Portable basketball set

• US 4,145,044 A
• Filed: 03/07/1977
• Issued: 03/20/1979
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/1977
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: The Ohio Art Company
• Original Assignee: The Ohio Art Company
• Inventors: Wilson, Lowell T., Plassmann, Herbert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shapiro, Paul E.
• Application Number:
  US05/774,985
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: 273/1.5 R, 273/1.5 A, 273/105 R, 273/DIG. 20, 248/407, 248/519, 248/523, 248/408, 248/188, 248/524, 403/379, 403/408
• US Class Current: 473/483
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/026 stabilised by weight
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2208/12 specially adapted for children
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/093 Height
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 63/083 for basketball
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 248/91 Weighted base
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 403/7088 Sliding pin
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 403/75 having a joining piece extending through aligned openings in plural members

Abstract

A preschool knock-down portable indoor basketball set comprising a sponge-rubber ball and a weighted vertically adjustable stand for a basket with a removable bounce-board.The weighted base of the stand has an annular socket for one end of a pair of telescopic tubes, adjustable in length by a pin through diametric holes in the tubes. The upper end of the inner telescopic tube has a cap and net ring member, which cap has an annular reinforced socket for the upper tube end, which ring has hidden hooks for suspending a frusto-conical string basket, and intermediate of the cap and ring, has a wedging slot in a vertical plane into which a trapezoidal notch on the lower edge of a bounce-board removably fits.

Claims

1. A basketball set comprising:

(A) a resilient foam plastic ball, and

(B) a basket stand comprising;

1. a weighted base having an annular socket therein,

2. a vertical tubular pole member with its lower end fitting into said socket,

3. means for adjusting the length of said pole member,

4. means having a socket for fitting the upper end of said pole member, a horizontal adjacent ring with hook means, and a slot means in a vertical plane between said socket and said ring,

5. a flexible net attached to said hook means and forming a receiver for said ball below said ring,

6. a vertical bounceboard having a notch in its lower edge for fitting into said slot means.

2. A set according to claim 1 wherein said means for adjusting the length of said pole portion comprises a pair of telescoping tubes and resilient pin means for extending through diametrically aligned apertures in said tubes.

3. A set according to claim 2 including a stepped ring means between the upper end of the lower one of said tubes and having diametrically aligned openings for said pin means, and said inner telescopic tube having a plurality of axially spaced diametrical openings.

4. A set according to claim 1 wherein said ring has an inverted U-shaped radial cross-section with radial and longitudinal reinforcing web portions.

5. A set according to claim 4 wherein said radial flanges are provided with said hook means.

6. A set according to claim 1 wherein said slot means is trapezoidal.

7. A set according to claim 6 wherein said slot means is extended by a pair of parallel upstanding flanges.

8. A set according to claim 6 wherein the diverging sides of said trapezoidal slot are wedged shaped slots.

9. A set according to claim 6 including an upstanding bracket means aligned with said slot means for further supporting said bounceboard.

10. A stand for a ball set comprising:

(A) a weighted base having an annular socket, said base comprising;

a pair of plastic disc-shaped members, one of which is flat having a central cylindrical upstanding plug portion and the other of which is a spherical segment dome having an axial cylindrical aperture of larger diameter than said plug portion for forming an annular socket between said plug and said aperture, and

(B) a post having a vertical tubular end which seats in said socket.

11. A stand according to claim 10 wherein the space between said spherical segment dome and said flat member contains a weight-producing material.

12. A toy basketball assembly set comprising:

(A) a foam rubber ball, and

(B) a basket stand comprising;

1. a weighted base having an annular socket,

2. telescopic vertical tubes, one end of one of which seats into said socket, at least one of said tubes having a plurality of axially spaced diametrically alignable holes,

3. a pin means for fitting in said diametrically aligned holes for fastening the length of said tubes,

4. a tube cap and ring member capping the other end of said tubes, having a horizontal reinforced ring with a plurality of radially inwardly extending hooks, and having upwardly converging wedge slots in a vertical plane between said cap and said ring,

5. a frusto-conical string net attached at its larger diameter end to said hooks to depend from said ring, and

6. a vertical bounceboard having a trapezoidal notch in its central lower edge for removably fitting into said slots in said cap and ring member.