Basketball as a sport had little of a following initially. Baseball was unquestionably the big moneymaker, with horse racing and boxing not far behind. Even hockey, with just a handful of professional teams, was more popular than basketball. Then WW II came around, and with young men fighting on the front rather than on the field, sports for the most part shut down. Except, as it happens, for college basketball, whose players were often too tall for military service. At the same time, basketball officials changed the game rules to promote more action and spectator appeal, laying the groundwork for the foundation of the professional basketball league.

On this day, June 6, in 1946, a group of arena operators, along with hockey team owners Walter Brown and Al Sutphin, met at the Hotel Commodore in New York to discuss the formation of the Basketball Association of America.

The popularity of the sport at a college level prompted the talks, and five days later details were hashed out. There would be two divisions, with the East consisting of the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Providence Steamrollers and Washington Capitols, along with yet unnamed teams from New York and Toronto. In the West there would be the Pittsburgh Ironmen, Chicago Stags, Detroit Falcons, St. Louis Bombers and Cleveland Rebels. To make the game last the two-hour period though appropriate for an evening’s entertainment, the game period was divided into 12-minute quarters.