Salt City Cagers

Professional Basketball in Syracuse Since the Beginning

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The city of Syracuse did not always bleed just ORANGE. Syracuse has a history of professional teams that played in a 70-year span.

Danny Biasone owned a local bowling alley, a semi-pro football team called the Syracuse Bisons and an amateur basketball team in the Herald-Journal league. He wanted to set up a basketball match against the Rochester Royals. After being refused multiple times, he sent a $5000 check to Chicago and purchased a franchise in the National Basketball League. Now Lester Harrison and the Rochester Royals had to play his Syracuse Nationals.

The Syracuse Seniors barnstormed shortly after wrapping up their senior season with the Syracuse University Orange, playing 32 games in 30 days. Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman, Tuskegee Airman Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, Chief of Prudential Financial Don MacNaughton, 1950 National League MVP Jim Konstanty, and Reverend John Schroeder were the backbone of the team. Business Manager Lou Greenberg wanted to enter his team into play in the New York State Professional Basketball League. The Syracuse Reds began play in 1939, winning 25 of 45 games.

The only man elected into the College Football Hall-of-Fame and the Basketball Hall-of-Fame, Vic Hanson, one of the greatest athletes ever at Syracuse University couldn't agree with Max Rosenblum over money, and therefore decided to come back home from Cleveland and start his own successful pro barnstorming team, the All-Americas.

Lastly, there was the New York State Basket Ball League, where action on the court was as rough as any football match. Scrambles for loose balls out of bounds and elbows and knees were common things swung on the hardwood. The Syracuse All-Stars and Pastimes would fight for their place on the court.

Why is Syracuse called the Salt City?

Syracuse has been called the Salt City since the early 1700's when salt brine was discovered on the south shore of Salt Lake, which is now called Onondaga Lake.

What is a Cager?

To keep fans from interfering with the game or assaulting the visiting team, a chicken-wire mesh or rope cage was erected around early basketball courts. Games were so physical and sometimes violent in the early days, and players could be checked into the cage wall "hockey style". Some fans would even burn players with cigars or poke them with hat pins. The cage idea was done by the 20's, but newpapers often referred to the players as cagers, a name still used sometimes today.

Salt City Cagers

P.O. Box 2174
Bentonville, AR 72712

Cell: (479) 270-2127

For Matt, Johnny, Big Mike and the Tipp Hill basketeers.