Vintage Basketball Photos and Postcards

[bigfanNY]

Bob Kurland with the Phillips 66'ers in 1951. 1948 and 1952 gold medalist. Member of the inaugural class of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Quite possibly the greatest player of the first half of the 20th century.

Gonna call BS to that statment. Being a top player in the AAU is not being a top Basketball player. Even in the first half of the 20th century. Miken vs Kurland Miken 3-2 with one of Kurland's wins coming in a game Miken fouled out in the 1st half. Kurklands Ncaa titles Going forward Miken played against top talent in the ABL BAA and NBA. So not even the best big man. Fulks Lapchick Hickey Gates Cooper. All of them great Professional Basketball players. And remember when Kurkland was winning the NCAA The NIT was the top tournament.

[jad22]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

Bob Kurland with the Phillips 66'ers in 1951. 1948 and 1952 gold medalist. Member of the inaugural class of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Quite possibly the greatest player of the first half of the 20th century.

Gonna call BS to that statment. Being a top player in the AAU is not being a top Basketball player. Even in the first half of the 20th century. Miken vs Kurland Miken 3-2 with one of Kurland's wins coming in a game Miken fouled out in the 1st half. Kurklands Ncaa titles Going forward Miken played against top talent in the ABL BAA and NBA. So not even the best big man. Fulks Lapchick Hickey Gates Cooper. All of them great Professional Basketball players. And remember when Kurkland was winning the NCAA The NIT was the top tournament.

Excellent points.

[bigfanNY]

I try and only collect Pro Basketball but I do have college items And Chicago HS tournament programs from 1904 to late 1920's
As for photos I have a few the two 1928 Rosenblum's Celtics type 1's are my earliest
My Miken vs Knicks NBA Finals press photo clearly shows Miken had moves.

[Exhibitman]

Globetrotters time!







I have such a soft spot for that team; they were literally superheroes when I was a kid:

[jad22]

Here's a Team issued photograph.

[Michael B]

A few more photos.

lumpp-boryla-1.jpg
Ray Lumpp and Vince Boryla in their Olympic uniforms. 1948 gold medal. Lumpp was a long time employee of the New York Athletic Club. I met him a few times at the Basketball Hall of Fame during induction weekend.

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1936 McPherson Globe Refiners. They lost the Olympic Qualifying Tournament to Universal Pictures. This allowed them 6 players on the Olympic team. Due to the FIBA rules at the time the U.S. could only use 7 players per game. The first game was a forfeit by Spain as their team could not compete due to the civil war at home. Universal played games 2 and 4. McPherson, along with University of Washington player Ralph Bishop played games 3 and 5. Since McPherson, plus Bishop, played in game 5, the gold medal game vs Canada they were the only ones allowed to attend the medal ceremony. The are from left to right with Olympians in bold:
Gene Johnson coach, Francis Johnson, Jack Ragland, Bailey, Lee 'Tex' Gibbons, Bill Wheatley, Vernon Vaughn, Harry Down, Joe Fortenberry and Willard Schmidt.

meyers-1.jpg
Ann Meyers at UCLA. 1976 silver medal. In high school, Meyers not only played basketball she played volleyball, field hockey, softball, track and tennis. She was the first female to receive a four year athletic scholarship to college. She was also the first female to sign a contract with an NBA team, the Pacers. Lusia Harris was drafted, but did not intend to play.

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Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller. Cheryl 1984 gold medal. Reggie 1996 gold medal.

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Art Mollner in the 1930's. 1936 gold medal.

mollner-knowles-1.jpg
Art Mollner and Carl Knowles with actress Mary Anderson (Gone With the Wind and Lifeboat). 1930's photo probably from Mexico as it has a Spanish caption sheet. They played for Universal Pictures until the 1936 Olympics. Universal stopped supporting a team and they joined the 20th Century Fox team.

mulkey-1.jpg
Kim Mulkey second from the right while a sophomore or junior in high school. She won 4 state high school championships as a player. Won two national champions as a player at Louisiana Tech (NAIA 1981, NCAA 1982). Assistant coach for HOFer Leon Barmore at her alma mater. Won 3 NCAA championships as Baylor coach. Just finished her first year as coach at LSU. Her son Kramer Robertson plays/played in the St Louis Cardinals minor league system (Peoria, Palm Beach, Springfield and Memphis). 1984 gold medal.

olympic-48-1.jpg
1948 Olympic team on the boat to London. This shows the highest numbers worn by U.S. players in an Olympic basketball tournament. R.C. Pitts #99, Bob Kurland #90, Jack Robinson #77, Gordy Carpenter #66 and Jesse 'Cab' Rennick #55.

olympic-48-2-1.jpg
1948 Olympic team official photo at Haringay Arena in London.

