History of The Hemcher Cup
We’ve heard the stories and the legends about how from small dreams come unbelievable realities. Much like Hewlett Packard starting out in a garage or Microsoft starting in a dorm room between three friends, so too did the Hemcher Cup arise from rather meager beginnings.
It was the 1992 –1993 college basketball season. In an otherwise nondescript duplex on Thomas Ave in Bryn Mawr, PA, the original five members, of what was to later become The Hemcher Cup, decided to break from the traditional use of an NCAA tournament bracket - they sought more, so much more. Those five were Team Knight, Team Gannon, Team Zucker, Team Lampazzi and Team #5 (team name vacated).
At the time they thought it was just another way to spend two dollars on something besides beer. Little did they know what they were setting in motion….
Those five original members all had their franchises within 1 mile of each other. Arenas were borrowed gymnasiums from local elementary schools. Crowds were small and TV and/or radio broadcasts were no where to be found. Not even WXVU radio would broadcast their contests (WXVU had issues with this group for entirely different reasons).
That first season was tough, the operating budget for each team was just 2 dollars. Records from that first year no longer exist, but we do know the original first round of players drafted:
- Jamal Mashburn
- Terry Dehere
- Chris Webber
- Calbert Cheany
- Rodney Rogers
That first year was tough. There was no revenue coming in from anywhere besides the owners bank accounts.
Knowing they had a unique product, the league did make some big decisions. First they decided to bring the product to other markets which was an immediate success. They also decided to drop the original fifth member for a new franchise, Team T[REDACTED]. The owners also began to tweak the league with some new ideas, one was draft night teleconferencing and expanded rosters. All of these new ideas were successful.
With the movement into new markets, the league decided to capitalize on this early success and expand to a sixth franchise, Team Poli. This expansion brought in higher revenues and even more fans. The internet become a key component to enhancing draft night, along with the launch of the league’s own web site in 2002, which is now the 12,542,855th most visited site online. Excluding adult content sites, it’s the 14th most visited site online.
The league now has TV contracts with ESPN and Fox Sports. Each franchise has its own state-of-the-art arena and attendance at last year’s games was at record levels.
So what’s next for the Hemcher Cup?
Well, for the immediate future, we know there’s a Hemcher Cup Playstation/Xbox game to be released in the near future. The league is also planning to open a chain of Hemcher Cup themed restaurants in the northeast. Finally, the league is also in development with Fox on a new reality show titled “Who Wants To Marry a Hemcher Cup Champion”.
