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The Wilkes-Barre Barons were a basketball team from Pennsylvania who played in several different leagues from 1933-80. In the 1960’s, they were part of the Eastern Professional Basketball League which was a minor league that fed into the NBA. Due to the low salaries in the 50’s and 60’s, there were several NBA players who opted to play in the Eastern League (especially if they were from the PA/NJ/NY area, rather than having to move to another part of the country to play in the NBA).
Offered is a heavy stock 16 page 1965-66 Wilkes-Barre Barons program (loaded with photos of players and articles), tight binding no missing pages, Overall in really nice condition. Unscored listing the opposing team as visitors.
10 autographs on the cover includes:
Lavern “Jelly” Tart (D. 2010) played in 2 ABA All-Star games. Played for the Oakland Oaks, NJ Americans, Nets, Houston Mavericks, Denver Rockets, and Texas Chaps
Larry Costello (D. 2001) 6 x NBA All-Star, NBA champion as a player and one more as a coach. He played for the Warriors, Syracuse Nationals, 76’ers. He was a coach with the Bucks and Chicago Bulls. He should be in the HOF.
Warren Davis – 2 x NBA All Star, played for the ABA Anaheim Amigos/ Los Angeles Stars, Pittsburgh Pipers, Floridians, Cougars, and Memphis Pros/Tams
Bob Keller – played for the Cleveland Pipers and Philadelphia Tapers in the ABL before played almost 10 years in the Eastern League.
Gene Hudgins (D. 2008) played for the Washington Generals and moved on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters as well as playing in the Eastern League.
Bill Green (D. 1994 at the age of 53) super rare autograph. He was a college basketball standout for Colorado State University (CSU) between 1960–61 and 1962–63. A 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), 230 lb center, Green was CSU's first-ever NCAA All-American when he was named to the consensus second team in 1963. After Green's collegiate career ended and he graduated from CSU in the spring of 1963, the Boston Celtics selected him in the first round (8th overall) of the 1963 NBA Draft.[ It was a foregone conclusion that he would play a professional sport, as Green was also drafted by the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) that year. Green ultimately never played any sport professionally due to an ever-increasing fear of flying. The fear had emerged gradually throughout his college career, and after a rough flight back to CSU from Utah during his senior year he realized how terrified he really was of flying.
The Celtics had tried to convince Green to work through his fear during the 1963–64 preseason. Professional help did not work, and Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach allowed him to take a train out to St. Louis, Missouri for a preseason game on the condition that Green flew back. When it came time to go home, he could not step on the plane. Green later said, "The fear just built to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. I made up my mind: I wouldn't do it. Auerbach told me to go work on it [the fear] and come back later." Green quit the Celtics right before the regular season began.
He did opt to play in the Eastern Basketball League as he could drive to games and/or take the bus.
Larry Jones – played for the Sixers in the NBA and for the Denver Rockets, Floridians, Utah Stars, Dallas Chaps in the ABA. He was a 4 x ABA All-Star and was an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons in the 1970’s.
Paul Krieger (D. 2015) played college Basketball at Pitt where he led the Panthers in rebounding during the 1963 and 1964 seasons in which they reached the NCAA and NIT tournaments. He opted to go into law, rather than seriously pursue a career in professional basketball. He played in the Eastern League while attending law school.
Hank Rosenstein (D. 2010) played in the NBA with the original New York Knickerbockers and was in what is now considered the first NBA game, played in Toronto on November 1, 1946. He was with the Knicks in their first season, 1946/1947. Prior to joining the Knicks, Hank starred in AAU Basketball and was MVP in the Eastern Jewish Center League in 1942–43. Rosenstein was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on March 29, 1998. He was the coach of the team.
Comes with a full LOA from JSA
Item: 12356
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