Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Gerry Archibald owned and operated a basketball team from the 1920s until about 1940s and also operated — and expanded — his father’s fox farm on Quaker Hill Road. Archibald, who died in 1990, is buried at the Snyder Cemetery up E. Fifth Ave.

Gerry Archibald, Lyman’s son, was born in 1907 while his father was working at a YMCA on Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Lyman first came to Warren about 1900 and returned to Warren — for good — in 1917.

At the tender age of 19, Archibald formed his first semi-pro basketball team — the Warren Clothes Shop for the 1926-1927 season.

The following year, he ran independent teams in Warren and Corry — the Warren Crescents and Corry Keystones, according to peachbasketsociety.blogspot, a treasure trove of early basketball history.

The next three seasons, Archibald operated his squad independently as the Warren Merchants and then the Warren Transits in the 1931-1932 and 1932-1933 seasons.

According to NBAhoopsonline.com, the 1926-1927 team was called the Warren Buckeyes and went 16-9, losing the league’s championship.

The team picked up a new sponsor for the 1933-1934 season — Hyvis Oilers, a sponsor that would stick with Archibald through the 1935-1936 season when the team functioned independently.

Specific information about these teams is pretty sparse until the 1936-1937 season when Archibald’s team joined the Midwest Basketball Conference.

Nbahoopsonline.com gives us a good look at the MBC, the “second major attempt at a real national basketball league in the U.S.” and was a “hodgepodge of corporate owned teams and independent barnstormers.”

The league only lasted two years and it appears that the Warren Penns — operated by Archibald — were only in the league for one year in 1936-1937.

Hyvil Oil continued as a main sponsor of the Penns and the league was focused in the midwest for travel reasons.

Pay and conditions were problems for the players in the MBC.

“Like its teams, the rules of the MBC were a hodgepodge and confusing,” according to nbahoopsonline.com. “Each team was responsible for making its own schedule but needed to have a minimum of 10 league games and 4 of them on the road. No team was also allowed to play another team more than four times and have it count on the league schedule. However, the league would not always enforce these scheduling rules.

“The home team was allowed to choose between four 10-minute long quarters or three 15-minute long periods. There was a jump-ball after every made basket as well.”

Players made between $5 and $10 per game.

According to probasketballencyclopedia.com, the Warren squad in the MBC went 8-6, finishing six games back of the first place Akron Goodyear in the Eastern Division.

Joe Leson led the team with 7.7 points per game, good for sixth in the league with teammate Bill Holland one spot behind at 7.6 points per game.

Archibald is also listed as a player/coach for that team though statistics are few and far between.

After the 1936-1937 season, the league changed its name to the National Basketball League.

And the Warren Penns would become a charter member.

This is the second in a series of articles about ties to professional basketball in Warren.