1943–44 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1943–44 NBL season was the ninth overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its seventh season under that name after previously going by the Midwest Basketball Conference (a semipro or amateur precursor to the NBL) in its first two seasons of existence. For the fourth straight season in a row (and thankfully their final season in a row), the NBL would operate without any divisions whatsoever. However, they would compete with the lowest amount of teams to start out a season of theirs with only four teams starting out the season due to the continued presence of World War II, with the Cleveland Chase Brassmen (who had previously operated as the Cleveland Chase Copper Brass of the Amateur Athletic Union) replacing the Chicago Studebaker Flyers, who had left the NBL following their elimination in the 1943 NBL Playoffs against the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. As a result of this barren number of teams competing against each other throughout the season, the four teams that would thankfully stay on board throughout the entire NBL season this time around would see every team playing a total of 22 scheduled NBL games against each other outside of the new Cleveland Chase Brassmen squad, who only played a grand total of 18 scheduled NBL games for some reason. Regardless of why the new team had a lesser number of games played over the other three teams at hand, the four teams that competed against each other throughout the season would once again compete against each other in the NBL Playoffs (with the best team competing against the worst surviving team in the playoffs and the second-best team competing against the second-worst team in the playoffs), with the final two teams competing against each other in the championship series. In this case, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would sweep the Cleveland Chase Brassmen two games to none and the Sheboygan Red Skins would defeat the Oshkosh All-Stars (once again) two games to one, leading to a rematch of the previous season's NBL championship match-up. However, unlike the previous season, where Sheboygan won two games to one, Fort Wayne would sweep the defending NBL champions three games to none, as the NBL returned to a best of five championship series after previously utilizing it in the 1938–39 NBL season. An entire book focusing on the NBL's existence 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.^[2]

Following its 12th season of existence as the NBL, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until 1946) merged operations to create the National Basketball Association. Despite the NBL continuing to exist until the 1948–49 NBL season as the longer-lasting operation, the NBL 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.

Of the four NBL teams that competed in the league this season, two of these teams would end up playing in what can be considered the modern-day NBA, with one of them still existing in the NBA to this very day (albeit under a different name). The new NBL champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would move to the Basketball Association of America in the 1948–49 BAA season, though they would have to change their team name in order to remove their business sponsorship they have with team owner Fred Zollner's Zollner Piston Company, with Fort Wayne going with just the Fort Wayne Pistons. A few years after the BAA merged with the NBL to become the NBA, the Fort Wayne Pistons would move from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Detroit, Michigan by the 1957–58 NBA season to become the Detroit Pistons, which they would use to this very day. The other team that joined the NBA years afterward, the former NBL champion Sheboygan Red Skins, would only play for the 1949–50 NBA season before leaving the NBA to create their own rivaling professional basketball league called the National Professional Basketball League (which would not be related to the NPBL that the NBL had been inspired from, as well as ultimately lasted for only one season before being forced to close up operations early). While the Oshkosh All-Stars were also considered for the NBL-BAA merger that became the modern-day NBA, neither the All-Stars nor the Chase Brassmen (who at one point in time had been misattributed to have had their history been shared with the modern-day Philadelphia 76ers after the Cleveland franchise was renamed to the Cleveland Allmen Transfers^[3]) from this season would end up joining the NBA once the two leagues merged.

