The Hazleton Hawks were a professional basketball franchise in the

Eastern Professional Basketball League The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball mi ...

. The Hawks, based in

Hazleton, Pennsylvania Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,963 at the 2020 census. Hazleton is the second largest city in Luzerne County. It was incorporated as a borough on January 5, 1857, and as a city on Decembe ...

, joined the league in 1955, playing as the "Hazleton Professionals"; they were named the "Hawks" in their second season in the league. In the team's first season, the franchise went through several different lineups and two coaching changes, but later made the playoffs by signing several players who had been part of the college

point-shaving In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team from covering a ...

scandals, including Sherman White of

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

, Bob McDonald of

Toledo University The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of T ...

, and Ed Warner of

CCNY The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City ...

. With that lineup, the team was able to reach the Eastern League finals in its first season - only to lose to the

Wilkes-Barre Barons The Wilkes-Barre Barons were a basketball team from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Barons played between 1933 and 1980 in different American leagues. The team won 11 titles during this time, including while playing in the American Basketball ...

in a best-of-three series. By the team's second year of operation, the franchise was now known as the "Hawks," and became the first basketball team in an integrated professional league to have an all-black starting lineup, which included White, Tom Hemans of

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Appro ...

, Jesse Arnelle from

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

, Fletcher Johnson from

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsbu ...

, and Floyd Layne of

. The 1957-58 season saw the Hawks finish with an 18-10 record, tying them for first place in the league with the

and

Easton Madisons Easton may refer to: Places Canada * Easton, Nova Scotia United Kingdom *Easton, Bristol *Easton, Cambridgeshire *Easton, Dorset *Great Easton, Essex and Little Easton, Essex *Easton, Hampshire **Crux Easton, Hampshire *Easton, Isle of Wight * G ...

; after a three-way playoff, the Hawks were seeded third in the Eastern League playoffs, where the team eventually lost to the Madisons. Among the notable basketball stars who played for the Hawks were John Chaney, later to become coach of

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

's men's basketball team; and

Jack Molinas Jacob Louis Molinas (October 31, 1931 – August 3, 1975) was an American professional basketball player and a key figure in one of the most wide-reaching point shaving scandals in college basketball. Early life Molinas grew up in Brooklyn ...

, who became a player-coach during the 1960-61 season. The Hawks remained in the Eastern League until 1962, when after three consecutive losing seasons the franchise folded.

Year-by-Year

Hazleton Mountaineers, EPBL

{, class="wikitable" !Year !League !Record !Reg. Season !Playoffs , - , 1954/55 , EPBL , 15-15 , 4th , Finals , - , 1955/56 , EPBL , 11-15 , 5th , ''did not qualify'' , - , 1956/57 , EPBL , 20-10 , 2nd , Finals , - , 1957/58 , EPBL , 18-10 , 1st, tie , Semifinals , - , 1958/59 , EPBL , 16-12 , 4th , Semifinals , - , 1959/60 , EPBL , 9-18 , 7th , ''did not qualify'' , - , 1960/61 , EPBL , 10-18 , 8th , ''did not qualify'' , - , 1961/62 , EPBL , 4-21 , 8th , ''did not qualify'' Continental Basketball Association teams Basketball teams established in 1955 1955 establishments in Pennsylvania