Anderson Packers.

Public television "Across Indiana" looks back at the professional basketball champions of 1949.

In 1949, professional basketball was still a fledgling industry. Concepts such as "lockout" and "contract labor disputes" were completely foreign. In fact, during that era most team owners in the National Basketball League (the precursor to today's NBA) still paid their players on a game-by-game basis. It was an unstable business. Franchises folded as quickly as they were formed.

But in the Hoosier State one team thrived, both at the box office and on the floor. That team was the Anderson Packers.

In the fall of 1945, Howard "Gabby" Cronk, public relations director for the Duffey Meat Packing plant, approached company president and CEO Isaac "Ike" Duffey about sponsoring a barnstorming basketball team as a PR stunt. Duffey, a self-made millionaire by the time he was 40, was an avid sports enthusiast and embraced Cronk's idea with enthusiasm.

Ed Stanczak, a former Indiana high school star, worked at a local car dealership when Ike Duffey strolled in and offered him a job playing pro basketball. "He offered me $25 a game," Stanczak laughs. "And boy, I thought that was big money in those days. So I joined immediately."

By the end of their first season, the rookie club built an impressive 20-11 record against much more seasoned professional teams. The following year, Duffey took his club to the next level. For a $500 entry fee, he formed a franchise in the National Basketball League.

To compete on a national level, Duffey needed top national talent. So he solicited some of the biggest names in college basketball to come to Anderson, offering them full-time employment at the meat packing plant during the week, with basketball games scheduled on the weekends. Frankie Brian, a hot-shooting guard from Louisiana State University, was one of the players who jumped at Duffey's offer.

"We used to play our games at the old Wigwam, which was one of the largest high school gyms in the country at the time," he remembers. "And those fans in Anderson sure loved their basketball. They called themselves Packer Backers, and they'd pack the place for every one of our games."

By 1949, Anderson had built one of the best records in all of pro basketball. That spring the club faced the Oshkosh All-Stars for a "best-of-five" NBL championship series. After winning two close contests in Oshkosh, Anderson returned home for game three with a chance to win the league title in front of the hometown fans.

The Packers were unstoppable in the final contest, conquering Oshkosh 88-64. After the game, the players marched to center court and dedicated the towering, five-foot NBL trophy to the Packer Backers for their loyal support during the previous four seasons.

Sauter Shoe Co., a downtown business, presented each player with a new pair of Bostonians.

Several months after his crowning achievement in the sporting world, Ike Duffey retired from pro basketball and put the team up for sale. The citizens of Anderson, concerned that their beloved Packers might relocate, formed the Packers Civic Committee and set about raising funds to buy the team.

The Packers became the first professional basketball franchise in history to "go public," with local citizens purchasing $100 shares in the team. By the following autumn they raised $10,000, and Ike Duffey happily presented the ownership papers to an ecstatic group of Packer Backers. For two more seasons, the club continued to thrive, until league restructuring phased out many smaller franchises, including the Packers.

Todd Gould is an Emmy Award-winning producer for the statewide PBS television series "Across Indiana," and is the author of "Pioneers of the Hardwood: Indiana and the Birth of Professional Basketball," available from Indiana University Press.