International Basketball League (2005-2008)
Premier Basketball League (2009)
International Basketball League (2010)
Independent Basketball Association (2011-2013))
Tombstone
Born: 2004 – IBL founding franchise
Disbanded: 2013?
First Game: April 9, 2005 (W 111-100 vs. Vancouver Volcanoes)
Last Game:
IBL Champions: 2005
Arena
Kellogg Arena
Opened: 1980
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners:
- 2005 – 2007: Scott Niecko, James King & Mike Lee
- 2008 – 2009: Scott Niecko, James King, Mike Lee & Mike Beck
- 2010 – 2013: ?
Background
The Battle Creek Knights were a low-level minor league basketball team that played in Southwestern Michigan from 2005 to 2013.
The Knights formed as one of 17 founding clubs in the debut season of the International Basketball League during the spring of 2005. The IBL’s East Division included eight teams in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. The West Division featured nine teams from California and the Pacific Northwest plus a team from Des Moines, Iowa.
The Knights ran roughshod over IBL competition in 2005, racking up a perfect 21-0 record. This included a 124-121 championship game victory over the 15-1 Dayton Jets before 1,854 at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena on July 9th, 2005. The 2005 roster included NBA veteran Logan Vander Velden, who played 15 games for the Los Angeles Clippers a decade earlier during the 1995-96 NBA season. The 6′ 8″ center hit five key three-pointers for the Knights during the championship game triumph over Dayton.
Later Seasons
After four spring/summer seasons in the International Basketball League, the Knights jumped to the Premier Basketball League (PBL) and its winter schedule in 2009. The Knights lone season in the PBL ended in acrimony. The Knights racked up an 18-3 regular season record, best in the league. This should have earned the Knights home court advantage at Kellogg Arena for a best-of-3 championship series against the Rochester RazorSharks. Instead, league officials revised the playoff format on one week’s notice to change the championship to a single game, winner-take all contest in Rochester, New York. Knights players and coaches initially announced a boycott of the game. Ultimately, cash incentives from Rochester lured a many of the Battle Creek players onto a bus bound for Rochester, where the a short-handed Knights squad lost 152-115 before a large announced crowd of 7,119 at Blue Cross Arena. A shattered backboard during the first quarter resulted in a one-hour delay in the middle of the already controversial game.
In July 2009, still smarting over the last minute playoff switcheroo and arguing with PBL leadership over compensation, the Knights withdrew from the Premier Basketball League. After taking the better part of a year off, the Knights re-joined the International Basketball League and opened their sixth season in April 2010.
After another year-long break, the Knights jumped to yet another winter league, the Independent Basketball Association, for their seventh season in November 2011. The Knights appear to have played their final games in the Independent Basketball Association in January 2013.
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