 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1876; 149 years ago (1876) |
| Founder | Albert Spalding |
| Headquarters | |
| Subsidiaries | Dudley |
| Website | spalding.com |
Spalding is an Americansports equipment manufacturing company. It was founded byAlbert Spalding inChicago in 1876 as a baseball manufacturer, and is today headquartered inBowling Green, Kentucky. It sellssoftballs through itssubsidiary Dudley Sports. In the past, Spalding has manufactured balls for other sports, includingAmerican football,soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, and golf. The company invented the first basketball in 1894.
For a brief period in the 1980s, Spalding was also a designer ofaftermarketautomotive wheels.
The Spalding "League Ball" was adopted by theNational League and used by the league since 1880, as well as by theAmerican Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs for the seasons of 1892–1896. It was manufactured by A. G. Spalding & Bros.,Chicago,New York &Philadelphia and sold for $1.50 in 1896.[1][circular reference] In 1892, Spalding acquired rival sporting goods companiesWright & Ditson andA. J. Reach.[2]
In 1893, A.G. Spalding & Brothers purchased the Lamb Knitting Machine Company ofChicopee Falls, Massachusetts, and renamed it the Lamb Manufacturing Company. It used this purchase to consolidate itsice skate manufactory from Newark and its gymnasium goods manufactory from Philadelphia to the Chicopee plant. Lamb, primarily engaged in manufacturingknitting machines,rifles, andegg-beaters, had been fulfilling a contract since 1890 to produce the Credenda bicycle wheel for Spalding. Spalding chose Chicopee because it was the home of theOverman Wheel Company since it acted as their distributor in the Western USA, and Mr. Overman contracted with Lamb to make wheels for its lower-end products.[3]
Production of bicycles continued at the Chicopee plant through the latter part of the 19th century, but in 1899 A.G. Ben Spalding sold its bicycle division to a massive trust called theAmerican Bicycle Company which controlled 65% of the bicycle business in the US.[4]
.jpg)
By 1900, Spalding was sellingdumbbells,Indian clubs, andpunching bags.[5] During 1916, Spalding was selling a wide variety of sports-related items, including clothing (athletic shirts, belts, pads, hats, jackets, jerseys, pants, shoes, and swimming suits), barbells, fencing blades and foils, golf clubs, guy robes, measuring tapes, pulleys and weights, rowing machines, track equipment (discus, hurdles, hammers, javelins, poles for vaulting, shotputs, and stop watches), and whistles.[6] By 1919, A.G. Spalding & Brothers had developed infantry and cavalry fencing masks for theU.S. Government.[7][8]
DuringWorld War II the company joined five other firms to form theNew England Small Arms Corporation for manufacture ofM1918 Browning Automatic Rifles.[9] A.G. Spalding, as a subcontractor to Sprague Electric Co., also produced parts for the "toothpick" capacitors that were used with the VTproximity fuse.[10][11]
From the early 1930s through the mid-1940s Spalding produced the official game pucks for the National Hockey League. Spalding produced the well-known "Spaldeen" high-bounce rubber ball, said to be a re-use of defective tennis ball cores,[citation needed] that was sold to city children from 1949. In baseball, Spalding manufactured the official ball of theMajor Leagues through the 1976 season, using the Reach brand on American League balls and the Spalding trademark on the National League's. Since 1977 the official ball for MLB has been made byRawlings.
From 1981, in a partnership with theToyo Rubber Company ofJapan, Spalding designed a series of aftermarket automotive wheels known as the "Message" series. It was one of these wheels, the Message II,[12] purportedly described by the company as like a "steam locomotive piston" which won awards from publications such asMotorfan Magazine as the best spoke type wheel and reader's overall choice. Wheels bearing the Spalding name are known to have been manufactured through to at least 1986.
In August 1996, Spalding was acquired byKohlberg Kravis Roberts.[13][14]
Spalding became a division of theRussell Corporation in 2003[15]—exclusive of its golf operations (which included theTop-Flite,Ben Hogan and Stratabrands), which were eventually bought by theCallaway Golf Company later the same year.[16]
In April 2006, Berkshire Hathaway announced a merger with Russell Corporation (including Spalding),[17][18] which was finalized in August 2006 for approximately $600 million.[19]
Spalding has manufactured balls forbaseball,softball,American football,soccer,volleyball,tennis, andgolf. For a brief period in the 1980s, Spalding was also a designer ofaftermarketautomotive wheels.
Spalding developed its first basketball in 1894[20] based on the design of a baseball, and is currently a leading producer. Spalding was the official game ball supplier to theNational Basketball Association (NBA) from1983 to2021, when the league reunited withWilson after 37 years.[21]
In 2006, Spalding and the NBA announced that they would create a new NBA Official Game Ball for the 2006–07 NBA season, with interlocking segments and made with asynthetic leather instead of real animal leather.[22] However, many NBA players complained that the new composite ball became extremely slick after use, wouldn't bounce as high, bounced awkwardly off the rim and backboard, and cut their fingers. In response, the NBA reverted to the old leather balls (with the old eight-panel pattern) on January 1, 2007.[23]
Prior to theAFL–NFL merger, Spalding produced theAmerican Football League's game ball, the J5V (or J5-V), which was1⁄4 in (0.64 cm) narrower and1⁄4 in (0.64 cm) longer than the NFL football, "The Duke" byWilson.[24][25]
The XFL (2001) game balls were produced by Spalding. The ball was black with a red "X" going across the sides of the ball.