[Michael B]

This is an page from a 1952 Olympic autograph album. The Scandinavians tend to use these spiral bound notebooks. Not just back in the 1950's, I also have 10 or so albums from Athletics World Championships in the 1990's and 2000's that are like this. The graph style paper is also popular over there.

lovellette-1.jpg
Clyde Lovellette at the Olympics. The signature below him is Forrest C. "Phog" Allen. He coached Lovellette at Kansas and was the head coach for the Olympic team.

The two signatures below Allen are Juan Gazsó and Alberto López of the Argentine basketball team. They finished fourth in the Olympic games. They were also members of the Argentine team that won the first ever FIBA World Championship in 1950. As the host country they won all their games. They defeated the U.S. 64-50 in the gold medal game.

This album, along with the others I have, came from the same person in Finland. Either he or someone else would clip out signatures they wanted though they did miss some better ones. This album has another 'Phog' Allen signature along with 2021 Boxing HOFer Davey Moore and gold medal boxer Ed Sanders. Both Moore and Sanders died as a result of injuries suffered during a boxing match. Moore fought Sugar Ramos in 1963. He was knocked down and hit the ropes suffering whiplash. He fell into a coma and died four days later at 32. Sanders, one of the rarer gold medal boxers, was knocked out by Willie James during a match in Boston Garden. He was carried from the ring and died the next day at the age of 24.

[Fwoodford_34]

Love these Rosenblum photos!!! Amazing vintage professional basketball images.

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

I try and only collect Pro Basketball but I do have college items And Chicago HS tournament programs from 1904 to late 1920's
As for photos I have a few the two 1928 Rosenblum's Celtics type 1's are my earliest
My Miken vs Knicks NBA Finals press photo clearly shows Miken had moves.

[bigfanNY]

Postcard sized team giveaway of Syracuse National's Championship team of 1955. Back is a dual ad for Rochester sample shoe store and season ticket packages for the Nat's. 32 games Best seats in the house $70. Pay before Nov 1st and get free parking in best lot.

[bigfanNY]

Back when NJ had The World Champion Reds. Got this from board member Ramram along with some reds and Spha's programs.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

Bob Kurland with the Phillips 66'ers in 1951. 1948 and 1952 gold medalist. Member of the inaugural class of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Quite possibly the greatest player of the first half of the 20th century.

Gonna call BS to that statment. Being a top player in the AAU is not being a top Basketball player. Even in the first half of the 20th century. Miken vs Kurland Miken 3-2 with one of Kurland's wins coming in a game Miken fouled out in the 1st half. Kurklands Ncaa titles Going forward Miken played against top talent in the ABL BAA and NBA. So not even the best big man. Fulks Lapchick Hickey Gates Cooper. All of them great Professional Basketball players. And remember when Kurkland was winning the NCAA The NIT was the top tournament.

Check your math. First half of the 20th century ended in 1950. By then Kurland had won back to back NCAA's (1945-46), 3 AAU Championships (1947, 1948, 1950) Olympic gold medal (1948), 2 time NCAA Final Four most outstanding player, Helms Foundation and Sporting News Player of the Year (1946) and retired in 1952. You know squat about the AAU. It was just as important back then and drew a lot of talent. Read up on the National Industrial League. Guaranteed players a career with a corporation and allowed them to play basketball. Mikan and Kurland were probably equal. Don't make excuses for Mikan fouling out of a game vs Kurland. Perhaps he was outplayed. Chuck Cooper did not graduate from college until 1950. Fulks was an above average player. Horrible shooter who bricked a lot in a short career.

[bigfanNY]

Well The 2 years that Miken won the Helms tropy as top collegiate player Kurland was playing as well. Kurland won in 46. The NIT was the top college tournament at the time and in 1945 Miken and depaul won. And Miken was tournament MVP. Head to head Miken 3 Kurland 2. By 1950 Miken had won 2 NBL Titles and 2 BAA/ NBA titles. Led NBL in Scoring in 1948 BAA in 1949 and NBA in 1950. And was named Greatest player of the first half Century by AP. So they were not close Kurland a good player who did not turn pro so never faced top talent. Tarzan Cooper not Chuck. I am a Philly basketball fan so soft for Fulks who led early years of BAA in scoring and won title in 47. Pop Gates Lapchick and early Celtics. Many great players in the first 50 years. Kurland on the list sure top 10, not in my opinion. Not playing againt a circut of company teams vs a circut of Professional basketball players. I dont know much about AAU but I do know they were not a pro leauge. And the greatest player of the first half Century would not have settled for that.

[bigfanNY]

Not a picture but a couple items signed by Clyde Lovellette. Who was pictured in a number of previous posts in this thread the first to win an NCAA Olympic and NBA title. Also signed by Miken Pollard and assorted Laker greats. The 1957 program has Miken pictured in all six of the lakers championship photos. But his signature is on the 1958 junior lakers day insert.

[jad22]

This is a wire photograph but still pretty cool.