The San Francisco Saints were a traveling amateur basketball team composed of

Chinese Americans Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

that was formed in the 1950s and entered in the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

. The team was founded by Father Donal F. Forrester, who was serving as pastor and director of St. Mary's Chinese Catholic Center/Holy Family Parish in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

. The Saints is one of the best known and successful Chinese teams. The team competed against Asian and Non-Asian teams all across

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. One of the major competitions that the Saints participated in was the North American Chinese Basketball Association (NACBA) Invitational Tournament which was started in 1981 and celebrates continued success for over thirty years. The Saints dominated the early years of the tournament, winning 10 out of the first 11 championships. The team is currently active and won the NACBA championship in 1998, finished 2nd in 1999 and won the championship for the 35 and Over Division in 2003. The team still competes under the Saints name with local talent in some Bay Area adult leagues. St. Mary's Chinese Catholic Center also adopted the name of the Saints for its 3rd to 8th grade grammar school sports teams. An offshoot of the Saints team, the San Francisco Duke, has carried the legacy of the Saints on. The Duke team has continued to compete and play in leagues and tournaments as the Saints did in years past. To honor the memory of the Saints, the San Francisco Duke team combined with some of the older Saints players to form the San Francisco Duke/Saints to participate in the 25th Annual NACBA tournament in Chicago. The combined team played well but lost to the Seattle Bladerunners in the championship.

References

{{Reflist

External links

North American Chinese Basketball Association website
Basketball teams in the United States Chinatown, San Francisco

See also

References

External links