The company was the official game ball supplier of the first and second incarnationsArena Football League, an indoor American football league, from 2004 until its 2019 shutdown; theHorween Leather Company supplied leather to Spalding those balls.[26][27]
The company was one of the first to use high-profile athletes to endorse its products when tennis playerPancho Gonzales was signed to an exclusive endorsement contract in 1951.
Spalding sellssoftballs through itssubsidiary Dudley Sports.
In 1892 Spalding created theSpalding Athletic Library, which sold sports and exercise books through its American Sports Publishing Company, also founded that year.[28][29]
The first book published wasLife and Battles of James J. Corbett, Volume 1, Number 1 in 1892. The book includes stories of Corbett's past opponents. The first book was published under: Spalding's Athletic Library, American Sports Publishing Company, New York.[30] The editor of the first book was Richard K. Fox, and Corbett was referred to as the California Wonder.[31]
In the baseball series, legendTy Cobb wrote "Strategy in the Outfield."[32] In the self defense series,Jiu Jitsu techniques are modeled by A. Minami and K. Koyama.[33]
The Spalding Athletic Library covered a variety of sports, exercises, and organizations. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper stated regarding this collection, "devoted to all athletics pastimes, indoor and outdoor, and is the recognized American cyclopedia of sport".[34] The company's last publication was in 1941.
An article by theSociety for American Baseball Research (SABR) states, "It lasted for many years and enjoyed the greatest success of any publication of its kind."[35]
Advertisements inside books available from Spalding includedarchery, athletics (track and field; all around;cross country running; andmarathon),badminton,baseball,basketball, bicycling,bowling,boxing,canoeing,cricket,croquet,curling,fencing, (American) football,golf, gymnast,handball, hockey,jujutsu,lacrosse, lawn sports, polo,pushball,quoits,racquetball,rowing, rugby, skating, soccer,squash,swimming,tennis,tumbling,volleyball, andwrestling.Bodybuilding books included the dumbbell,Indian club, medicine ball, and pulley weights. Sporting books for organizations includedAmateur Athletic Union (AAU),IC4A,National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Olympics, public schools, and the YMCA.[36][37]
Spalding produced a mail-order catalog that provided a description, price, and picture of their sports equipment, sports books, and exercise books. A couple of examples are "How to Play Golf" for 25 cents, "How to Play Basketball" at 10 cents, and "How to Train for Bicycling" at 10 cents.[38]
Spalding Co. purchased Wright & Ditson Co. in 1892 and A.J. Reach Co. in 1889.[39] For several years after the purchases, Wright & Ditson and A.J. Reach continued to publish sports books separately from the Spalding Athletic Library name.[40][41] Professional baseball playerGeorge Wright co-founded Wright & Ditson Co.; and professional baseball playerAl Reach founded A.J. Reach Co. The Spalding Baseball Guides were published under A.G. Spalding & Bros. until 1893–1894, and starting in 1894–1895 by American Sports Publishing Company (but not using the Spalding Athletic Library name).[42]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Spalding" company – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Spalding is the official ball provider of the following leagues and associations, as well as it has deals with exclusive agreements with some prominent athletes:[43][44][as of?]
China Arena Football League (CAFL)
Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL)
Liga Nacional de Basketball (LNB)
EuroLeagueEuroCup
Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB)
Greek Basket League (GBL)
Kosovo Basketball Superleague
Mongolian National Association (MNBA)
ABANAIANJCAAKHSAA[45]USCAA
National Basketball League (NBL)Women's National Basketball League (WNBL)
Vietnam Basketball Association (VBA)
Antwerp GiantsClub Deportivo Universidad Católica
Horsens ICSvendborg RabbitsOlympique AntibesCholet
ETB EssenOettinger Rocketsratiopharm UlmTelekom Baskets Bonn[51]Würzburg Baskets
Falco KCSzolnoki Olaj KK
Kleb Basket FerraraMagnolia Basket CampobassoRavennaPallacanestro Varese
SAN-EN NeoPhoenix
Monaco
BudućnostKK Sutjeska Nikšić
Basket Zielona GóraStal Ostrów WielkopolskiTurów Zgorzelec
Asesoft Ploiești
Joventut BadalonaCB Gran CanariaBaloncesto MálagaReal Betis Energía PlusHarlem Globetrotters (until they Split to Baden)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)On August 2, 2006, Berkshire acquired Russell Corporation, a leading branded athletic apparel and sporting goods company for cash of approximately $600 million.
| Board of directors | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Predecessors | |||||||||||||||
| Insurance |
| ||||||||||||||
| Railroad | |||||||||||||||
| BH Energy | |||||||||||||||
| Manufacturing |
| ||||||||||||||
| Service and Retailing Businesses |
| ||||||||||||||
| Major public company ownership positions |
| ||||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||||
fr | |||||||||||||||
