1935–36 Midwest Basketball Conference season

The 1935–36 MBC season was the first, inaugural season of the Midwest Basketball Conference (a league that has been considered by sports historians to either be an amateur basketball league or a semipro basketball league) under that name before it got rebranded into the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL), with it also being considered the first official season for that league as well before properly utilizing the National Basketball League name in its future. The MBC's creation would be done through the discretion of both Indianapolis Kautskys team owner, head coach, and general manager Frank Kautsky and Akron Firestone Non-Skids head coach and general manager Paul Sheeks, who both decided they wanted to compete in a new professional basketball league of sorts after previously playing a season for the short-lived National Professional Basketball League (a short-lived precursor of sorts to the NBL that would exist not long afterward due to it featuring both the Kautskys (a team owned and operated by Frank Kautsky under Kautsky's Grocery store business) and Firestone Non-Skids (a team owned and operated by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company) alongside a third team from that league that later joined the MBC/NBL) and essentially wanting to revive it for something new both in regards to cheap advertising for businesses that they had and as a morale booster for the employees that were also considered basketball players during this time. Not only that, but its creation would be utilized at the right time when many Americans (often those of what would be considered first generation Americans) would actually grow up with the sport of basketball as they had played it while trying to move up from a working class to middle class status, to the point where families either tolerated or encouraged their young males of the nation to play the sport as an extra means to boost the economy and provide extra income for their family lives, even though the sport had a rougher edge around the time it first began gaining professional popularity.^[2] While the new league would mostly involve other works teams similar to the Kautskys and Firestone Non-Skids joining the newly established league (including one works team being created in Windsor, Ontario up in nearby Canada), a few of the teams that would join this new league would be considered established barnstorming teams that decided to enter the newly-created MBC instead. An entire book focusing on the NBL's existence (including the two precursor seasons using the Midwest Basketball Conference name) would be released in 2009 by historian and author Murry R. Nelson called "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949", with an entire chapter being dedicated to both this and the following season of play for the purpose of detailing what led to the creation of the MBC, how the MBC's newer rules it implemented and its community driven focus would help shape the future of the sport of basketball as we know it, and how it later became the NBL for its future seasons to come.^[3]

After this season's conclusion (albeit with controversy regarding their first ever championship held), the MBC would play one more season before it later rebranded itself to the National Basketball League (partially to have local fans stop confusing the MBC to the Midwest Conference, which is better known in the present day as the Big Ten Conference) on October 6, 1937. From there, the rebranded NBL would play twelve more seasons of professional basketball before merging operations with the newer rivaling Basketball Association of America to become the present-day National Basketball Association. Despite the MBC turned NBL being the longer lasting league due to the NBL continuing to exist from the 1937–38 NBL season until the 1948–49 NBL season, the NBA would not recognize the twelve NBL seasons (nor the two MBC precursor seasons nor even the one National Professional Basketball League season that inspired the league's creation) as a part of its own history (outside of certain circumstances), sometimes without comment. As such, none of the previous twelve NBL seasons nor even the two MBC seasons would officially be recognized by the NBA, with the NBA recognizing the 1946–47 BAA season as its first official season of play instead.

Out of the eight turned nine teams that played in the inaugural season of the Midwest Basketball Conference (which later became the National Basketball League), only the Indianapolis Kautskys would end up being promoted to what can technically be considered the present-day NBA, thus giving the Midwest Basketball Conference precursor league (alongside the original precursor league to the MBC, the National Professional Basketball League) the loosest sense of connection to the present-day NBA possible. Even then, it would be very loose, at best, since the Kautskys would end up switching from the NBL to the rivaling BAA for the 1948–49 BAA season alongside three other NBL teams that would still exist to this day, though unlike them, the Kautskys turned Indianapolis Jets would end up playing only one season there before folding operations before the planned merger of the BAA and NBL to form the present-day NBA. Outside of the Kautskys, none of the other franchises that played in the inaugural MBC season would end up playing in the present-day NBA.

