It’s Sunday morning, and I’ve just packed my Pontiac 6000 with the last box it can hold. It took a lot of emotional effort on my part, but in my heart of hearts, I knew it was time.
Two hours later, I was at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, where two employees of the Basketball Hall of Fame were helping me unload my car. From my car came my personally-assembled collection of Continental Basketball Association memorabilia and historical artifacts, which will eventually become part of a future exhibit at the Hall on the history of minor league basketball.
Some small background. When the Albany Patroons returned to the CBA in 2005, I began to assemble a small collection of Patroons memorabilia – pennants, pocket schedules, programs, trading cards, you name it. Eventually that collection grew to include other teams in the CBA. I had autographed basketballs from the last three CBA All-Star Classics. I had full complete runs of the trading card sets produced by TCMA (1979-82) and ProCards (1989-92). I had game-worn and souvenir jerseys that were gathered from eBay auctions. Three boxes of game programs. Two shoeboxes of pocket schedules. And it was all gathering space in my house and it was time to clear out.
Now here’s the problem. I couldn’t just toss everything in the street. I couldn’t give it to Goodwill. And I certainly couldn’t spend months selling everything on eBay.
But I knew of one organization that would covet this material. That was the Basketball Hall of Fame. In addition to the museum, the Hall of Fame has a detailed research library on the premises. I’ve used that library in the past for freelance writing research, as well as research into re-assembling the CBA’s first twelve years of stats (1946-1958).
But now the CBA is gone. The league’s two-time champion Lawton-Fort Sill (Okla.) Cavalry has joined the Premier Basketball League. The Albany Patroons are a fleeting memory. The Yakama Sun Kings packed away their five CBA championships and are no longer around. Several of the other strong CBA franchises joined the NBA’s D-League after the 2005-06 season.
And for me to simply hold onto these mementos makes no sense any more. I can’t wrap my mind around the mantra of “If I can’t take it with me, then I ain’t going!” As far as I’m concerned, it’s best now that these materials are available at the Basketball Hall of Fame for future displays, for future basketball research, and for better historic understanding of the 63-year lifespan of the Continental Basketball Association.
I’ve had success when it comes to donating my collections and acquisitions. The Hockey Hall of Fame now owns the Atlantic City Boardwalk Championship Trophy, the Eastern Hockey League chalice I found in 1994. My alma mater, Hamilton College, received my collection of rare Edison Diamond Disc phonograph records, along with a vintage player, as part of my 20th college reunion in 2005.
And in the end, I I can have peace with knowing my collection is in an appreciative location. In fact, I’ve already started a new basketball collection, this time involving memorabilia from the Premier Basketball League – including several game-worn jerseys from the Rochester Razorsharks and Reading Railers; game programs from the Vermont Frost Heaves and the Kebs de Quebec; and a game-used “The Rock” basketball from the league’s second season.
But just between you and me, I didn’t give the Hall of Fame everything. My computer hard drive still has all the statistics that I generated on the league; that information will eventually turn into a book on the history of the CBA. That… and I kept my Albany Patroons Kareem Reid game-worn jersey from the 06-07 season.
As soon as I get around to it, that bad boy’s getting framed and put up on my office wall.
Chuck The Writer 