The Rise of the National Basketball Association

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments A large number of people provided help along the way in completing this manuscript. As always, few authors work in isolation. Several curators and research librarians provided crucial material. Thanks to Matt L. Zeysing, historian and archivist, and Kip Fonsh, curatorial assistant , of the Joseph M. O’Brien Historical Resource Center, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for their help in unearthing BAA and NBA financial data. George Rugg, curator of the Joyce Sports Collection at Notre Dame University, once again supplied access and guidance to sports periodicals and team programs. Librarians at the Multnomah County Library, Gregory Heights Branch; University of Oregon; and University of Chicago helped me in tracking down articles and sources. Robert W. Fogel’s office staff graciously provided me computer access while editing a previous rendition of this book. Mark Watson of the University of Oregon Knight Library provided some computer and printing resources during a research visit there. Graduate research assistant Ling Ling Cao printed articles from the New York Times. Economics department student assistant Gabe Kalkbrenner helped with formatting the citations, saving me a great deal of time and effort . University of Northern Iowa Professor Ken Brown ran the fixed-effects panel regression equation discussed in appendix A. As I was polishing the arguments and contents of this book, participants at the Illinois Economic Association and University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration Friday seminar series provided helpful remarks. Professor Michael Haupert of the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse provided detailed comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Two anonymous referees suggested significant changes to the manuscript that strengthened it. The University of Northern Iowa’s College of Business Administration funded research trips to Springfield, Massachusetts, and South Bend, Indiana. Farzad Moussavi, dean of the University of Northern Iowa’s College of Business Administration, and Fred Abraham, head of the Economics Department , generously provided encouragement and financial help throughout the process, including funding for the index. A professor receives inspiration from a parade of good students. University of Northern Iowa students Trevor Boeckmann, Emily Goranson, Eric Sauser , and Jessica Kunzelmann were energetic and enthusiastic students both within and outside the classroom. Mr. Boeckmann compiled an interesting research paper on wagering in the television game show Jeopardy! Mr. Sauser and Ms. Kunzelmann were able officers for Beta Gamma Sigma, the collegiate business honor society. Ms. Goranson was one of the only students to get perfect exam scores in Introduction to Decision Techniques. I had some excellent teachers along the way. Nobel-Prize winner Robert W. Fogel, David Galenson, and the late D. Gale Johnson taught me a great deal about research methods. My high school teachers Bert Kronmiller and Bette Hack imbued me with an enthusiasm for business methods. Ms. Hack transformed me from a “hunt and peck” typist into a competent typist, which has been a true blessing in my academic career. Janine Goodwin edited some text early on in the process; Jill R. Hughes did a thorough job editing the manuscript and was a pleasure to work with. Kudos to Tad Ringo for uncovering a Sheboygan Red Skins program that resolved that the nickname was two words instead of one word (as previous historians have indicated). Sarah Statz Cords compiled yet another wonderful index. My brother, Stanley Surdam, introduced me to basketball many years ago. His enthusiasm for basketball has enriched my life greatly. In addition, he urged me to become ambidextrous, a blessing for a short player. viii . acknowledgments The Rise of the National Basketball Association ...