Player info Roster

Team info

Stats

Quick facts:

Founded:  1946
Folded:   1947
          

Arena:    Duquesne Gardens
          110 N. Craig Street
          Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Built in: 1890
Capacity: 6,500
Arena Cost: $500,000 
Titles:   None
Playoffs: None
Trivia:   Has the record for worse ELO ranking in NBA History making them a strong candidate for worst team ever.

Season records
Year   W    L  
46-47  15   45

A City of Basketball Failures:
Pittsburgh has long been a city of failure for the game of basketball. The NFL with the Steelers, MLB with the Pirates, and even the NHL with the Penguins have all enjoyed a lot of success in the city. Basketball, not so much.

The city went through many early teams in the early leagues, many lasting just weeks. The first real major team for the area was the Pittsburgh Pirates, which was mainly an all Jewish barnstorming team, but went semi-pro in the mid 1930s and joined the Midwest Basketball Conference and eventually the NBL. The Pirates, named after the MLB team, did not see very much success and disbanded in 1939. A few years later the NBL tried Pittsburgh again and founded the Raiders, they lasted just one season before failing.

The BAA tried with the Ironmen, but they failed after just one season. The Ironmen may have been one of the worst teams in NBA history.

The ABA tried and seen some success in the 1960s with the Condors, but they too failed.

An NBA beginning:
Peter "Press" Maravich was a 6'0" guard from Davis & Elkins College. He had previously played for the Youngstown Bears of the NBL and a few other teams. He would be most famous for being the father of NBA legend "Pistol" Pete Maravich. Piston Pete would go on to have one of the best college career's every while at LSU and go on to become a hall-of-fame player for the Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Jazz.

Siblings:
The Ironmen became the first team in what became the NBA to have brothers on the same team. The Ironmen had Roger and Noble Jorgensen. Roger had a short career but Noble played in many early leagues and was a decent player.

Abramovic played just 56 games in the NBA, and just 9 after leaving the Ironmen. He played 4 games in 1948 for the Bombers and 5 more for the Bullets.

Gunther who lead the Ironmen in scoring would play the next season in the PBLA before rejoining the BAA in 199 to play for the Bombers.

Noble Jorgensen had the best career of any player for the Ironmen. He played the following season for Portland in the PCPBL and than returned to the NBL with the Red Skins. He joined the NBA with the Red Skins before playing for the Tri-cities Blackhawks and Syracuse Nations. In all Jorgensen played 268 games in the NBA/BAA.

Noszka played sparing the next two seasons for the Boston Celtics.

The 4 players who would play more than 1 season is a low for all NBA teams, the only team that comes close is the Kankakee Gallagher Trojans of the NBL - who had no one play for another team or league.

In another incident Birch attacked guard Peter Maravich and pushed him up against a locker, and the players had to intervene before Birch hurt Maravich. Birch especially took his wrath out on Maravich who he refused to play. Maravich credited Birch with effectively ruining his career.

Despite the issues Birch was given another oppertunity to coach in the NBA with the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. He coached the Pistons from 1951 until 1954 when he was banned from the NBA as part of a point shaving scandal in which Birch likely had no involvment. However, his life descended into one of bitterness and alcohol abuse.

John Abromvic

Coulby Gunther


Father-son day promotion between the Stags and Iron Men.

Pittsburgh vs Providence.

A student ticket promotion for early season games. The IronMen only had 10 home games before December 30, 1946.

Pittsburgh Ironmen team photo