Akron Wingfoots

The Akron Wingfoots are one of the oldest basketball teams in the United States. They were founded in 1918 by the workers at the Goodyear Tire Company in Akron, Ohio. The teams, while giving workers recreation, also helped to promote one of the first canvas/rubber based shoes made specifically for athletics, the wingfoot.

History

In the late 1930s, Goodyear, Firestone, General Electric, and other companies with similar Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Elite teams decided to form the National Basketball League (NBL) to showcase their teams. The Wingfoots won the first NBL title in 1938. The team was not part of the BAA and NBL merger that created the NBA. Instead, they reconstituted those NBL teams left over into the National Industrial Basketball League. The Wingfoots regained national power in the NIBL, which in 1960, was changed to the National Alliance of Basketball Leagues.

The Akron Wingfoots won the Intercontinental Cup 3 times (1967, 1968, 1969) against Spartak Brno, Ignis Varese and Real Madrid.

Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 1937–38 NBL Champions

Talmadge Bennett Charles Bloedorn Robert Cope William Fitts John McAdams Dean Mealy Russ Ochsenhirt Malcolm Rush Charley Shipp Chelso Tamagno Head Coach Cliff Byers

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

Divisions	Dunlop Tyres Goodyear Aerospace The Kelly Springfield Tire Company Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires

Sponsorships	1988 Goodyear NASCAR 500 Akron Wingfoots Goodyear Television Playhouse Goodyear Theatre Goodyear Polymer Center Goodyear Silents Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue PeopleMover Wingfoot Express Spirit of America Cotton Bowl Classic

People	Charles Goodyear Fred Gampper Stanley Gault Lilly Ledbetter Frank Seiberling Ward Van Orman

Other	Black Sunday Cremaster 1 Goodyear, Arizona Goodyear Blimp Goodyear chimney Goodyear Dunlop v. Brown Goodyear MPP Goodyear Polyglas tire Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 STARAN

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