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Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — as of November 2026
The shape of the tie: No man born in Fort Wayne stands in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield. The city's five names arrive by the team it kept: the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, who made this a big-league basketball city from 1941 to 1957. Each tie is printed at its own strength.
Fred Zollner, contributor, enshrined 1 October 1999: The Hall's own page gives the record: he owned the NBL's Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (1941–48), the Fort Wayne Pistons of the BAA and NBA (1948–57) and then Detroit (1957–1974); he oversaw the BAA–NBL merger that formed the NBA, was the first owner to hire a bench coach, and in 1952 the first to buy an aeroplane — a DC-3 — to transport his team. He was born in Little Falls, Minnesota; his tie here is the foundry and the team — the Zollner Corporation works in Fort Wayne employed more than 1,200 people at a time, he recruited his players personally, and he ran the club from this city for sixteen seasons. The NBA's Western Conference championship trophy now bears his name. An adopted son, at full adopted strength.
Bobby McDermott, player, 1988: The star scoring guard and player-coach of the Zollner Pistons of the 1940s, who led Fort Wayne through its run of league titles and its World Professional Basketball Tournament championships of 1944, 1945 and 1946. The tie is formation and prime: his great years were played here.
Andy Phillip, player, 1961: A guard who starred for the Fort Wayne Pistons in the first half of the 1950s and was named an All-Star five consecutive years, 1951–55. The tie is a starring tenure here in his prime.
George Yardley, player, 1996: Drafted seventh overall by Fort Wayne in 1950, Yardley led the Pistons to the NBA Finals of 1955 and 1956 — the 1955 home Finals games displaced to Indianapolis because a bowling tournament held the Coliseum floor — and, by then in Detroit, became in 1957–58 the first player in NBA history to score 2,000 points in a season. The tie is drafting and Finals leadership here.
Bob Houbregs, player, enshrined 1987: The Hall's own record dates his election to 5 May 1987. He came to Fort Wayne in 1954 and played three seasons for the Pistons, 1954–57, averaging eleven points and helping the club reach the 1956 NBA Finals — the last stop of a five-team career. The tie is a closing tenure, printed at closing strength.
Sources:
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Hall's own inductee pages (hoophall.com) — Zollner's enshrinement of 1 October 1999 and his record as the Hall states it; Houbregs's enshrinement of 1987.
- The people-sports record, this history, citing Basketball Reference and the Hall of Fame — Phillip (1961), McDermott (1988) and Yardley (1996), and their Fort Wayne tenures.
- The sports record, Sports — the Zollner Pistons' course, the 1944–46 tournament championships and the displaced 1955 Finals games.