What’s a Zollner?
Zollner was the name of the company which originally sponsored the Pistons basketball team in Ft. Wayne. I think that Zollner was the name of the guy who owned the company which made pistons for car and truck engines.
So it was an ad for the company, to call them the Ft. Wayne Zollner Pistons. They dropped the Zollner at some point and were just the Ft. Wayne Pistons. Then they kept the nickname when they moved to Detroit.
According to Wiki, it's the last name of the original owner, Fred Zollner. The Pistons part still fits for Detroit or Fort Wayne. Mr. Zollner owned a foundry business manufacturing pistons for car, truck and locomotive engines...