Denver Nuggets (original)

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Denver Nuggets
Founded	1948
Disbanded	1950
League	NBL (1948-49), NBA (1949-50)
Division	Western Division (NBL and NBA)
City	Denver, Colorado
Home Court	Auditorium Arena
Colors	N/A
Championships	0
Division Titles	0
Owner	N/A
General Manager	N/A
Head Coach	James Darden

This article is about the original Denver Nuggets NBL/NBA team from 1948-1950. For the current NBA team see Denver Nuggets.

The Denver Nuggets were a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets joined the National Basketball League for the 1948-49 season, and then joined the National Basketball Association when the NBL and Basketball Association of America merged to create the NBA for the 1949-50 season. The Nuggets were the first major professional sports franchise in Colorado.

1 Team Record
2 Nuggets History
3 Connections With Current Denver Nuggets
4 Honors
5 External Links
6 See Also

[edit] Team Record

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, % = Win-Loss %

Season	W	L	%	Playoffs	Results
1948-49	18	44	.290	None	5th Place, Western Division (NBL)
1949-50	11	51	.177	None	6th Place, Western Division (NBA)

[edit] Nuggets History

The Denver Nuggets trace their roots back to 1938 when the original amateur Nuggets were formed as a member of the Amateur Athletic Union. Led by player/coach "Jumping Jack" McCracken, the Nuggets were one of the most powerful amateur athletic basketball teams in the country, winning the 1939 AAU championship and losing the 1940 championship to the Phillips 66ers of Oklahoma. Not playing professionally, its players were given extra jobs by team sponsors, and they played on the stage of the Auditorium Arena (now Ellie Caulkins Opera House). Featuring stars such as McCracken, Robert Ace Gruenig and Vince Boryla, the Nuggets continued as an AAU power throughout their existence, and the AAU has been credited by historians for helping put Denver on the national sports map. In 1948, the National Basketball League awarded Denver its first professional basketball franchise, which took on the people an identity of the Denver Nuggets. When the NBL merged with the BBL in 1949 and became the National Basketball Association, the Nuggets became an NBA team. The westernmost team in the NBA, the Nuggets were led by player/coach Jim Darden, a star shooting guard who joined the amateur Nuggets after leaving the Army as a World War II veteran in 1946. The Nuggets played one season in the NBA, compiling an 11-51 record in the Western Division. The team was disbanded in 1950.

[edit] Connections With Current Denver Nuggets

When Denver's second major pro basketball franchise, the Denver Rockets, endeavored to join the NBA, a contest was held in 1974 to give the team a new nickname since the NBA already had the Houston Rockets. The name of Denver's original NBA franchise won, and has been the name of the team ever since. In 1985 onetime amateur Nuggets star Vince Boryla joined the franchise as its president and general manager, and was awarded NBA Executive of the Year that same year. He was President and GM of the Nuggets from 1985-1988. The current Denver Nuggets also started out in the same venue as the original Nuggets, the Auditorium Arena (by then modified to hold a pure basketball court, capacity 6,841), playing there from 1967-1975.