1936–37 Midwest Basketball Conference season

The 1936–37 MBC season was the second and final 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 second season for that league as well before properly utilizing the National Basketball League name in its future. Entering the second season of play for this league, the MBC would implement newer changes to help improve the quality of play, such as decreasing the number of required minimum games played in the league from twelve to eight (primarily due to a lack of confidence where a league playing games against its own members only would be successful business for the sport of basketball at the time^[2]), increasing the total number of teams from eight or nine teams to twelve teams (with six teams placed in each division in the Eastern Division and Western Division) for most of the season, and implementing a proper playoff experience after their first season ended in a round robin tournament format that was held in one day. However, the mixed results of this season would cause the MBC to go and rebrand itself into the National Basketball League for its following season of play, with it transforming from a semipro (or amateur) basketball league to a professional basketball league that would later cause a merger with the younger Basketball Association of America to become the present-day National Basketball Association. 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 previous 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]

Following the season's end, which saw the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots winning the MBC's second and final championship ever held, the Midwest Basketball Conference would officially be granted a leaguewide name change into the National Basketball League, which would cause it to stick around for its next twelve seasons of play afterward. However, despite the MBC turned NBL causing a merger with the BAA to become the NBA and 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. Despite that personal long-term failure, out of the eleven turned twelve teams that played in the second and final season of the Midwest Basketball Conference (which later became the National Basketball League), only the Indianapolis Kautskys (who ironically were the only MBC team to fail to play the required minimum amount of eight games played this season) 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 on August 3, 1949. Outside of the Kautskys, none of the other franchises that played in the second and final MBC season would end up playing in the present-day NBA.

• Before the Midwest Basketball Conference began their second (and final) season of play, they would see the original Buffalo Bisons team this league had (with Buffalo's removal later being considered temporary by the Bisons) and the Canadian-based Windsor Cooper Buses both leaving the MBC (with Windsor's removal ultimately being a permanent one for the MBC (later NBL)), with the likes of the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots (a third works team that originally played for the National Professional Basketball League precursor to the MBC (and later NBL) and entered the MBC relatively late by comparison (by December 3, 1936) following two matches they had against the University of Pittsburgh), the Columbus Athletic Supply team (owned by the company of the same name at that point in time), the Fort Wayne General Electrics (a works team owned and operated by the General Electric company that had a division out in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the time), the Warren HyVis Oils (sometimes referred to as the Warren HyVis Oilers that was sponsored by HyVis Oil during that time), and the Whiting Ciesar All-Americans (owned by local car salesman Eddie Ciesar, hence the Ciesar inclusion to the team name) would be joined alongside the rest of the MBC (including team name changes in the Dayton Metropolitans becoming the Dayton London Bobbys and the Detroit Hed-Aids becoming the Detroit Altes Lagers) to make twelve teams to start out their new season of play.^[4]
• This season marked the first time teams would change their head coaches before the start of the upcoming season in the history of this league (both for the MBC and the NBL successor), with the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad, the Dayton Metropolitans turned Dayton London Bobbys, and the inaugural defending champions in the Chicago Duffy Florals (surprisingly enough) all deciding to make head coaching changes to their teams before the start of the new season for the MBC.
• Later on during the season, by early December 1936 (either as early as December 3 or as late as December 11, 1936), a twelfth team in the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots works team (who were seen as automatic rivals to the Akron Firestone Non-Skids works team due to the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company being in the same city as the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company that had also previously played for the National Professional Basketball League precursor to the MBC (and later NBL)) following two matches the team had played against the University of Pittsburgh for a more balanced-looking twelve teams to continue the rest of their season onward.^[5]
• Entering this season, the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots started out their season with an 8–0 record, while their inner city rivals in the Akron Firestone Non-Skids started their season with a 6–0 record, proving the best starts to the MBC's short history of existence.^[5]
• On a January 19, 1937 game between the two Akron squads that was hosted by the Firestone squad (where the attendees who entered the Firestone Clubhouse building early at 7:00 P.M. would have table tennis and badminton exhibitions at hand before the game officially began at 8:30 P.M.) had a surprise announcement for fans attending the game that the Goodyear squad had recently added a mysterious 6'4" player from Salt Lake City, Utah (who had been with the Salt Lake City operations in question for three years before that night's game) onto their roster and that the individual in question could suit up for that night's game. (The player in question was later revealed to be Ralph Crowton, who did play for the Goodyear team that night, but didn't score a single point for them, though the Goodyear squad would defeat the Firestone squad with a close 31–27 victory.^[6])
• The Indianapolis Kautskys would become the only MBC team to not play the required minimum amount of scheduled games necessary for the season due to problems that had an early, promising start for their season turn poorly on them real quickly once issues revolving around the players' primary jobs outside of professional team basketball resulted in many of the players not being able to get away from the jobs they worked in outside of weekend games on Saturday night or at any point in time for Sunday, which also became a hassle for them with none of the teams that didn't have sponsors for their teams in the league were able to accommodate for the Kautskys, to the point where team owner and head coach Frank Kautsky failed to schedule enough games for the season for his Kautskys squad.^[7] Unlike the previous season with the Chicago Duffy Florals taking a playoff spot that was meant for the Detroit Hed-Aids (now known as the Detroit Altes Lagers) team, there would be no playoff spot controversies with the Kautskys due to them finishing the season with only a better record than their inner city rivals of the league, the Indianapolis U.S. Tires, for their division (with the Kautskys also having a better overall record than the Detroit Altes Lagers and the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad in terms of Eastern Division teams).
• Following the mixed results of the inaugural MBC Playoffs (which consisted of a one day long round robin tournament), the MBC decided to implement a playoff system similar to what the NBL would use for most of its existence going forward (which was announced on February 8, 1937), with the two best teams in both the Eastern Division and Western Division competing against each other in a best of three series before the two remaining teams competed against each other in their own best of three series for the new champion of the league.
• Before Game 3 for the deciding Western Division Playoff match between the Dayton London Bobbys and the Fort Wayne General Electrics was held, Dayton's player and general manager (Bill Hosket Sr.) called Fort Wayne's general manager and head coach (Ray Lindemuth) to let him know that Dayton was going to forfeit the key match-up for the series, with the Dayton general manager later hanging up the phone on Fort Wayne's general manager and head coach after he had inquired why that would be the case.^[8] This would mark the first and only time in the league's history that a playoff game would be deemed forfeited by another team.

