Anderson Packers.

• Author: Gould, Todd
• Position: Indiana professional basketball team

Public television "Across Indiana" looks back at the professional basketball champions of 1949.

In 1949, professional basketball was still a fledgling industry. Concepts such as "lockout" and "contract labor disputes" were completely foreign. In fact, during that era most team owners in the National Basketball League (the precursor to today's NBA) still paid their players on a game-by-game basis. It was an unstable business. Franchises folded as quickly as they were formed.

But in the Hoosier State one team thrived, both at the box office and on the floor. That team was the Anderson Packers.

In the fall of 1945, Howard "Gabby" Cronk, public relations director for the Duffey Meat Packing plant, approached company president and CEO Isaac "Ike" Duffey about sponsoring a barnstorming basketball team as a PR stunt. Duffey, a self-made millionaire by the time he was 40, was an avid sports enthusiast and embraced Cronk's idea with enthusiasm.

Ed Stanczak, a former Indiana high school star, worked at a local car dealership when Ike Duffey strolled in and offered him a job playing pro basketball. "He offered me $25 a game," Stanczak laughs. "And boy, I thought that was big money in those days. So I joined immediately."

By the end of their first season, the rookie club built an impressive 20-11 record against much more seasoned professional teams. The following year, Duffey took his club to the next level. For a $500 entry fee, he formed a franchise in the National Basketball League.

To compete on a national level, Duffey needed top national talent. So he solicited some of the biggest names in college basketball to come to Anderson, offering them full-time employment at the meat packing plant during the week, with basketball games scheduled on the weekends. Frankie Brian, a hot-shooting guard from Louisiana State University, was one of the players who jumped at Duffey's offer.

"We used to play our games at the old Wigwam, which was one of the largest high school gyms in the country at the time," he remembers. "And those fans in Anderson sure loved their basketball. They called themselves Packer...