Carl Meinhold, 1926-2019

Even if you're from Baltimore or its suburbs, you might never have hear of Carl Meinhold. Which is too bad, because he was the last living link to your only NBA title.

Carl Marvin Meinhold was born on March 29, 1926 in the Scranton suburb of West Hazelton, Pennsylvania. He played guard and forward at Long Island University in Brooklyn, and in the 1947-48 season, he joined the Baltimore Bullets of the Basketball Association of America. Led by Hall of Fame player-coach Harry "Buddy" Jeannette (1917-1998), they won the BAA Championship, defeating the defending Champion Philadelphia Warriors in the Finals.

Meinhold spent the 1948-49 season with the Providence Steamrollers, and then with the Chicago Stags. After the 1949 season, the Northeast-based BAA merged with the Midwest-based National Basketball League (NBL), to form the National Basketball Association.

However, the NBA considers the 1946 start of the BAA to be the start of its history, even though 5 of its teams began in the NBL: The Atlanta Hawks (the NBL's Buffalo Bisons and Tri-Cities Blackhawks), the Sacramento Kings (the Rochester Royals), the Detroit Pistons (the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons), the Philadelphia 76ers (the Syracuse Nationals), and the Los Angeles Lakers (the Detroit Gems and the Minneapolis Lakers). The NBL also had a team called the Denver Nuggets, but that team folded shortly after joining the NBA, and has no connection to the current NBA team that started in the ABA in 1967.

As for the Bullets, they lasted until 1954, forced to drop out by bad finances. They played at the Baltimore Coliseum, at Monroe Street and Windsor Avenue. Built in 1930, it hung on until being demolished in 2008.

The Chicago Zephyrs moved to the Baltimore Civic Center (now the Royal Farms Arena) in 1963, and took the Baltimore Bullets name. But they moved to the D.C. area in 1973, and became the Capital Bullets, then the Washington Bullets in 1974, and finally the Washington Wizards in 1997. That franchise has no connection to the earlier Baltimore Bullets.

Meinhold played in the minor leagues, for his "hometown" Scranton Miners from 1949 to 1952, missing the 1950-51 season while serving in the Korean War. He closed his pro basketball career in 1953-54, playing for the Washington Generals, the team that loses to the Harlem Globetrotters. He was recruited for that team by Louis "Red" Koltz, a teammate of his on the '48 Bullets.

Carl Meinhold died in Reading, Pennsylvania on February 23, 2019. He was 92 years old. He was buried at Gethsemane Cemetery in Laureldale, Pennsylvania, outside Reading.

With his death, the earliest surviving NBA Champion is Arnie Ferrin, 93, of the 1949 and 1950 Minneapolis Lakers. He also helped the University of Utah win the NCAA Tournament in 1944 and the NIT in 1947.