Fifty years ago today the NBA's Detroit Pistons were born in a YMCA league in Fort Wayne, Ind. (This takes somewhat special interest to us as the Fort Wayne area is all of Construda's place of residence.)
For all of you history buffs out there, here's a detailed piece from Bill Dow of The Detroit Free-Press.
Here's a brief timeline of the franchise.
1938: The Pistons are formed and play in the YMCA Industrial League in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Their sponsor is the Zollner Machine Works.
1941: The Zollner Pistons join the National Basketball League.
1948-49: The Zollner Pistons join the Basketball Association of America, which merges with the NBL and becomes the NBA.
1957: The Pistons move to Detroit and play their first game Oct. 23, 1957.
For what it's worth, Zollner Machine Works was a company created and owned by Fred Zollner, who has a high school football stadium in Fort Wayne named after him.
The photo is of Memorial Coliseum, where the Zollner Pistons played until the move to Detroit. The building still stands and was renovated a few years ago. The NBA D-League's Fort Wayne Mad Antz and college program IPFW play their home games at the arena, which holds up to 12,000.
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