Toronto Huskies - Franchise History

Franchise History

In 1946, a group of owners and operators of some the larger arenas in America held a meeting in New York, to establish the Basketball Association of America (now the NBA). The majority of the would-be basketball owners were involved with the NHL and needed to fill empty dates. The only Canadian delegation invited was from Maple Leaf Gardens: Frank Selke Sr, who was in charge of the Gardens while Conn Smyth was overseas, got in touch with Ben Newman (who had coached two Canadian national championship teams and had staged a game in the Gardens previously.) The franchise cost approximately $150,000, funded mostly from Bay Street backers in Toronto.

"I honestly thought we could have made a go of the team," Newman once said, "but we were given the worst possible home dates." The hardships started almost immediately when Newman's father took ill soon after the first game, forcing to leave the Huskies to take over the family scrap and steel metal business in St. Catharines, Ontario. Lack of co-operation from the local media and lack of talent on the court kept crowds low, despite the use of such gimmicks that included free stockings to all women in attendance.

On November 1, 1946, they hosted the first game in BAA league history losing 68–66 to the New York Knickerbockers before an opening night crowd of 7,090. Ossie Schectman scored the opening basket for the New York Knickerbockers against the Toronto Huskies.

On that night, anyone taller than George Nostrand, the tallest Husky at 6'8", was given free admission. Attendance quickly dwindled and the Toronto Star published an estimate that team owners Eric Cradock (co-owner of the Montreal Alouettes football team) and Harold Shannon lost $100,000 in one season of operations.

Managing director of the Huskies was Lew Hayman, coach and general manager of the Alouettes and future president of the Toronto Argonauts and the Canadian Football League, who had been a star basketball player at Syracuse University. Charles Watson was team president. Ben Newman and Salter Hayden were the other co-founders. Annis Stukus was also a member of the front office.

Future all-star Ed Sadowski began the season as player-coach and was initially the team's top player. Three weeks into the season, with the team off to a poor start, the Star reported that the players had divided into two or three cliques that rarely spoke to each other. Sadowski's coaching was openly questioned and, just a month after the first game, he quit the team. After four games with interim coaches (Hayman coached one game, and Huskies player Dick Fitzgerald ruled the bench for three games), Hayman hired former Major League Baseball player Red Rolfe, who had also been coach of Yale University's basketball team.

Hayman traded the playing rights to Sadowski to the Cleveland Rebels for Leo Mogus, at the time one of the league's top scorers. Hayman had previously traded Nostrand to the Rebels for another 6'8" giant, Kleggie Hermsen. In February 1947 the Huskies acquired the tallest player in the league, 7'1" Ralph Siewert, from the St. Louis Bombers. Despite his height, Siewert averaged just 1.1 points per game with the Huskies and had the lowest field goal percentage on the team.

The team's leading scorer was Mike McCarron, with 649 points in 60 games. He and Fitzgerald were the only players to appear in every game. Sadowski had the most points per game, averaging 19.1 points over his 10 games with the Huskies. Hank Biasatti and Gino Sovran were the only Canadians on the Huskies, each playing just six games.

Neither of the Huskies' head coaches (or their interim coaches) would coach another game in the BAA/NBA after their time in Toronto. Of the 20 players to make it to the floor for the Huskies, only five would go on to play 10 or more games in the BAA/NBA following the 1946–47 season: Sadowski, Mogus, Hermsen, Nostrand, and Dick Schulz.