POP MORGENWECK

Frank  “Pop” Morgenweck entered pro basketball in his early twenties as an assistant to his older brother, Bill, who was the successful owner of the Camden franchise in the National Basketball League. In 1901, Frank Morgenweck acquired his own NBL franchise in Philadelphia but could only manage to win four of thirty-nine contests. After two unsuccessful seasons on his own, Frank returned to work for his brother to help run the Camden NBL team for the 1903-04 season. Seven weeks into the season, Frank negotiated a lucrative deal with the Westfield entry in the Western Massachusetts Basketball League and jumped with three star players to the new league. The deal triggered the collapse of the already fragile NBL. Ironically, the Western Massachusetts League suffered the same fate just four weeks later and sent Morgenweck back to Camden unemployed.  He passed the next six years coaching and playing for independent basketball teams in the Camden area. In 1910, he was hired to coach the Kingston entry in New York State League. He stocked the team entirely with players from New Jersey and finished third behind powerhouse teams in Troy and Paterson. Morgenweck jumped to South Side in the Central League in 1911, but was fired 15 games into the season. Morgenweck returned to Kingston, with his brood of New Jersey players and had the team in first place in the Hudson River League when the circuit folded in late January of 1912.  Morgenweck moved the team intact into the rival NYSL were he remained in charge until midseason 1913-14. From 1915 until 1920, Morgenweck coached in the Interstate League where he guided Kingston and Paterson to the finals, but lost both times.During his many years as a coach, Morgenweck discovered and developed many stars from the New Jersey including George “Babe” Artus, Rusty Saunders, Maurice Tome and Benny Borgmann. In the 1922-23 season, Morgenweck reached the pinnacle of his career. He entered his squad in two leagues representing Kingston in the NYSL and Paterson in the Metropolitan Basketball League. Led by scoring sensation Benny Borgmann, Morgenweck’s crew captured both league titles and also won four of six games from the Original Celtics to claim the mystical national professional title. The championships would turn out to be the only major- league titles Morgenweck would win in his career that spanned 38 years. Morgenweck coached in the Metropolitan League from 1923 until 1927. His 1924-25 Kingston team won first half of the split season, but lost in the playoffs.In December of 1927, Morgenweck was signed on the recommendation of Borgmann  to coach the Fort Wayne team in the American Basketball League team . The club won the Western Division title, but was defeated by the New York Celtics in the championship series. Morgenweck coached Paterson, Rochester and Chicago in ABL during the next three years. His best results were with the Rochester team that won the second half of the 1929-30 season, but lost to Cleveland in the championship series. After the demise of the ABL in 1931, he coached Bridgeton in Eastern League for two seasons. As usual, Morgenweck eventually made his way back to Kingston where he entered a team in the long-dormant NYSL, revived as a minor league. His squad won the 1934-35 championship. Morgenweck moved his team into the revived ABL the following season and remained as coach there until late in the 1938-39 season when illness forced him to resign.