• Before beginning this season, the MBC would begin with an established eight teams joining the newly-created league; joining the Akron Firestone Non-Skids and Indianapolis Kautskys (who both established the idea as a way to get back into a professional basketball league while doing so under better circumstances than their original run at the National Professional Basketball League), the likes of the Buffalo Bisons (a barnstorming franchise following their original runs in the original American Basketball League and the short-lived New York State Basketball League), the Dayton Metropolitans (who were sponsored by the Dayton Metropolitan Clothing Stores), the Detroit Hed-Aids (who were sponsored by a headache cure company called Hed-Aids), the Indianapolis U.S. Tires (who operated as inner city rivals to the Indianapolis Kautskys sponsored by U.S. Tire, Inc.), the Pittsbugh Y.M.H.A. (a young men's team created by the local Young Men's Hebrew Association, as it was known at the time), and the Canadian-based Windsor Cooper Buses (who were owned and operated by the Cooper Buses company) out in Windsor, Ontario,^[4] thus technically making this season in the MBC the first season to have a truly international basketball league, beating out the Basketball Association of America's Toronto Huskies from the 1946–47 BAA season for that honor by over a decade. Not only that, but the Rochester Seagrams (who later became the Rochester Royals in the NBL and still exist in the present day as the Sacramento Kings in the NBA) were also considered interested in joining the MBC as well, but they ultimately decided to not enter the new league due to travel concerns for the team at that point in time, with travel being done on the road through automobiles on non-paved roads instead of trains or even planes, with freeways created during this time being nothing more than just being lines done on a map.^[5]
• Former University of Pittsburgh head coach Doc Carlson would be named the head commissioner of the Midwest Basketball Conference during its first two seasons of play.^[6]
• At some late point during this season, a ninth team from Chicago, Illinois called the Chicago Duffy Florals (a team owned and operated by a floral concern of sorts) would become a late entry into the MBC's inaugural season, making them go from eight teams to nine teams during the season. However, because of the looser scheduling requirements where the MBC planned to have teams play only a minimum of twelve games to qualify for the upcoming MBC Playoffs at the time, there were no real concerns regarding the number of games played for the season at hand at that point in time.
• Due to limitations regarding the sport of basketball's equipment at the time alongside the rules and the flow of the game itself, scoring would be seen with a low total of points involved by both teams, with it being no exception for the MBC (and by extension, most of the NBL's upcoming seasons) as well. However, one rule that the MBC implemented that would help change the sport of basketball forever was the removal of the center court jump ball between teams after every made free-throw, which was done to help speed up professional basketball games since it had been noticed that teams that had a dominant center there would have the clear cut advantage in jump ball situations there. The removal of jump balls after free-throws that were made by the MBC would later cause the jump ball after made free-throws rule to be removed from other professional basketball leagues alongside college basketball a couple of years afterward, especially with Jim Tobin of the International Rules Committee noting that the rule worked out very successfully in international countries that tried that rule out (with Tobin also pointing out that a rule proposed by the Empire of Japan on limiting players' heights to 6'2½" had been rejected in the process).^[7] The MBC would also allow for home teams to decide whether the jump ball after making baskets in general should be allowed for the game that was played or not, which Indianapolis Kautskys player and later UCLA head coach John Wooden described as "the most significant rule change ever made".^[8]
• Other rules that helped out the MBC during this season of play included players being fouled out of a game if they had five fouls on them instead of what was considered the standard four at the time (though a player can return to action if the team in question was down to four remaining players at a certain point, with the likely condition of gaining what can be considered technical fouls instead of just extra fouls to their names); the start of the dribble or traveling would not be called under what can be considered a "too close" basis unless a real advantage were gained from those notions; and fouls on the offensive end would be called only if the player was shooting or if them trying to advance the ball was affected, unless the foul was deemed to be a flagrant foul.^[9]
• Official MBC games scheduled during this season and the following season afterward were primarily held on Sundays due to blue laws in the United States being very significant in those areas at the time. Usually, those blue laws were enforced by either the people themselves or the churches that were involved with those blue laws to help prevent entertainment offerings (which were usually upheld by either middle or upper class citizens that worked for five or five and a half days per week) like professional basketball games being played, with Saturday often times being considered a work day and Sundays (primarily Sunday afternoons for the MBC's case) being the one day that citizens were allowed to play after attending church.^[10]
• The first African-American player to play in a professional basketball league of sorts that would be considered fully integrated by white players otherwise (and the only African-American player in the MBC's short history) would be a player named Hank Williams for the Buffalo Bisons.^[11]
• Many players that were on the MBC's teams during this time would usually have other jobs involved to help get them extra pay to help themselves and their families out during the Great Depression (to the point where some players would become a part of the middle class (again)), either through the companies that promoted the teams having work-related income with said businesses in question (such as the works teams like Akron having the players working within those same establishments they promoted as well), playing with other basketball teams in non-MBC scheduled games (such as with Leroy Edwards playing independent matches for the Indianapolis Kautskys despite playing for their inner city rivals in the Indianapolis U.S. Tires for the MBC), or having other jobs like being teachers or head coaches on the side themselves instead.^[12]
• In a game where John Wooden hit what was a then-record of 100 straight free-throws (with his record ending at 134 consecutive free-throws made), Kautskys team owner and head coach Frank Kautsky stopped the game to hand Wooden a $100 bill for the occasion (which was slated by Wooden to have been yoinked out of his hands by his wife soon afterward).^[13]
• Despite the season ending with the intentions of having the Detroit Hed-Aids competing alongside the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, Indianapolis Kautskys, and the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad due to them playing the necessary minimum number of games required for the inaugural MBC Playoffs to begin, the inaugural MBC Playoffs ended up getting the Chicago Duffy Florals (who had played a league low total of five games for a 3–2 record there, which had a higher win percentage than the 9–7 record that the Detroit Hed-Aids had, though at the cost of being more games behind first place in the process) partially due to the better win percentage, partially due to the one win that the Duffy Florals had over the Hed-Aids being a significant one in terms of records held (especially since it was noted that Chicago won over Detroit that day in a decisive manner), and partially because of Chicago being seen a more financially viable for the new league to play their playoff games in than Detroit would be (though the owner of the Rochester Seagrams franchise at the time, Les Harrison, had reported that the reasons didn't necessarily relate to money so much as it did Detroit's potentially shaky nature as a franchise by this point in time). This controversial decision would later greatly affect the MBC Playoffs this season in the process.^[14][15]
• Originally, the inaugural MBC Playoffs were planned to have the four playoff teams in question in Akron, Chicago (as opposed to Detroit), Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh meet in a "double-knockout" system with games staged at Indianapolis on March 8, at Chicago on March 15, at Pittsburgh on March 21, and at Akron for the Firestone Clubhouse nearby the Firestone Country Club a day later on March 22, 1936. However, when the four team owners found out that not every home venue would be available for those planned dates in question, the four owners agreed to a round robin tournament style of formatting on March 20–22, 1936 before later modifying that to be a one day affair on March 22 at the White City Stadium in Chicago with Indianapolis going up against Pittsburgh in the morning, Chicago going up against Akron in the early afternoon game, the losers of those matches competing in a third place consolation prize match, and the winners competing for the inaugural MBC championship on the same day.^[16]
• Following the end of the season, the MBC itself considered its progress a success due to it showcasing great stability when compared to most other attempts at professional basketball leagues in the last twenty or so years before this point in time due to every team surviving the end of the regular season and playoffs, as well as there being some good crowds coming into numerous cities alongside the best players in the sport for each region involved actually playing for the teams involved with the respective regions in question. While the players weren't paid particularly highly (due in part to the effects of the Great Depression), they had considered the MBC's games to be a good source of secondary income (akin to a hobby) for that period of time, with their genuine love for the game of basketball being the key factor for them to keep going despite the lower than expected pay and poor travel conditions on a game-by-game basis for this season, to the point where some players were late to work for their main jobs at certain points in time.^[17]

