The team was one of the thirteen founding members of the National Basketball League (NBL), which formed in 1937.

[1] The team was named for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which was headquartered in Akron, Ohio.

Like other industrial teams of the era, the players were company employees with year–round jobs who were not paid for basketball but owed their jobs to their basketball skills.

[2] The Non–Skids first competed professionally in the 1932–33 National Basketball League and defeated the Indianapolis Kautskys in the championship game.

[3] The Non–Skids were NBL champions in 1939 and 1940, defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars both years in the Finals.