Frankel, Moe

During the 1930s and 1940s, Frankel played basketball in the American Basketball League. Prior to the founding of the NBA in 1949 (when a professional basketball league succeeded on a national level), the ABL was the top professional league in the East (it was considered a semi-professional league) and Frankel was one of its most consistent performers.

After he retired from professional basketball in the mid-1940s, Frankel opened an eponymous sporting goods store on the Lower East Side of New York. Moe maintained the store for the next 45 years before giving it up in the early 1990s. Active in 2003 at the age of 90, he still sells sweatshirts and t-shirts to the Boys Club and schools and is a terrific pool and pinochle player.

Birth and Death Dates:
b. Jan. 25, 1913

Career Highlights:
Born in Harlem, Frankel began playing basketball as a youngster at the Harlem Hebrew Institute, a settlement house. An All-City performer while at DeWitt Clinton High School, Moe began his professional career soon after graduating in the early 1930s. Although he received a scholarship to NYU (New York University), Frankel chose to play professionally during those difficult times (it was the Depression era). Signing with St. Martin's of the Metropolitan League, he played two seasons there before being sold to New Britain.

In 1936, Frankel joined the Jersey City Reds and played for the team for three seasons. During the 1937-38 season, he was one of the top scorers in the league, finishing fourth with 345 points (8.4 average), and the Reds captured the ABL championship. The following season, Moe was traded to the Troy Haymakers. He was injured in an early season game, however, and missed most of the year.

Frankel returned to the ABL in 1939-40 with the Troy Haymakers. After finishing third that year, the Haymakers moved to Brooklyn during the 1940-41 season and were nicknamed the Celtics. Frankel was fourth on the team in scoring (125 points and 5.7 average) and the Celtics advanced to the finals after winning the second half of the season with an 11-4 record. In the finals, they played the Philadelphia Sphas (the nickname stood for the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association), the first-half champs, and lost the series 3-1.

Over the next two years, Frankel played for the Wilmington Bombers (1941-42), and the Brooklyn Indians (1942-43), but appeared in only seven games each season (Wilmington won the championship in 1942). In 1943-44, he returned to top form and played in all 26 games in his return to Wilmington. The Bombers won the league championship by defeating the Sphas in the finals, 4-3. The following season, Frankel was the second leading scorer (a career-high 175 points) with the Bombers, but they finished 14-14 and were eliminated in the playoffs by the Sphas.

Frankel played two more seasons in the ABL, but did not return to the playoffs either year. In 1945-46, he played for the Paterson Crescents and averaged 5.2 points per game, but the team finished in last place with a 13-21 record. His final season (1946-47) was spent with the Troy Celtics, who went 13-22 in the Northern Division. Frankel played in only 12 games and averaged 3.1 points per game.

Origin:
New York City

Career Dates:
Frankel played in the ABL for the Jersey City Reds, 1936-38, with Troy in 1939-40, the Brooklyn Celtics in 1940-41, for Wilmington in 1941-42 and 1943-45, with the Brooklyn Indians in 1942-43, for Paterson in 1945-46, and with Troy in 1946-47.

Physical description:
5'11", 190 pounds

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