This is a complicated tale, so please follow along as much as you possibly can.
About 20 years ago, I got involved in a personal-driven statistics project. I re-generated the statistics and records for the lost first twelve years of the Continental Basketball Association, back when that circuit was known as the Eastern Professional Basketball League. Back then, the EPBL’s teams were all clustered in Eastern Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas – the Wilkes-Barre Barons, the Scranton Miners, the Allentown Jets, the Sunbury Mercuries, the Williamsport Bills, for example. There were also teams in New Jersey (the Trenton Colonials, the Camden Bullets), Connecticut (the New Haven Elms, the Hartford Capitols), Delaware (the Wilmington Blue Bombers) and New York (the Binghamton Flyers, Rochester Colonels).
Back then, I had to source my research by driving to Pennsylvania and spending hours reading microfilms at various libraries. Sure, why not get up at 3:00 in the morning, jump in the old Pontiac 6000, drive six hours to Harrisburg, and spend three hours sifting through ancient microfilms for boxscores? Oh, that was so much fun. And maybe pick up a few Yocco’s Hot Dogs in Allentown or a scrapple breakfast in Wilkes-Barre, just for kicks.
While visiting Allentown for one such research jaunt, I spent time with an Allentown Jets memorabilia collector. Let’s put it this way. His fandom for the Jets almost rivaled my fandom for the Albany Patroons. And during our shared mutual love of sports statistical research, he showed me something special. He had possession of something called the EPBL Governor’s Trophy.
The Governor’s Trophy was first issued to the Eastern League’s playoff champion in 1960. The trophy was retired in 1970 when the Eastern League rebranded itself as the Eastern Basketball Association, and the last team to claim the trophy – the 1969-70 Allentown Jets – kept the prize when new trophies were struck for a new league. Somehow that fan acquired the Governor’s Trophy, and that original sits comfortably on display in a Lehigh Valley restaurant to this day.
I took pictures of the trophy. This is a nice little treasure, I thought.
I then shared the trophy pictures with officials at the Continental Basketball Association. The CBA had a trophy shop re-create the Governor’s Trophy, which would be returned to the CBA and re-issued to the team who achieved the best quarter-point average during the regular season (the CBA determined their playoffs by a quarter-point system – three points for a win, and a point for every quarter in which you outscored your opponent, for a total of 7 maximum per game). The Yakama Sun Kings won the trophy in the 2006-07 season.
We’re now jumping forward to 2024.
I’m a member of a Facebook group devoted to Continental Basketball Association / EBA / EPBL history and legacy. And one day, one of the posters showed a picture of the Governor’s Trophy.
Not the one in Allentown, mind you – but the second edition, the one produced for the CBA, the one that was based off my original research from years ago. The person was operating as a middleman for the trophy owner, who was interested in selling it.
I’m thinking to myself … I’ve been down this road before.
I made the seller a one-time offer. Probably figured I’d have to go through some back-and-forth negotiations.
To my surprise, the seller took the offer. I had to pay additional for packing and shipping, but …
Dude, I’ve got the CBA Governor’s Trophy coming to me.
Although the Albany Patroons were never issued a Governor’s Trophy during their initial CBA run, the trophy does designate that they held the best quarter-point average several times – 1984-85, 1987-88, 1989-90 and 1990-91, to be precise, and thus were entitled to possess this trophy if it had existed at the time.
And on Tuesday afternoon … a big U-Haul box arrived. And packed in the box – surrounded by bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts and tissue paper …
Was this bad boy.
And as you can see from this side panel … the Patroons are retroactively four-time CBA Governor’s Trophy champions.
Yes, this is a huge get. And it’s now in my possession.
So what do I do with this thing?
All I can say right now is … TO BE CONTINUED. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
And then…? And then…? (Along Came Jones)
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Awesome tale Chuck!
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