors won their only other championship as a Philadelphia team in the 1955-56 season, defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons four games to one. The stars of this era in the team's history were Paul Arizin and Neil Johnston. In 1959, the team signed the former Philadelphia Overbrook High School phenom Wilt Chamberlain. Known as "Wilt the Stilt," Chamberlain quickly began shattering NBA scoring records and changed the style of play forever. On March 2, 1962, in a Warrior "home" game played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knickerbockers, a single-game record.
In 1962, Franklin Mieuli purchased the majority shares of the team and relocated the franchise to the San Francisco Bay Area, renaming them the San Francisco Warriors. The team has, since 1971, been known as the Golden State Warriors.
