Description:

While people in our hobby frequently refer to these basketballs as "extruded seam" basketballs, Spalding referred to these as "protected seam" or "outseam" basketballs. They were playground basketballs, designed with the intent of being used outdoors where more durability was needed. The first reference in Spalding guides to the playground outseam ball appears to be in the 1914-15 Men's guide where they discuss the "No. PG1" basket ball. The 1919-20 guide discusses the PGO (official), the PKO (Army and Navy), and the PKO (Service) balls, which were all outseam playground "basket balls". In the late 1920s and into the early 1930s, Reach Company advertised their basketballs models in Spalding guides as well. The 1929-30 guide references Reach playground models No.1W, No. 1XV (both official), No. 1 1/2 X (Regulation), and the No. 2X (Special Outdoor). These were all extruded seam "playground" basketballs. In 1930-31, Spalding introduced the PVO-V and PGO-V models. I suspect that last V in the model name stood for value. Basketballs were transforming almost yearly. The PKO service ball got an upgrade to model PKO-V in 1933-34. Finally, in the 1934-35 Spalding guide, the PVW, TVO, and POV outseam playground basketball were mentioned. This would be the last mentioned of the outdeam or protected playground basketball. Laceless balls were being designed, and it appears that the 20 year run for these playground basketballs had come to an end.