{"id":27258,"date":"2017-06-23T09:27:44","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T13:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/?p=27258"},"modified":"2022-04-23T12:05:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T16:05:34","slug":"sphas","status":"publish","type":"egp_essays","link":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/essays\/sphas\/","title":{"rendered":"SPHAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1917, a group of Jewish high school graduates in Philadelphia formed a basketball team that competed against other local teams. Affiliated with the Young Men\u2019s Hebrew Association (YMHA) at first, the team soon became known as the SPHAS (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) after the YMHA withdrew its sponsorship because it considered the sport too violent. Except for a couple of seasons in the 1920s, the team kept the name SPHAS until it disbanded in 1959 after achieving a long record of success.<\/p>\n

Eddie Gottlieb <\/a>(1898-1979), Harry \u201cChickie\u201d Passon<\/a> (1897-1954), and Edwin \u201cHughie\u201d Black (1897-1986) organized the team after graduating from South Philadelphia High School. Black and Gottlieb, who then attended the School of Pedagogy at Temple University, joined with Passon and other friends to compete in the minor league American League of Philadelphia for two seasons with the support of the YMHA. Next, the SPHA sponsored the team, and even though the organization soon withdrew its support, the team retained the name. By the early 1920s, the SPHAS no longer needed sponsorship after Gottlieb, Black, and Passon opened a sporting goods store to provide their own uniforms (by the end of the decade, Passon bought out his partners to form Passon Sporting Goods, which became Philadelphia\u2019s leading sporting goods store). The SPHAS played in the American League until 1922, then spent one season in the Manufacturer\u2019s League, which mostly consisted of company teams.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Philadelphia SPHAS team photo (c. 1940) pictures players along with the team\u2019s coaches and staff. Active as a team from 1917 into the 1950s, the SPHAS were moderately successful in both the Eastern Basketball League and American Basketball League. After being sold by Eddie Gottlieb in 1950, the SPHAS became the Washington Generals, the team best remembered for consistently losing to the basketball entertainment team, the Harlem Globetrotters. (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphia Jews ardently supported the team, which continued to play with a majority of Jewish athletes. Other teams also had Jewish players, but they were most dominant on the SPHAS. Fans packed the ballroom of the Broadwood Hotel on North Broad Street to watch the SPHAS Saturday night games, then went dancing after the games. The team also retained a connection with Temple University<\/a>, which served as a local college pipeline for players. The team won its first professional title at the end of the 1923-24 season, while playing in the Philadelphia League. Under Gottlieb\u2019s leadership, the SPHAS became one of the top teams in Philadelphia and traveled to play outside the regional league. After one season (1926) in the short-lived Eastern League, Gottlieb scheduled games against teams competing in the American Basketball League and prominent barnstorming teams, including the Original Celtics and New York Renaissance (the Rens).<\/p>\n

After playing for one season (1926-27) as the Warriors in the American Basketball League, the team once again became the SPHAS and joined a revived Eastern Basketball League for 1929-30. Clearly the best team in the league, with a new star in future Temple University basketball coach Harry Litwack <\/a>(1907-99), the SPHAS won the league\u2019s championship in three of the four years of its existence.<\/p>\n

\"A
This pen-and-ink cartoon sketch commemorates the Philadelphia SPHAS\u2019 1936\u201337 American Basketball League championship victory. (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Success continued between 1933 and 1947, as the SPHAS reached the playoffs twelve times and won seven championships in a new American Basketball League (ABL), formed in 1933. The team continued to play in the ABL after it reverted to a minor league following the 1945-46 season, with less success. Meanwhile, Gottlieb became coach and general manager of the Philadelphia Warriors as a franchise in the new Basketball Association of America (forerunner of the National Basketball Association) and he brought some of the SPHAS\u2019 top players with him. Litwack, who also coached Temple\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team, took over as coach of the SPHAS.<\/p>\n

In 1950 Gottlieb sold the SPHAS, and former star Louis \u201cRed\u201d Klotz <\/a>(1920-2014) found a new role for the team as one of three touring opponents for the Harlem Globetrotters<\/a>. Klotz changed the team\u2019s name, first to the Washington Generals in honor of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) and later to the Baltimore Rockets. Under Klotz\u2019s leadership, the SPHAS went from being a championship-caliber team to the brunt of the Globetrotters\u2019 hijinks. The SPHAS officially ceased operations in October 1959 but could look back on success as one of Philadelphia\u2019s championship basketball teams from the first half of the century. To the end, the team retained its predominantly Jewish identity.<\/p>\n

Karen Guenther<\/strong> is Professor of History at Mansfield University and author of <\/em>Sports in Pennsylvania, published by the Pennsylvania Historical Association<\/em>. (Author information current at time of publication.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1917, a group of Jewish high school graduates in Philadelphia formed a basketball team that competed against other local teams. Affiliated with the Young Men\u2019s Hebrew Association (YMHA) at first, the team soon became known as the SPHAS (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) after the YMHA withdrew its sponsorship because it considered the sport too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":27847,"template":"","egp_featured_subjects":[1991,2029,2031],"class_list":["post-27258","egp_essays","type-egp_essays","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","egp_featured_subjects-activism","egp_featured_subjects-popular-culture","egp_featured_subjects-sports-and-recreation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays\/27258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/egp_essays"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays\/27258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37313,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays\/27258\/revisions\/37313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"egp_featured_subjects","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_featured_subjects?post=27258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}