The Atlanta Hawks have bounced around several cities and leagues throughout their 70-plus year history. The franchise began in 1946 as the Buffalo Bisons in the National Basketball League but just a few weeks into the season the team moved to Moline, Illinois. A name-the-team contest was launched on Christmas Day 1946 with the winning name Tri-Cities Blackhawks announced on January 1, 1947. The Black Hawk name was long used throughout the Tri-Cities area of Davenport, Iowa; and the Illinois cities of Moline and Rock Island for hotels, clubs, and athletic leagues as it was the site of the Black Hawk War faught in 1832. Following a shift to the NBA in 1949, the team moved to Milwaukee in the Fall of 1951 where they simply shortened the name to 'Hawks'. The Hawks name has now stayed with the franchise through their eventual relocations to St. Louis in 1955 and then finally to Atlanta in 1968.
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