Akron Wingfoots

Akron Wingfoots are one of the oldest and most famous men's basketball teams in the United States in the 20th Century. They were founded in 1918 by the workers at the Goodyear Tire Company in Akron. These workers, many of whom had just returned from WWI, were looking for organized athletic activities and the company responded by starting a volleyball and a basketball team. Both teams, while giving workers recreation, also helped to promote one of the first canvas/rubber based shoes made specifically for athletics, the Wingfoot. In the 1920's the team evolved into a regional, and then a national powerhouse. In the 1930's the team was instrumental in the evolvement of the NAIA and played many NAIA colleges. In the late 1930's, Goodyear, Firestone, General Electric, and other companies with similar AAU Elite teams decided to form the National Basketball League to showcase their teams as the premier teams in the USA. The Wingfoots won the first NBL title in 1938. When the USA entered WWII, Goodyear suspended the team and lost its position in the NBL. After WWII, other NBL teams that are now the Lakers, Hawks, Pistons, 76ers, and Kings gave up their AAU status and merged with the floundering BAA, which had started with 16 teams but soon dropped to but three..the Knicks, Warriots, and Celtics. The Wingfoots were not included in this new league, called the NBA. Instead they reconstituted those NBL teams left over into the National Industrial Basketball League. The Wingfoots regained national power in the NIBL, which in 1960 was changed to the NABL. They were perennial national contenders who played an NIBL schedule as well as NAIA and NCAA teams. They were the AAU National Champions in 1964 and 1967. The team usually consisted of recent college players from medium sized schools who wished to continue their careers and hoped to be on an Olympic Team. Several Wingfoots , including Larry Brown, Calvin Fowler, Jim King, Richard Davies and Pete McCaffery were Olympians. Always a stepping stone for new league such as the NBA, the ABL, and the ABA, the Wingfoots stopped playing a national schedule in the 1970's and after the NABL was dropped in favor of touring teams, Goodyear Tire stopped sponsoring the team. In the 1980's team sponsorship was picked up by Reach Entertainment, and the team today plays year around around the world. The Wingfoots are the only AAU Elite team that still plays a full college schedule. Although the team has not yet returned to its previous glory, it has again started playing in the historic AAU National Tournament.