^[1]

After dealing with a mixed bag of results for the original round robin tournament formatting held in the inaugural MBC's season for its first ever playoff formatting, the second and final MBC season's playoffs would be held in a more proper formatting that would fit for future seasons when it became the National Basketball League instead where the two best teams in each division compete against each other in a best of three series before the winners of those two rounds would meet up for the second (and final) MBC championship ever held. The final MBC Playoffs ever held by the Midwest Basketball Conference under that name showcased the top two Eastern Division teams in the new works team in Akron with the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots (who are owned and operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company) going up against their inner city rivaling works team in the older (in terms of teams that started out in the MBC, at least) Akron Firestone Non-Skids (who were owned by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company at the time), while the Western Division saw the rebranded Dayton London Bobbys go up against a third works team that became a part of the MBC in the Fort Wayne General Electrics (who were owned and operated by the General Electric division in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the time) to see who would meet up in the championship round. For this season, the Goodyear Wingfoots team would sweep the Firestone Non-Skids team 2–0, while the Fort Wayne General Electrics saw themselves enter the championship round due to a controversial 2–1 series win due to the Dayton London Bobbys declaring that they would forfeit the third and final game of the series to Fort Wayne without any warning or explanation whatsoever hours before the decisive game was set to begin (which led to one of Dayton's players, Norm Wagner, wasting a trip from Dayton, Ohio to Fort Wayne, Indiana for no particularly good reason at all^[15]).^[8] Regardless of the reason for why Dayton forfeited their series to Fort Wayne, the championship series for the final MBC season of play would involve two of the three remaining works teams left in the league's championship series, the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots and the Fort Wayne General Electrics. The second and final MBC championship would end with the Goodyear Wingfoots sweeping the General Electrics 2–0 to become the second and final MBC champions in that league's short tenure of existence before it rebranded itself to the National Basketball League on October 6, 1937.^[16]

• * – Game 3 of the Western Division Playoffs would result in a 2–0 forfeiture by the Dayton Metropolitans losing the series to the Fort Wayne General Electrics for unknown reasons hours before their decisive game of the series was set to begin.^[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.^[17] However, the player that scored the most points in the MBC this season was Jack Shaffer for the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, with him also being the only player to average more than 10 points per game this season with an average of 10.3 points per game in sixteen games played for the Firestone Non-Skids.^[1]

• National Basketball League (United States)

• MBC Standings, 1935–1937 on apbr.org
• Midwest Basketball Conference – 1936–37 MBC Season Overview on retroseasons.com