Albany’s First Professional Basketball Champions

The 1920’S Albany Senators

By ChuCk Miller

Their star forward was only 5’4” tall. One of their guards switched to baseball by the end of the season. Most of the players suited up for different teams in different leagues – during the same season. 5,000 fans, including New York Governor Al Smith, packed the Washington Avenue Armory to see their games. And they shot baskets inside of a cage. Meet the Senators, Albany’s first championship basketball team. From 1919 to 1923, the Senators (also known as “Solons” or “Lawgivers,” depending on the sportswriter’s preference) posted a 10338 record in the New York State League, winning two championships in what was then one of the top professional leagues in America.

Basketball in the 1920’s, however, was a rougher, more physical contest than the game we know of today. The cage – sometimes made of chicken wire, other times of rope nets – encircled the court. The predominant shot was the two-handed set shot, there was no shot clock – heck, there wasn’t even a backboard, all baskets had to go cleanly through the hoop. And games were low-scoring in the 1920’sFor example, Albany beat Cohoes 43-14 on January 5, 1920, which was considered a blowout in those days.

It was in this era and atmosphere that Bill “Brownie” Hepinstall felt he could build a winning basketball team in Albany. In 1919, Hepinstall, a savvy promoter and part-time baseball umpire, became the owner, manager, coach, and part-time forward of the Senators. Instead of scouting out local basketball talent, as did the rest of the league, Hepinstall knew more fans would spin the turnstiles if his team had recognizable and well-established players. Sparing no expense, he acquired New York basketball stars Barney Sedran, Marty Friedman and Harry Riconda as the nucleus of his Albany Senators.

Barney Sedran, the son of Russian immigrants, was one of the earliest college basketball stars (City College of New York, 1911). Sedran, a 5’4″ forward, made a tidy sum as a basketball player by playing for as many teams during one season as was physically possible. In 1914 Sedran led the Tri-County League’s Carbondale (Pa.) Salukis to 35 consecutive victories and a league title. On off-days from the Salukis, Sedran played a full schedule with the Utica Utes of the New York State League. While with Utica, Sedran set a record by

Continued on page 22

First Champions from page 21

making 17 field goals in a game against Cohoes – 17 clean shots through a backboardless hoop.

Sedran’s partner on the field was 5’8” Max “Marty” Friedman. Like Sedran, Friedman normally played on two teams at a time. In 1919-20, he played on three teams in three different leagues at the same time, and was on champion squads each time. Sedran and Friedman were known as “The Heavenly Twins,” a nickname that stuck with them wherever the duo went.

5’10” Harry Riconda was another New York basketball star who split his time among teams. As a member of the New York Whirlwinds, along with Sedran and Friedman, played two contests against the New York “Original Celtics,” drawing a record-high 19,000 fans for a two-game series. He was also one of the early twosport athletes, as he excelled in minor league baseball during basketball’s offseason.

With the Washington Avenue Armory as their home, the Senators began their 1919 maiden season. Stockpiled with major professional talent, Hepinstall’s team beat nearly every team they faced, winning the league’s split-season first half championship with a 17-1 record – a phenomenal .944 winning percentage. Their most hated rival squad at the time was the Troy Trojans, operated by future Basketball Hall of Famer Ed Wachter. Troy won the second half of the season with a 27-5 record, and would face Albany in a best-of-five series to decide the league championship. Unfortunately, the series never got off the ground, as Troy’s owner Matt Kelly argued with Brownie Hepinstall over how the box office receipts should be divided. The conflict was never settled, so Troy and Albany were declared co-champions.

In the 1920-21 season, Hepinstall recruited more talent to make his Albany fivesome even tougher on the court. Sedran, Friedman, Riconda and Leo Duval all returned, along with a new acquisition, 5’9” forward Ray Kennedy. Also playing a few games at center for Albany was Al Reich, another two-sport athlete (he was a better-than-average heavyweight boxer of his day). These Senators were declared champions of the first half of the season, as their 22-6 record was more than six games ahead of second-place Schenectady (15-12).

Continued on page 24

First Champions from page 22

Hepinstall also tried a groundbreaking experiment. In another effort to increase attendance, he created an all-female basketball squad, which played exhibitions against male teams before the Senators’ contests. This noble experiment was discontinued after a few games, when the Lady Senators defeated the men in every contest. They would later claim the best record in the second part of the 1920-21 campaign, winning the 1920-21 pennant outright.

After playing an independent season in 1921-22 (winning 11 of 13 games), the Senators returned to the New York State League for the 1922-23 campaign. The 1922-23 season was the last for the New York State League. Most teams in the League tried to follow Albany’s success formula, and signed star players from New York and Pennsylvania. Some men were paid an astronomical $100 per game, all in an effort to win glory for their team. By the time the season ended, many teams were so financially exhausted that another season was unaffordable. That included the Albany Senators.

The Albany Senators were no longer the dominant team – a new team in the

League, the Kingston Colonials, were the first-half victors and ran neck-and-neck with Albany for the second-half championship.

After the New York State League folded in 1923, Bill Hepinstall remained in the Albany area, where his descendants became involved with the Albany Public School system. Sedran and Friedman continued playing basketball, sometimes returning to Albany for exhibition games. In 1924, while guarding third base for the Athletics, Harry Riconda made seven putouts in a single game, setting an American League record for third basemen. In 1962, Barney Sedran was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Marty Friedman joined his “Heavenly Twin” in Springfield in 1971.

The Senators were champions in their era, a time before the 24-second clock, backboards, racial integration, airplane travel, guaranteed contracts, salary caps, the three-point play and designer athletic footwear. But could the Senators, in their prime, ever beat the Lakers or the Celtics or even the Patroons? Playing by today’s rules, not a chance. Steph Curry could have hopscotched over 5’4” Barney Sedran and still make a spectacular dunk.

But Steph dunking in a cage – that’s another story.