- Fred Zollner, 1957

Those were the words of Pistons founder Fred Zollner to the people of Detroit when he moved his team, the Fort Wayne Pistons, to the Motor City in September 1957. Zollner began the Pistons in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Having achieved great success and a huge fan following, Zollner decided to move the team to Detroit to better compete with teams in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The move made sense because as an automotive manufacturer, most of Zollner’s business took place in Detroit. His move, however, was not without risk.

Other teams had tried professional basketball in the city of Detroit, but none had survived. In 1941, the Detroit Eagles of the National Basketball League won the World Tournament, but soon disbanded because of World War II. Of the three other pro basketball teams in Detroit’s history, the Detroit Gems and the Detroit Falcons folded after only one season and the Detroit Vagabond Kings left town before season’s end.

The fall of 1957 brought professional basketball back to Detroit. Olympia Stadium, also known as the Old Red Barn on Grand River, was the new home of the Pistons. The Pistons’ inaugural season was fairly successful. Led by All-Stars George “The Bird” Yardley, Gene Shue, and Dick McGuire, the Pistons finished the season 33-39 and in a second place tie with Cincinnati. They beat Cincy in the first round of the Western Conference (that’s right, Western) playoffs. However, in the next round, the Pistons lost to Bob Pettit and the St. Louis Hawks four games to one. The Hawks would go on to the NBA Finals and defeat the Boston Celtics for their only NBA title. Yardley would lead the league in scoring, averaging 27.8 points per game and became the first player in league history to score 2,000 points.

Things were not so rosy during the 1958-59 season. After five seasons together, a rift developed between Yardley and Zollner. Zollner felt that Yardley was not giving full effort and was injured too much. The situation came to a head when Yardley broke his hand on January 25 at Boston and Zollner traded the high scoring forward and his $25,000 contract to the Syracuse Nats for Ed Conlin. The Pistons would finish the season 28-44 and lose in the first round of the playoffs. The highlight of the season was hosting the 1959 All-Star Game, held at Olympia, which attracted 10,541 fans.

Another season and another sub .500 record would punctuate the end of the decade. The 1959-60 schedule included a span of 12 games in 15 days and 16 games in 20 days, two grueling stretches to which the Pistons had difficulty adjusting. The team would finish the season 30-45, and would again exit in the first round of the playoffs. But there was hope for the future. The Pistons first round draft pick, Bailey Howell from Mississippi State, averaged 17.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in his rookie season. Howell’s emergence, mixed with All-Stars Gene Shue, Walter Dukes, and Chuck Noble, foreshadowed better days ahead for the Pistons.