^[1]

Originally, the inaugural, 1936 MBC Playoffs was intended to be a "double-knockout" tournament set to have games played in each of the four playoffs teams' home venues (Indianapolis on March 8, Chicago on March 15, Pittsburgh on March 21, and Akron on March 22) before the discovery of not everyone having their home venues being available on their respective dates in 1936, which caused the four teams to instead host a round robin tournament format that was planned to go from March 20–22 in Chicago before ultimately hosting the games in Chicago on one day for March 22, 1936 instead. The round robin tournament involved had the first game of the day occur in the morning between the Indianapolis Kautskys (the best team of the Western Division this season) and the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad (the second-best team of the Eastern Division this season) with the second game in the early afternoon being between the Akron Firestone Non-Skids works team (the best team of the Eastern Division) and the local hometown team for the event in the Chicago Duffy Florals (which was the second-best team of the Western Division, albeit controversially so due to their unique status in the MBC this season), with the losing teams playing a third place consolation prize game later in the afternoon before the remaining winning teams competing to win the league's first ever championship. For the early morning game, the Indianapolis Kautskys would crush the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad with a 46–18 beatdown, while the early afternoon game saw an upset occur with the Chicago Duffey Florals stunning the Akron Firestone Non-Skids with a close 33–30 victory, disappointing many Akron fans who had expected their team to compete in the championship match that was expected to feature the Indianapolis squad for the championship match-up there. However, the Firestone Non-Skids would win the third place consolation prize game against the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad with a close 33–29 victory in the late afternoon before the game played at night saw the home town Chicago Duffy Florals squad (who had a 3–2 season in the MBC) surprisingly upset the Indianapolis Kautskys with a 39–35 upset victory to see the Duffy Florals be the surprising first ever MBC champions in the new league.

• * – The Chicago Duffy Florals would take the playoff spot that would have been held by the Detroit Hed-Aids instead had the intended rules of playing a minimum number of regular season games (in this season's case, twelve games played) taken effect here.^[1]

Prior to the 1969–70 NBA season, league leaders in points were determined by totals rather than averages. Also, rebounding and assist numbers were not recorded properly in the MBC like they would be in the BAA/NBA, as would field goal and free-throw shooting percentages. That being said, due to the Midwest Basketball Conference not having a set amount of standardized games played for each team this season, there would be no true set scoring leader for the MBC this season, with a few players having an incomplete set amount of data at hand for one reason or another.^[18] However, the player that scored the most points in the MBC this season was Soup Cable for the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, while the player that had the highest scoring average for this season would be Leroy Edwards of the Indianapolis U.S. Tires with an average of 10.5 points per game in thirteen games played (ahead of John Wooden for the rivaling Indianapolis Kautskys with an average of 10.1 points per game in nine total games played and Soup Cable, who only averaged 8.4 points per game in the 18 games played with Akron).^[1]

• National Basketball League (United States)

• MBC Standings, 1935–1937 on apbr.org
• Midwest Basketball Conference – 1935–36 MBC Season Overview on retroseasons.com