When the Milwaukee Bucks open the Eastern Conference Finals Wednesday night, they'll do so against one of the National Basketball Association's oldest franchises — and, one that also called Milwaukee home for a brief and largely forgettable few seasons.
The Hawks have called Atlanta home since 1968, the same season the Bucks joined the NBA as an expansion team, but the franchise itself dates back to 1946 when it was known as the Buffalo Bisons and a member of the fledgling National Basketball League.
That league, which included the two-time league champion Oshkosh All-Stars and the 1943 champion Sheboygan Red Skins, merged in 1949 with the Basketball Association of America to form the NBA.
By then, the Bisons had left Upstate New York for Moline, Illinois, where it was renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks — referencing the Tri-Cities region of Moline and Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. The area fit right in with other NBL markets, which were primarily based in smaller, Midwest industrial towns but created a disadvantage after the merger with the BAA, whose teams were based in significantly larger markets.
Because of that, the league forced Black Hawks owner Ben Kerner to seek a bigger market after the 1950 season. Kerner found one in Milwaukee, where the Hawks would play in the 11,052-seat Milwaukee Arena, which marked a significant improvement from the 7,200-seat Wharton Field House.
The first edition of the Milwaukee Hawks, under head coach Doxie Moore, went 17-49 and finished last in the NBA's Western Division. Andrew Levane took over as coach the next season and the Hawks showed improvement both on the floor, where they added 10 victories to their ledger, as well as the box office as an average of 6,212 fans turned out to watch the team play.
Milwaukee won its season opener in 1953 but lost its next 10 games and finished 21-51, again in the Western Division cellar, while attendance plummeted to just 2,509 fans per game.
There was a bright side, though, as the Hawks landed the second pick in the 1954 NBA Draft which the team used on Bob Pettit, a 6-foot-9 center from Louisiana State University.
Pettit signed a then-record $11,000 contract with Milwaukee and after head coach Red Holtzman switched him to the power forward position, he averaged 20.4 points and 13.8 rebounds en route to earning Rookie of the Year honors and the first of 11 All-Star appearances.
He'd go on to win two league scoring titles, appear in three NBA Finals and win a championship but Milwaukee fans would have to read about those accomplishments in the newspaper as the Hawks, after another last-place finish, relocated to St. Louis.
There, the Hawks played in front of capacity crowds and the 10,000-seat Kiel Auditorium and after finishing third in their first season, advanced to the Finals the next two and won the franchise's only championship in 1958.
The Hawks made the Finals again in 1961, losing in five games to the Boston Celtics, and though the remained in playoff contention over the next few seasons, attendance slipped and Kerner sold the franchise to a group of investors who moved the team to Atlanta in 1968.
Milwaukee, which lost Major League Baseball’s Braves to Atlanta three years earlier, returned to the NBA that same season with the expansion Bucks who finished last, won a coin flip for the No. 1 overall pick which they used on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and won their first — and only — championship in 1971.
The Hawks, meanwhile, have had occasional success in Atlanta but own the league’s second-longest championship drought which stands at 63 years heading into this postseason.
Along the way, the teams have faced off four times in the postseason with each winning twice.
Atlanta took the most recent matchup in 2010, eliminating Milwaukee in a seven-game first-round series.
