Lancaster Red Roses

The Lancaster Red Roses, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, were one of the six original teams in the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League when it began play in 1946. They went 20-10 in 1946-47 and finished second. After beating Hazleton in the semifinals, they lost the first league championship series to the Wilkes-Barre Barons, with the deciding game played on a neutral court in Allentown. The team played in the Lancaster Armory.

Forward Stan Von Neida set a league record that first season with a 46-point game and scored nearly 700 points over 30 games. He left after the season for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks of the National Basketball League. The Red Roses also tried the American Basketball League early in 1946-47, as the Lancaster Roses. They lost five of their first six games there and returned to the Eastern league.

The first version of the team folded after 1947-48, when it was suspended over a missed road game, reinstated, and then filed for bankruptcy days later. A team called the Lancaster Rockets took over its place in the league until 1953. The Red Roses name returned from 1953 to 1955 and again from 1975 in the Eastern Basketball Association, which became the Continental Basketball Association. The team beat the Long Island Ducks in the 1978 playoffs. The franchise left Lancaster after 1979-80, moving to Philadelphia as the Kings and then returning as the Lancaster Lightning.