Cleveland Pipers

Updated on Oct 21, 2023

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Founded 1950s Arena Cleveland Arena		Folded 1962 Team colors Red, White & Blue

Leagues NIBL 1959-1961ABL 1961-1962

The Cleveland Pipers was an American industrial basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Pipers are most known for having played in the short-lived American Basketball League from 1961–62, arguably as that brief pro league's pivotal franchise. General Manager, Mike Cleary hired John McLendon, the first African American head coach in professional basketball, to lead the squad. Playing under coach John McLendon, and later coach Bill Sharman, the team won the league's 1961-62 championship, the only title in the league's short history.

Cleveland Pipers George Steinbrenner39s pipe dream The ABL champion Cleveland Pipers

Team owner George Steinbrenner got his start in professional sports ownership with the Pipers, which he bought from plumbing business owner Ed Sweeny to enter into the new ABL. The team's precarious financial situation was such that its home games took place in eight different arenas and gyms. These ranged from the team's primary home at either Cleveland Public Hall or the Cleveland Arena to high school facilities in Ashtabula, Lorain and Sandusky, and as far south as Columbus.

Cleveland Pipers Remembering the Cleveland Pipers 3964 and Counting Scene39s

McClendon was able to convince a former college player he had coached, Dick Barnett, to jump from the NBA's Syracuse Nationals to the Pipers. Then, after the team's first season, Steinbrenner signed Ohio State University All-American Jerry Lucas. In the latter case, the signing proved to be wishful thinking when Steinbrenner folded the team just months later.

Cleveland Pipers httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Even early on, Steinbrenner could be meddlesome and irrepressible. In a game against the Hawaii Chiefs, George Steinbrenner sold player Grady McCollum to the Chiefs at halftime.

Cleveland Pipers ABL American Basketball League PlayersJackie Adams

NBA petition

Cleveland Pipers Pinterest The world39s catalog of ideas

After Steinbrenner unsuccessfully petitioned to get the National Basketball Association to accept his team the following year, the Pipers disbanded. After the ABL folded, Steinbrenner had $125,000 in debts and personal losses of two million dollars.

Jerry Lucas

In the spring of 1962, Cleveland Pipers owner George Steinbrenner signed Jerry Lucas to a player-management contract worth forty thousand dollars. With the Lucas signing, Steinbrenner had a secret deal with NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff.

According to Bill Madden's Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, Steinbrenner made plans in 1963 to acquire the Kansas City Steers, from the recently failed ABL, as part of an application to bring the Cleveland Pipers into the NBA, and a schedule had, supposedly, been printed for the 1963-64 NBA season with the Pipers playing the New York Knicks in the first game. Steinbrenner and partner George McKean fell behind in payments to the NBA and the deal was cancelled.