Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League (1947-48)
Eastern Professional Basketball League (1948-1970)
Eastern Basketball Association (1970-1971)
Tombstone
Born: 1947 – EPBL expansion franchise
Folded: 1971
First Game:
Last Game:
EPBL Champions: 1951
Arenas
1960’s: Shikellamy High School (1,200)11967-68 Allentown Jets Program
Sunbury High School
Selinsgrove High School
Fourth Ward School
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners:
- Sunbury Sports Association, Inc.
- ????-1971: Reynold Wolfe
Background
The Sunbury Mercuries were a minor league basketball outfit that operated for 24 seasons in the small Eastern Pennsylvania city of Sunbury. The Eastern League was a weekends-only league featuring teams from Pennsylvania a handful of neighboring states.
The team won their only league title in 1951, sweeping York Victory A.C. in a two-game series. The Mercuries folded following the 1970-71 season.
Notable Mercuries players included Jack Ramsay and Jack McCloskey, who both played for Sunbury during the 1950’s. Ramsay went on to win an NBA championship as Head Coach of the Portland Trailblazers in 1977. He entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in the Class of 1992. McCloskey became General Manager of the Detroit Pistons in 1979 and was the front office architect of the Pistons’ back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990.
Links
“Mercuries Madness Was Hot“, Cindy Inkrote, The Sunbury Daily Item, March 22, 2009
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3 Responses
Temple coach John Chaney also starred with the Mercs in the late 1950s
Author and sports historian searching for Sunbury Mercuries team photos, programs or articles about Sunbury player, Emerson Baynard, who played with the Mercuries from 1962-64. Emerson was also ROY (Rookie of the Year) for Sunbury in 1962-63. Can anyone help?
Looking for photos/video of Bob Gainey and John Chaney . Anything would do. Thank you.