Two years after the NBA's Rochester Royals left the Lilac City for Cincinnati, a group of Buffalo-based businessmen tried to bring professional basketball back to Rochester with an Eastern League expansion franchise, the Rochester Colonels. The announcement was made on July 2, 1958, that professional basketball would return to the Rochester War Memorial (today known as Blue Cross Arena), and former Rochester Royal star Arnie Risen would play for the team and help promote it in the community.
Among the players on the Colonels was center Hubie Brown, who would later become a successful coach and television analyst; Charlie Hoxie, Bo Erias, Jim Cunningham and Dave Ricketts. The team held their own in two exhibition contests - one against the Syracuse Nationals (in which less than 850 showed up), and a game against the Harlem Globetrotters (and the Globetrotters' new center, Wilt Chamberlain).
The Colonels started off slow in their first few games, losing to Williamsport on the road, then dropping a game to Wilkes-Barre in Rochester in front of 1844 fans. The team struggled through their next road games, and rumors floated around that player-coach Arnie Risen was being courted by the Cincinnati Royals for a head coaching job.
One of the drawbacks for the Colonels was that although visiting teams were guaranteed $200 for games in the rest of the league, Rochester was so far away that the Colonels were forced to guarantee $600 per game for visiting teams. They also had to pay more for EPBL referees, who also had to travel the long distance to Rochester for games.
By December 8, 1958, the Buffalo businessmen put the Colonels up for sale. Four days later, the team was leased to the Colonels players themselves, and 805 fans watched at the War Memorial as the Colonels lost their seventh straight game. One more loss later, at Wilkes-Barre, sealed the Colonels' fate.
On December 17, 1958, the Colonels folded. The EPBL held an emergency meeting and a midseason draft was conducted of the Colonels' players. All games played against the Colonels and all individual statistics were wiped from the official records - as if the Colonels never existed.
Regular Season Standings
W L PCT GB Result
1958-1959 0 8 .000 -- folded in midseason
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Home Court: War Memorial Arena, Rochester, N.Y. |
| ALL-STAR GAME: Never hosted. | |
PLAYOFFS1958-1959 Did Not Make Playoffs | |