October marks the 21st anniversary of the induction of Detroit Pistons founder Fred Zollner into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
How would you feel about a team named after its owner instead of the city it represents? You could have had the Ford Lions of the NFL (but they didn’t). But this is how the local pro basketball franchise was known at the beginning; as for seven years it was called the Zollner Pistons.
On October 1, 1999, Fred Zollner was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame after a 15-year effort by former Pistons general manager Carl Bennett.
In 1957, Zollner moved the Pistons from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Detroit despite there having been little success establishing professional basketball. Before Zollner, there had been four pro teams based in Detroit, and all had failed.
According to Zollner, the team never made a profit after the move but he kept the team in Detroit before selling to Bill Davidson in 1974 for $7 million. Under current owner Tom Gores, the franchise is estimated to be worth $1.45 billion by Forbes.
(biographical information courtesy Wikipedia)
He started the Zollner Pistons basketball team in 1941 with its home gym North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Zollner Corporation employed at one point 1,200 people at its plant in Fort Wayne, which produced pistons for various manufacturers, hence the Pistons nickname. Zollner actually started a softball team first before moving to basketball.
It certainly was good advertising for his company to have a pro basketball team named after it.
With him personally recruiting players, the Zollner Pistons were quite successful, winning the National Basketball League title in 1944 and ’45 and the World Professional Championship from 1944-46.
To lure players, Zollner could offer them well-paying jobs in his foundry as well as making a few bucks playing for the Pistons.
Fred owned the Zollner Corporation with his sister Janet, so she also owned a part of the Pistons, making her one of the first female owners of a profession sports franchise.
Zollner is crediting with having the first team that hired a bench coach. Until then, everyone had player-coaches or the owner did it or the players just figured it out on their own..
Zollner moved his team from the NBL to the rival Basketball Association of America in 1948 and changed the team’s name to the Fort Wayne Pistons, although the Zollner affiliation was still prominent.
Zollner quickly realized it was not good business to have two rival leagues.
In a famous meeting in Zollner’s kitchen, the BAA and NBL in 1949 decided to merge and become the National Basketball Association (NBA).
In 1952, the Pistons moved into the brand new Allen County War Memorial Coliseum and the team began to improve. The Fort Wayne Pistons never won an NBA championship but they did make the finals in 1954 and 1955. It would take 33 more years before the Pistons would get that far again.
Zollner passed away in 1982 so he was inducted into the hall of fame posthumously.
However, every Detroit Pistons fan should remember his name. If not for Zollner’s decision to move the Pistons to Detroit and then his dedication to keeping the franchise in the Motor City despite poor financial performances, there would be no Pistons to root for presently.