The Centrals competed in the ABL from 1925 through the 1930-31 season, playing home games at the Naval Militia Armory in Rochester.

They enjoyed success at the turnstiles and on the basketball court, winning the NBA title in 1951 and finishing as runner-up in the NBL in 1947 and 1948.

[5][6] In the summer of 1958, a group of Buffalo businessmen announced that they were creating a team called the Rochester Colonels to begin play in the fall of that year in the Pennsylvania-based Eastern Professional Basketball League.

Former Rochester Royals great Arnie Risen was recruited to join and coach the team to pique fan interest.

It was all for naught as the team went 0-8 and folded in December 1958, playing just two home games before modest crowds at the Rochester Community War Memorial.

The Braves were bucking the south and west trend of NBA franchise movement and the hope was their large market, large arena and fan interest in nearby NBA abandoned cities (they played fifteen games in Toronto during the 1973–74 and 1974-75 season in an effort to regionalize into Canada) would be enough to make the team successful.

[13] The move of the Braves out of Buffalo coincided with rise of another professional, albeit minor league team in Rochester known as the Zeniths.

[15] The Zeniths basketball team began play in January 1978 along with the rest of the All-American Alliance, but the league folded within a month.

[20] The Dome Arena was built primarily as an exposition hall for the annual county fair, as well as business shows and conventions.

The Zeniths were coached by local product Mauro Panaggio, a successful Division III basketball coach at SUNY Brockport, and featured many former prominent Western New York college basketball players, most notably guard Glenn Hagan from St. Bonaventure and forward Larry Fogle from Canisius College (both had been second-round NBA Draft picks).

When a blizzard knocked out electric power in the city and the arena just after the first half ended, an impromptu slam dunk competition (won by Billy Ray Bates of the Maine Lumberjacks) was conducted using the building's emergency lighting.

[27] Mauro Panaggio moved to the front office as General Manager, but resumed his duties as head coach for the 1980-81 season until the demise of the team in 1983.