John Isaacs Waiting for a Call From the Basketball Hall of Fame

Summary

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[John Isaacs] is the last man standing from the eight-player 1939 New York Renaissance team that won the first-ever World Professional Basketball Championship. Puggy Bell, Clarence "Fats" Jenkins, Eyrie "Bruiser" Saitch, Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, William "Wee Willie" Smith, Zach Clayton and William "Pop" Gates--they're all gone but will always be remembered as teammates on a marvelous team that played their way through the eight-team tournament to become the first world champions of professional basketball.

On Monday, John Isaacs will be waiting to hear his phone ring. Waiting for a call from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Waiting to hear a voice that will say something like, "Congratulations, you're in." Tarzan Cooper got the call in 1978. Pop Gates got the same call in 1989. Then the Hall forgot about Puggy, who may well have been the best of them all. They forgot about Fats, Saitch, Zach and "Wee Willie."

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John Isaacs Waiting for a Call From the Basketball Hall of Fame

John Isaacs is the last man standing from the eight-player 1939 New York Renaissance team that won the first-ever World Professional Basketball Champio...

See the full content of this document

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