The Indianapolis Olympians were a National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 (NBA) team based in Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, USA. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was the Hinkle Fieldhouse

Hinkle Fieldhouse

Hinkle Fieldhouse is a basketball arena located on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. When it was built in 1928, it was the largest basketball arena in the United States, and it retained that distinction until 1950. It is the sixth-oldest college basketball arena still in...

.

Franchise history

The Olympians were founded in 1949 to replace the Indianapolis Jets

Indianapolis Jets

The Indianapolis Jets were a Basketball Association of America team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The team lasted for one season and was later replaced by a new franchise.-Franchise history:...

. The Olympians were led by University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

 alumni Alex Groza

Alex Groza

Alex John Groza was an American professional basketball player from Martins Ferry, Ohio who was banned from the NBA for life in 1951 for point shaving...

 and Ralph Beard

Ralph Beard

Ralph Milton Beard Jr. was an American collegiate and professional basketball player. He was born in Hardinsburg, Kentucky. Beard was a member of Adolph Rupp's "Fabulous Five" University of Kentucky basketball team...

, both of whom were key contributors on the gold medal winning 1948 US Olympic basketball

Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics was the second appearance of the sport as an official medal event. A total number of 23 nations entered the competition....

 team. Olympic team members Wallace Jones and Cliff Barker (both also Kentucky alumni) also played on the team. An Olympic alternate and UK grad, Joe Holland, played forward for the Indianapolis team through the 1952 season.

After the 1951 season, Groza and Beard were suspended from the NBA for life by commissioner Maurice Podoloff

Maurice Podoloff

Maurice Podoloff was a U.S. lawyer and basketball and ice hockey administrator. He was the first president of the National Basketball Association...

 when the players admitted point shaving

Point shaving

In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to prevent a team from covering a published point spread. Unlike other forms of match fixing, sports betting invariably motivates point shaving. A point shaving scheme generally involves a sports gambler and one...

 during their college careers. The Olympians finished with a 28-43 record in 1953, and folded after that season. The Olympians compiled a 132-137 record in four seasons in the NBA.

The Olympians still hold the distinction of being the winning team in the longest game in NBA history — they were the 75-73 victors in a six-overtime game against the Rochester Royals

Rochester Royals

The franchise that would become the Sacramento Kings initially started in the city of Rochester, New York, as the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League....

 in a game played on January 6, 1951.

Season-by-season records

|-
!colspan="6"|Indianapolis Olympians (NBA)
|-
|1949-50 ||39||25||0.609||3-3||Lost Western Division Finals
|-
|1950-51 ||31||37||0.456||1-2||Lost Western Division Semifinals
|-
|1951-52 ||34||32||0.515||0-2||Lost Western Division Semifinals
|-
|1952-53 ||28||43||0.394||0-2||Lost Western Division Semifinals
|-

Others

• Ralph Beard
  Ralph Beard
  Ralph Milton Beard Jr. was an American collegiate and professional basketball player. He was born in Hardinsburg, Kentucky. Beard was a member of Adolph Rupp's "Fabulous Five" University of Kentucky basketball team...
  
  
• Alex Groza
  Alex Groza
  Alex John Groza was an American professional basketball player from Martins Ferry, Ohio who was banned from the NBA for life in 1951 for point shaving...
  
  
• Wallace Jones
  Wallace Jones
  Wallace "Wah Wah" Clayton Jones is a retired American professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association from 1949 to 1952 with the Indianapolis Olympians....
  
  
• Paul Walther
  Paul Walther
  Paul G. Walther is a retired American basketball player.A 6'2" guard/forward from the University of Tennessee, Walther played six seasons in the National Basketball Association as a member of the Minneapolis Lakers, Indianapolis Olympians, Philadelphia Warriors, and Fort Wayne Pistons...
  
  
• Kleggie Hermsen
  Kleggie Hermsen
  Clarence Henry "Kleggie" Hermsen was an American professional basketball player.A 6-foot-9 center from the University of Minnesota, Hermsen began his professional career with the Sheboygan Red Skins of the National Basketball League in 1943-44 and 1945-46...
  
  

External links

• Indianapolis Olympians - all time records and statistics