Chicago Bruins Basketball

1925

The Chicago Armory 1925

The Bruins were Chicago's first professional basketball team. They were members of the American Basketball League, known as the first "Big League." It was organized by National Football League president Joseph F Carr and George Halas, owner of the Chicago Bears.

Sadly, the Bruins were a lackluster team, but it fielded one of basketball's and certainly Chicago's greats, Blair "Barney" Varnes. George Halas wrote that Barney "pioneered the step-in one hand shot" and was a one-man scoring machine. They also sported Hall of Famers Nat Holman, Nat Hickey, Homer Stonebreaker, Stretch Murphy, Bernie Borgman and Honey Russell.