Waterloo: The NBA started here

I grew up in Cedar Falls, and we were the smaller, younger brother to Waterloo.  Waterloo was the biggest city in the area, and the leading employer with John Deere.  If you know much about John Deere tractors, you'll know there is one called the Waterloo Boy.

Waterloo's fame extends beyond just tractors though.  Many famous athletes have come from the city, including Reggie Roby and Darren Sproles.  Also famous, but more infamously John Wayne Gacy came from Waterloo.  You might remember that Michelle Bachmann accidently referred to him instead of John Wayne during her presidential campaign in 2011...also Michelle is from Waterloo!

The 5 Sullivan brothers are from Waterloo.  If you don't know, they are partially the inspiration behind the movie "Saving Private Ryan".  All five Sullivan brothers died on the same ship.

Waterloo has had some professional teams as well.  There have been minor league teams under the names Booster/Cubs/Diamonds/Hawks/Indians/Jays/Loons/Lulus/Microbes/Red Hawks/Royals/Shamrocks/White Hawks. and an amateur team the Bucks.  They host the USHL team Waterloo Black Hawks, and a few years ago has a minor league basketball team called the Cedar Valley Jaguars.  But did you know that Waterloo also had an NBA team?

The Waterloo Hawks started in 1948 in the National Basketball League, and became a founding team of the National Basketball Association in 1950.  Waterloo only lasted one season with the NBA, finishing 5th in their division.  Waterloo moved to the NPBL for one season before disbanding.

The Hawks played their games at McElroy Auditorium, the future home of Cattle Congress, which is exactly what you think it is.  States send their bovine representatives to Waterloo to discuss which dairy products would be pushed this year.  ("I second that this years shall be the Curd Year!")

Collecting cards from the only NBA team Iowa had is going to be tough...because there isn't any.  You can read the history of basketball cards at All Vintage Cards, but the short version is that the first major set was in 1948.  The Bowman set would cover teams from the 1947 season which was the year before Waterloo formed.  The next set was the 1957 Topps set, way past the last season of Waterloo basketball.  Most players from those teams only played 1-5 season, so they wouldn't even have cards on other teams.

I have only found three connections to those Waterloo teams on cardboard.

Jack Smiley

Jack was the coach of the Waterloo Hawks from 1949-1951.  However, he played for the Fort Wayne Pistons before that and he has a card in that 1948 Bowman set.  There is also a 1990 reprint.

Bobby Lowther

Bobby played for the Hawks in 1949, but more importantly played for LSU in his college years and is immortalized on this 1990 LSU Collection Collection card.  Bobby was a 3rd team All-American in his time as a Tiger.

Chuck Share

Chuck played for Waterloo in the 1950 season. Chuck was actually drafted #1 in the 1950 draft by...the Boston Celtics!  Boston chose him over Bob Cousy (!), but he declined to play with them and chose Waterloo.  He played until 1960 with Fort Wayne, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Minneapolis, winning the NBA championship in 1958 with the St. Louis Hawks.  He has 9 cards, including the inaugural 1957-58 Topps set.  His other cards are from 2006-07 Upper Deck Chronology and 2007-08 UD Black and are mostly short prints.

That's it!  This sounds like a fun project when life slows down (ha!), to recreate a set with the Waterloo Hawks.  I'll add it to the To Do list.

Some notables missing players that I thought might have cards:

• Dick Mehen - All-NBL First Team 1949, played for Boston, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Waterloo
• Johnny Orr - Played for St. Louis/Waterloo, coaching Michigan for 12 years and Iowa State for 14, 2x Big Team Coach of the Year
• Ray Ellefson - Played for Waterloo, Minneapolis, New York and won title with Minneapolis.
• Murray Wier - Consensus First Team All-American in 1948 with Iowa
• Pinkie George - Owner of the team and future NWA Hall of Famer