Philadelphia Warriors

There was one time, a National Basketball Association franchise known as the Philadelphia Warriors.  They were one of the original pro basketball franchises in what was then called the Basketball Association Of America.  Three years later, after battling for fans, the BAA and the older National Basketball League merged to become the National Basketball Association.

 

Back to the Warriors, in their first year of the BAA, they won their first championship in 1946.  Unfortunately, some 16 years later, the Warriors moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where they have been ever since.

 

Since this post is about Roller Derby, Philadelphia, at one time, also had a Roller Derby team known as the Philadelphia Panthers.  In the 1948-1949 season, the team split their season between the Bronx, NY and Philadelphia.  In the 1949-1950 season, it would be based in Philadelphia with the Panthers as the nickname.

 

The franchise would eventually merge with the Washington team to become the Panjets by 1951 but would eventually disband before the end of the season.

 

It wouldn't be until 1967 when roller skating would return to Philadelphia, and with a home team.  Following the 1966 Roller Games season, the Hawaiian Warriors would move to Philadelphia and were now called the Philadelphia (Eastern) Warriors.  Roller Games now had a second "home" team besides the Los Angeles T-Birds for television entertainment.

 

I believe it was early in the 1971 season when the UHF channel would carry Warrior games on Sunday evenings.  The matchups would be from the Philadelphia Arena.  The first matchup was against the Texas Outlaws.  What was interesting was a confrontation going on between two Outlaw teammates in Lester Quarles and Jim Trotter.  It would turn out that Trotter would eventually become a Warrior thanks to a series of match races that Warrior personnel would win.  

 

Elmer Anderson, a former star in the early days of the National Roller Derby League, was the play-by-play announcer.  Buddy Atkinson Jr. was the coach of the Warriors.  Buddy was formerly with the New York Chiefs in the IRDL.  The women were captained by Judy Arnold.  Arnold skated early in her career in the San Francisco Bay Area for both the IRDL Bay Bombers and the Roller Games Bay Shamrocks.

 

The Warriors were loaded with great talent.  Besides Atkinson Jr., Arnold and Trotter, there were some great ones in both the women's and men's fields.

 

Richard Brown was someone I knew a little bit about thanks to some friends in the New Jersey area.  As a jammer and a leader, he is every bit as good, if not better, than the likes of Mike Gammon and Tony Roman.  Also, there were very good skaters such as Mike Gammon, Vinnie Gandolfo, Skip Schoen, Otis Williams, Harry Morgan, Erwin Miller, John Ortiz, Butch McRae and Ed Dersser.

 

In the women's field, there was Judi McGuire, Cindy Ogbin, Yolanda Trevino, Ruberta Mitchell, Sally Vega, Dru Scott, Yvonne Riggins and Judy Sowinski who was a Warrior late in her skating career.

 

The Warriors won several Roller Games East titles.  Probably, one of their biggest moments was winning the International Skating Conference title on August 4, 1974.  They defeated the New York Chiefs, 83-80 at New York's Madison Square Garden in an eight period game.

 

A couple of years ago, thanks to my good friend, Joe Nardone, I joined the Philadelphia Warriors Facebook page.  It was great to get to know more of those who skated with the Warriors over the years as well as other teams that skated in Roller Games and the ISC.  Being a roller skating fan (Games and Derby), this fan has learned quite a bit more about what happened on the banked track.

 

For more, please check out the Philadelphia Warriors - Roller Games page on Facebook.