Dayton Rens

The Dayton Rens team was formerly known by the name, the New York Renaissance or Rens. This team was an all black professional basketball team which got founded in 1923 by Robert “Bob” Douglas. The team played most of their games on the road, and barnstormed across the country out of necessity as they were unable to join any professional league due to racial discrimination.

This team played its first professional game in 1923 and was the dominant basketball team of 1920 and 1930s. During the 1932-33 season, the team compiled a record of 112-8 and won 88 consecutive games, a mark which has never been matched by any professional basketball team till date.

In 1939, the Rens became the first all black team to have won a championship game, when they beat the Oshkosh All-Stars, 34-25, in the World Basketball Tournament in Chicago. This team has a 2588-539 record over its history and it was a high point in their career, to defeat the NBL Champion, Oshkosh All-Stars in 1939.

The Dayton Rens were also a member of the USA National Basketball League for the 1948-49 season and were the only all-black team to play in a white league. This team had moved to Dayton in the middle of the NBL season to replace the Detroit Vagabond Kings, who went out of existence in 1948. The Rens inherited the Kings to 2-17 record. Also, the Rens compiled a 14-26 record, thus ending the season with an overall record of 16-43.

During their tenure in playing professional basketball, they traveled across the Northeast and Midwest of the United States, thus attracting crowds of almost 15,000 audience to watch their games. Further, the NBL invited the Rens hoping to strengthen a league which was fading away slowly with direct competition from the new formed NBA. There were already four teams which were selected and as NBL needed a popular team, they chose the Rens.

However, by 1949, the team got disbanded and was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a team in 1963.

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