The Moline Coal Valley School Board is requesting that the state of Illinois designate a sporting arena as a historic landmark.
During its regular meeting on Monday, the board unanimously approved the application for the Wharton Field House near Avenue of the Cities and 16th Street.
In the late 1940s, the arena hosted the first NBA game, following a merger between the National Basketball League and Basketball Association of America. Researcher and co-owner of East Moline East$ide Sounds recording studio, Tayvian Johnson, spoke in favor of the historic designation after researching this history.
“On Oct. 29, 1949, the Tri-City Blackhawks defeated the Denver Nuggets in a 93-85 Game in this building before 3,450 fans. It was the only game in the league played that night under the new name of the National Basketball Association," Johnson said.
Johnson noted that three years earlier, in 1946, teams were moving across the country, and one team toured Wharton Field House.
"One of those were the Buffalo Bisons, and they were looking for a new place to play because business was not necessarily treating them well out in Buffalo," Johnson said. They went to a few places— Minneapolis, Milwaukee— but first they came here. They toured the Field House and they called it an ideal basketball court. And I have that in quotes for you guys later on in this. They conferred with the Moline Board of Education about making it the pro team's floor. That was one of the specific meetings that they had written about in the paper when it happened. And also very ironic that is where I am right now having this conversation with you guys. Within weeks, the team was playing there."
A Moline resident suggested Blackhawks as the new name for the team and it stuck.
"This has always been a basketball town. It is a basketball town to this day, and there's clear evidence that the Blackhawks didn't even bring basketball here. It was very much already here," Johnson said. "Also, if you ever hear it called cagers, it's because they literally put a cage around the balls so that they didn't fly off into the crowd. So if you see that term anywhere, they were talking about basketball players. I've never heard that before in my life."
The team later moved around the country and is now known as the Atlanta Hawks.
Johnson said the state will hopefully approve the request soon, before major anniversaries later this decade.
"In '28, Wharton turns 100, so it's kind of like a nice stair-stepper situation, and then the 80th anniversary from what we are talking about would be the 2029 year, even though the NBA just celebrated their 80th this year, which would make sense for the gap in the timeline from the BAA being created to the NBA being the assumed two leagues," Johnson said.
School board members thanked Johnson for his exhaustive research and expressed excitement about a possible historic designation, including Geoff Manis, who said the designation could open the door to future economic partnerships with the league.
"And then from there, the sky's the limit. It truly does open a Pandora's box," Board Member Manis said. "If you remember the NFL, the first NFL game ever was also played in the Quad Cities, in Rock Island, at Douglas Park. That's no longer a football field. But here in Moline, our basketball gym, Wharton Field House, has been impeccably maintained, that there could be, you know, potential partnerships. I mean, who's to say what could possibly happen once essentially the NBA catches up to what we're trying to do and accomplish here? So it's pretty exciting, undoubtedly."
The school district is paying a $500 application fee and, if accepted, will spend an additional $5,000 to place a commemorative plaque on the field house, built in 1928.
You can find Tayvian Johnson's full presentation here. [Time 14:40 to 40:30]
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