Pioneers of basketball from Troy

[...] those players of yore would have been downright stunned by the modern game -- even if they played a part in bringing it along about a hundred or so years ago.

Jim Davey of Troy commented on a recent blog post seeking nominations for the greatest team accomplishments in Capital Region sports history.

Davey talked of his grandfather Jimmy Davey, and the Wachter brothers Ed and Lew, and how they picked up the game at the Troy Y before playing pro basketball.

Some sources credit the Trojans with implementing the bounce pass, the fast break and aspects of man defense.

The game they played resembled modern basketball in a sense there was a hoop and the ball was round and players wore shorts.

[...] yes, back then they played in a cage (hence the archaic term "cagers" for basketball players), That innovation did come out of the Troy Trojans; Davey said Lew Wachter told him the cage prevented fans from "sticking players with ladies' hatpins."

(It also kept the ball in play.) Nelson said heated coins and other missiles and objects, blunt and pointed, were employed on opposing teams by fans of the era.

When hired to coach at Harvard in 1920 (after stops at what is now UAlbany, RPI and Williams), The Crimson hailed him as "one of the best known figures in the basketball world ... (who) has won the reputation of being the greatest scoring center the game has ever known."