Aug. 6, 1963 - Philadelphia’s NBA entry got a name today — or at least a number. After sorting out 4,000 entries and more than 450 different suggestions in a name-the-club contest, a 3-man board of judges christened the club “76ers.” This met with the approval of club officials, who quickly leaped on the “Spirit of 76” as the spirit that could carry the transplanted Syracuse Nats to great heights in the NBA. “The Nats were loaded with spirit,” club president Irv Kosloff observed, “as anyone can attest who has ever seen them play. We look for a hustling club again this year, and the new nickname is certainly appropriate.” There were nine nominations of “76ers,” but the winner of the contest and an expenses-paid trip for two to San Francisco was Walter Stalberg, a quality control statistician and long-time basketball fan from West Collingswood, N.J. Stalberg was chosen on the basis of his accompanying reason: “No athletic team has ever paid tribute to the gallant men who forged this country’s independence, and certainly Philadelphia, shrine of liberty, should do so.”
