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1955–56 Fort Wayne Pistons season

NBA team season

Field	Value
team	Fort Wayne Pistons
team_link	Detroit Pistons
end_year	1956
DivisionWin	yes
wins	37
losses	35
division	Western
division_place	1
coach	Charles Eckman
owner	Fred Zollner
arena	War Memorial Coliseum
television	WKJG-TV
radio	WOWO
playoffs	[NBA Finals](1956-nba-playoffs-bracket)
(eliminated 1–4)
bbr_team	FTW

(eliminated 1–4) The 1955–56 Fort Wayne Pistons season was the eighth season for the Pistons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 15th season as a franchise.

The Pistons would finish with a 37-35 (.514) record, 1st in the NBA Western Division and the only division team above .500 on the season. In the Western Division Finals the Pistons defeated the St. Louis Hawks in a best-of-five series 3–2 to reach the NBA Finals for the second straight season. They would go on to lose the Finals in five games to the Philadelphia Warriors. The team was led by forward Mel Hutchins (12.0 ppg, 7. rpg, NBA All-Star), forward George Yardley (17.4 ppg, 9.7 rpg, NBA All-Star) and center Larry Foust (16.2 ppg, 9.0 rpg, NBA All-Star).

The Pistons also drafted their first black player in the team's history, Jesse Arnelle out of Penn State in the 2nd round of the 1955 NBA draft. Arnelle initially refused to sign with Fort Wayne, playing for the Harlem Globetrotters, but signed with the Pistons after the conclusion of the Globetrotters European tour, played in 31 games, averaging 4.7 ppg and 5.5 rpg, before breaking his nose in February to end the season. Arnelle did not return to Fort Wayne the following season, ending his professional basketball career. He became a successful lawyer and would serve on the Penn State Board of Trustees.

Roster

Regular season

Season standings

:x – clinched playoff spot

Game log

1955–56 Game log
#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72

Playoffs

3–2
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
1
March 31
@ Philadelphia
L 94–98
George Yardley (27)
George Yardley (15)
Hutchins, Phillip (6)
Philadelphia Civic Center
4,128
0–1
- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
2
April 1
Philadelphia
W 84–83
George Yardley (30)
George Yardley (19)
Andy Phillip (5)
War Memorial Coliseum
6,976
1–1
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
3
April 3
@ Philadelphia
L 96–100
Larry Foust (19)
Larry Foust (14)
Chuck Noble (4)
Philadelphia Civic Center
11,698
1–2
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
4
April 5
Philadelphia
L 105–107
George Yardley (21)
Larry Foust (14)
Andy Phillip (6)
War Memorial Coliseum
7,852
1–3
- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
5
April 7
@ Philadelphia
L 88–99
George Yardley (30)
George Yardley (20)
Corky Devlin (6)
Philadelphia Civic Center
11,194
1–4
-

References

[https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/FTW/1956.html 1955–56 Fort Wayne Pistons]
"1955-56 Fort Wayne Pistons Roster and Stats".
(27 November 2011). "Chevette to Corvette No. 20: The 1955-56 Fort Wayne Pistons".
"Jesse Arnelle, former Penn State All-American, dies at 86".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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