Ball Hawks: The Arrival and Departure of the NBA in Iowa

by Tim Harwood

Believe it or not, Waterloo, Iowa, had an NBA team during the league’s first season, 1949 to 1950. Broadcaster and independent sports historian Tim Harwood uncovers the fascinating story of the Waterloo Hawks and the Midwest’s influence on professional basketball. Beginning with the professional leagues that led up to the creation of the National Basketball Association, Harwood recounts big games and dramatic buzzer-beaters, and the players who made them.  The first season of the NBA was far from a success. Teams had a hard time attracting fans, with games often played in half-empty arenas. When Waterloo residents learned that the team was struggling financially, they rallied behind the Hawks and purchased shares of the team in a bid to keep it afloat. Unfortunately, that community-based effort was not enough; owners of teams in larger markets pressured the league to push Waterloo—and other smaller towns like Anderson, Indiana, and Sheboygan, Wisconsin—out of the league.  Though the Hawks disappeared after their lone NBA campaign, Waterloo and other midwestern teams were nonetheless integral to getting the NBA off the ground, and their legacy continues today through some of the current franchises that relocated to larger markets. Combining newspaper accounts and personal interviews with surviving players, Harwood weaves a fascinating story of the underdog team, in the unlikeliest of places, that helped make professional basketball the worldwide success it is today. 

Genres: Sports

234 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2018

Reviews

[Todd Voter · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not an essential read in the sports history genre, Ball Hawks fills an interesting niche and would be of particular interest to Iowa sports fans.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of professional basketball are used to watching and following teams from larger cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Some smaller but still significant cities like Salt Lake City and Portland also host teams. But in the early days of the league, there were teams in much smaller towns like Anderson, Indiana; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and Waterloo, Iowa. The team from the last city on that list is the subject of this excellent book by Tim Harwood.

The Waterloo Hawks were formed in 1948 when the National Basketball League (NBL) was looking for a new city in which to place a team and northeastern Iowa was a site considered because of the success of the minor league baseball team affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. The Hawks had some success on the court in the NBL and also were a moderately successful attraction at the gate as well. Before the 1949-50 season, the NBL and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) agreed upon a merger of the two leagues instead of competing for players and fans. The new league was called the National Basketball Association (NBA) and formed one 18-team league that included Waterloo.

That 1949-50 season makes for some very interesting reading. Not only does Harwood recap the season with some good game recaps, but he also shares stories about some of the players and other personnel of the team such as Leo Kubiak, Paul “Pinkie” George and Harry Boykoff, who was considered Waterloo’s best player. One very interesting fact was that even though the Hawks finished with a losing season and missed the playoffs, they won the last game on the last shot in the last second of that season

It turned out to be the only season in the NBA for Waterloo and three other clubs from smaller cities, including the aforementioned Anderson and Sheboygan. Despite the solid support from fans and businesses in Waterloo and Sheboygan, and the latter’s record of success on the court from previous leagues, the NBA decided to not allow those four teams to participate in the league for the 1950-51 season, bowing to political pressure from the bigger cities. Reading about this struggle by the team to play another season, along with many other stories of the business side of the game during the early days of professional basketball was the best aspect of the book. Harwood did excellent and thorough research and the writing style was very easy to read.

If a reader wants to learn more about the early days of professional basketball and get to know the only team that has represented the state of Iowa in any of the four major professional sports leagues, then this book is one that must be read. It is a very enjoyable and quick read

I wish to thank University of Iowa Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun book about the start of the NBA. It is easy to forget the NBA and NFL started in towns that now they only fly over. Iowa had one of the first NBA teams, i don't care much about basketball since the Monarchs folded so the detailed writing on some of the games i only glanced at, but the history was enjoyable. Harwood made me care about the towns, the league and the people involved. Wish i could have said i was at one of the games. Harwood did the Iowa community and the NBA a favor by writing this book.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the main stories about sports in the current news is the fallout from a message posted by Daryl Morey, general manager of the NBA team the Houston Rockets. In that message he expressed support for the freedom protests in Hong Kong opposing Chinese attempts to suppress democracy there. The Chinese government has fought back hard and billions of dollars of revenue for the NBA is at stake.
Given this modern context, it is hard for people to comprehend that the NBA was once a small league where many of the franchises were in small towns. One of those towns was Waterloo, Iowa, a city that has never had more than 80,000 residents. They were the Waterloo Hawks and they were a competitive team in the NBA’s first season of 1949-50.
While it is often dull with routine descriptions of the action with no embellishments, this book is an educational description of the very early years of professional basketball. Many of the teams struggled, 3,000 was often considered a large crowd and the teams sometimes had trouble finding a place to play. Owners often struggled financially with teams folding in the middle of the season, necessitating creative adjustments of won-loss records. Like baseball, players often barnstormed during the off season in an attempt to earn a true living.
This book is a historical eye-opener to the early days of the NBA, when it was largely a footnote in the sports consciousness of America and the world. The players, coaches and owners did not know it at the time, but they were laying the foundation for a business that now has over $8 billion in revenue per year and so influential that governments pay attention to what is said.

[Curtis K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Imagine the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics coming to Waterloo, Iowa...during the same week." - and not to play each other (which would have been pretty exciting in and of itself) but to play "us."
Yes, Iowa had an NBA team - during the league's inaugural season.
The professional basketball "Hawks," were in Waterloo - not Des Moines or Cedar Rapids or even Iowa City.
...and this is their story, told by radio sports play-by-play man and sports historian Tim Harwood.
I'm more than a bit of an archivist myself; and quite glad that someone pulled this story from the "lost history" landfill; if for nothing more than to prove that Iowa does have a professional sports biography. It's certainly more than a footnote, but we can't honestly call it a legacy or a tradition, considering, as you will from reading Harwood's account of attempting to establish the NBA in NE Iowa, that the struggles usually outweighed the triumphs.
Harwood writes in the preface, "when I became aware that this had actually happened in 1949, I felt compelled to explore the details." ..and details you will get! Right down to multiple - in print- "play-by-play" (and sometimes blow-by-blow) accounts of the games. Multiple Basketball leagues preceded and succeeded the NBA and those histories are well documented in "Ball Hawks;" along with the profiles of the other sports popular with fans here, namely Baseball and Ice-Hockey - T.H. was the chronicler and radio voice for the "boys of summer" (and winter) before basketball came to town.
But... "why Waterloo?" Grab a copy of "Ball Hawks" and find out. You will enjoy the "game!"

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

People are used to reading about the beginnings of pro football for the few years with teams like Rock Island, Akron, Columbus, Decatur (now the Bears) Toledo, and Green Bay. Anyway, it was like that with a pro basketball team. The author takes you through the beginnings of the team and the end. While doing so he also gives you a history of the NBA or at least the formation of it. How the league went from small towns to arriving in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, etc… In a way, it almost reminded a little of the ABA but that was more colorful and had bigger names, and that read, white and blue ball made them stand out from the NBA at that time. This book was a good book and about a topic, I knew very little about. Overall a good read. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Hannah Heit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written book about the first and only professional team in the state of Iowa. State history I was completely unaware of and it occurred in my backyard, Waterloo, Iowa rather than in Des Moines as I had assumed would be better fit. As a basketball fanatic, it was interesting to hear how the game came to be and how differently it was played near its inception vs now. Also interesting, was the reasoning behind rule changes in the game; to make it faster paced and draw bigger crowds. As devastating as it is, the fall of Iowa’s NBA team came down to profit and the association lacking faith in a small town team’s ability to bring the crowds.