Harrisburg Senators
Founded	1947
League	EPBL Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association was a professional men's basketball league in the United States, which has been on hiatus since the 2009 season.- History :...  1947-1951 1952-1953
Arena	Madrid Palestra 1947-1948 Zembo Mosque 1948-1951 Madrid Palestra 1952-1953
Team History	Harrisburg Senators 1947-1951  Harrisburg Caps 1950-1951  1952-1953
Championships	none
Division Titles	none

The Harrisburg Senators were an American basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

, that was originally formed as a member of the American Basketball League

American Basketball League (1925-1955)

The American Basketball League was an early professional basketball league. During six seasons from 1925-26 to 1930-31, the ABL was the first attempt to create a major professional basketball league in the United States...

, where it played for one season.

From 1947 to 1951, the Harrisburg Senators played in the Eastern Professional Basketball League

Continental Basketball Association

The Continental Basketball Association was a professional men's basketball league in the United States, which has been on hiatus since the 2009 season.- History :...

. Without a true basketball arena available at the time, the Senators split their games between the Madrid Palestra and the Zembo Mosque, two buildings that were large enough to hold a court and bleachers. During that time, the team's leading scorer was Joe Cackovic. The franchise reachd the EPBL finals in both the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons.

Change from Harrisburg Senators to Harrisburg Caps

The Senators had trouble filling the huge Zembo Mosque during the 1950-51 season, and visiting teams complained that the basketball floor at the mosque was often waxed for dance halls, and that the Senators applied rosin

Rosin

.Rosin, also called colophony or Greek pitch , is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene components. It is semi-transparent and varies in color from yellow to black...

 on their shoes to countermand the slippery surface. The franchise folded midway through the 1950-51 season, and was replaced by another franchise, the Harrisburg Caps, who finished out the Senators' season. After sitting out the 1951-52 season, the Caps returned to the EPBL and played their home games at the Madrid Palestra. The 1952-53 Caps' lineup was strengthened by the addition of four players from the Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania Army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

base, who played for both the military team and for the Caps. But with the season winding down and the Caps mistakenly believing they had been eliminated from the playoffs, the Fort Indiantown Gap players quit the team and the Caps were forced to use semipro hoopsters to finish out the final two contests.

Harrisburg Senators, ABL

Year	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs
1942/43	ABL	4th	Did not qualify

Harrisburg Senators, EPBL

Year	League	Record	Reg. Season	Playoffs
1947/48	EPBL	11-16	6th	did not qualify
1948/49	EPBL	18-10	tied, 1st lost post-season tiebreaker	Finals
1949/50	EPBL	16-12	2nd, Southern	Finals
1950/51	EPBL	folded in mid-season

Harrisburg Caps, EPBL

Year	League	Record	Reg. Season	Playoffs
1950/51	EPBL	9-18	3rd, Southern combined Senators and Caps records	did not qualify
1952/53	EPBL	7-12	5th	did not qualify