Family

Picture of Gerry Archibald, son Lyman, playing basketball for the Warren HyVis Oilers of the Independent league. 

This article from the Warren County Observer highlights Lyman Archibald's son, Gerry, and his long successful career as an owner, player, general manager, and coach of several professional basketball teams.

Lyman Archibald's son Gerald (Gerry) Archibald carried on his father’s legacy of spreading, promoting and managing basketball teams. He began playing semiprofessional basketball at just 17 years old and served as an owner, general manager, and player-coach of his teams for 14 years. His squads went by many names: the Warren Merchants, the National Transits, Hy-Vis Oils, and the Warren Penns, but he remained the constant.

Archibald is largely responsible for the “fabulous thirties” of Warren’s basketball history. His squads played in the Independent League, which hosted many of the best teams in the country, including the Original Celtics and the New York Renaissance. 

Archibald credited much of his success to forward-thinking that would soon be used by the National Basketball Association (NBA).

“In the early days of pro basketball, the teams used to think that a college player wouldn’t make a good pro player. They weren’t given the opportunity. The old pros would cut them out. We recognized the top college players and, as a result, many college All-Americans were playing in the league,” he said.

This innovative thinking led to his teams going 60-8 over a span of two years.

During the 1937 season, Warren, PA became a founding team of the National Basketball League (NBL), which would become the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949.

Archibald then moved his team to Cleveland where the White Horse Motor Company sponsored him. After the 1938-39 season, he sold his shares in the team, finally concluding his illustrious basketball career.

Upon retiring from basketball, Archibald went back to managing the fox farm his father started in 1920.