• After the 1943 NBL Playoffs concluded, the Chicago Studebaker Flyers moved to South Bend, Indiana to become the South Bend Studebaker Champions for the 1943 World Professional Basketball Tournament before misunderstandings with the team being perceived as racism from within during a practice caused Studebaker's franchise to withdraw from the NBL due to the United Auto Workers Association no longer funding the team for them, with their new additions in the Cleveland Chase Brassmen (who were previously an Amateur Athletic Union team named the Cleveland Chase Copper Brass that were owned by the Chase Brass and Copper Company) causing the NBL to start their season with the lowest number of teams possible at four remaining teams, similar to most of the previous season once the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets folded early on there.^[4]
• Before the season began, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would see general manager and head coach Carl Bennett renege himself to just being the general manager of the team instead, as his head coaching job would be replaced by Bobby McDermott as the team's player coach for not just this season, but multiple seasons to come instead.
• Throughout the season, every team outside of the new Cleveland Chase Brassmen squad would play only 22 games for this season instead of something higher like 23 or 24 games, with Cleveland being forced to play only 18 games for their season instead for some unknown reason (Though one possible explanation for why it's the case would probably involve the Cleveland Chase Brassmen cancelling two games from each of the defending champion Sheboygan Red Skins, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, and the Oshkosh All-Stars (likely consisting of one road game and one home game each) due to likely financial struggles on Cleveland's end near the end of the season, with no viable way to reschedule those games properly.). This would result in the shortest schedule in the NBL's history in terms of seasons where teams had a set amount of games to play in a proper manner, unlike their inaugural season or play or even the two precursor seasons under the MBC name.
• Some time during the month of December, the Oshkosh All-Stars' star center, Leroy Edwards, would be suspended for three games due to what was considered an uncooperative attitude. That suspension would not only give him his lowest point per game total yet at 7.8 points per game, but would also later have him miss out on an All-NBL Team appearance for this season for the first time in his career.^[5]</ref>
• Near the end of the year 1943, after dealing with frustrating preseason exhibition results in matches against the new defending WPBT champions in the Washington Bears, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would go undefeated with a 6–0 record, while the Sheboygan Red Skins were 2–2, the Oshkosh All-Stars were 1–4, and the Cleveland Chase Brassmen became winless in the NBL with a 0–4 record. Not long after that, in early January 1944, Fort Wayne would go 6–1, while Sheboygan would be a game behind them at 5–2 and Oshkosh would be 3–6 (albeit still ahead of Cleveland in the process).^[6]
• During another doubleheader match-up held in Milwaukee during the month of January, Fort Wayne would defeat Sheboygan with player-coach Bobby McDermott scoring a new league record-high 31 points, while the Cleveland Chase Brassmen would defeat the Chicago Collegians 48–40 in a non-NBL match that also saw Mel Riebe score 32 points that night instead.^[6]
• On January 25, 1944, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would be upset by the defending NBL champion Sheboygan Red Skins in a 41–29 defeat due in part to a shorthanded bench that had some of their previous key players be on a 34–3 Great Lakes Naval Base team that was considered "the country's best team, service or collegiate" according to what was said in "A Tribute to Armed Forces Basketball", though primarily due to Fort Wayne having a bad offensive and defensive game that also included a scoreless fourth quarter due to the Zollner Pistons not making a single fourth quarter basket in 15 field goal attempts.^[7]
• By the end of January, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would look to secure first place with an 11–2 record and the new Cleveland Chase Brassmen would all but secure last place with an ugly 1–11 record that drew comparisons to the Columbus Athletic Supply team's only NBL season played, while the defending NBL champion Sheboygan Red Skins weren't too far behind from Fort Wayne at a 9–6 record and Oshkosh still had a chance at securing second place with a 6–8 record.^[8]
• Following that same point in time, the Cleveland Chase Brassmen would remove player-coach Vito Kubilus from the team and replace his head coaching duties with Nick Radlick instead.
• Once February rolled around, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would secure first place in the NBL once again with a seven-game winning streak that started with home and away game victories over the Oshkosh All-Stars.^[8]
• At around the same time Fort Wayne started their seven game winning streak to help secure a first place regular season championship, the NBL announced that they would receive new NBL franchise applications with not just two new teams being interested in existing in Hammond, but also seeing applications come through for places like Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Rochester as well, which would hint that their wartime struggles would come to an end (at least somewhat) following this season's conclusion, with the NBL also noting that while they wouldn't accept any new teams during this season, they would likely consider themselves the strongest professional basketball league around by the time World War II concluded.^[8]
• Near the early point of February, after not having any new African-American players entering the league before this point in the season, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers would add center Wee Willie Smith from the all-black New York Renaissance squad onto their team (as well as played some of their remaining home games at either the Cathedral Latin High School or the Euclid Shore High School instead of the larger Public Auditorium following dwindling attendance relating to their record^[1]) in order to try and help add some veteran production for their team to finish out the season. Unfortunately, Smith would only play in four games for Cleveland this season, with him scoring only 24 points total (eight in his first game in a 54–50 loss to the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons) during his regular season stint there. Fortunately for Cleveland, however, Smith would help the team out in getting another win late in their regular season (alongside them winning the final regular season game without him playing) in order to finish their only season under the Chase Brassmen name at only a poor 3–15 record (with all three of their victories being at home in Cleveland^[5]) instead of a historically awful 1–17 or even a wretched 2–16 by the end of their regular season period.^[8]
• Near the end of the season, the Sheboygan Red Skins would be 10–7 and the Oshkosh All-Stars would be 6–10, leaving the NBL’s final few games of the season to be just marking for time until the NBL Playoffs officially began by early March instead of anything significant for the NBL's teams by this point in the season.^[8]
• By the end of the regular season, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would lose the final two out of three regular season games to go 18–4 (which would be their regular season record by this point in time) in their first place finish following a hectic February 25 match against the defending WPBT champion Washington Bears that saw Fort Wayne finally win against them in a close 40–39 finish in Rochester, New York in exchange for player-coach Bobby McDermott losing a tooth during the match, while the Sheboygan Red Skins would get a 14–8 record for second place, the Oshkosh All-Stars finished in third place with their worst record in NBL history at 7–15, and the Cleveland Chase Brassmen being dead last with a poor 3–15 finish. However, much like the previous season, all of the (surviving) teams from this season would end up competing against each other in the NBL Playoffs, with the formatting being similar to the previous season's playoffs outside of the championship series being a best of five series instead of a best of three series like it was the previous season.^[8]
• In the first playoff match between the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Cleveland Chase Brassmen, the Zollner Pistons would massacre the Chase Brassmen by Fort Wayne shooting at a pretty good 26/59 for 44% of their field goals being made, while Cleveland shot a poor 12/89 for only 12% of their field goals being made in a 64–37 beatdown against the Chase Brassmen squad.^[9] Fort Wayne would later sweep Cleveland 2–0 with a closer 42–31 finish in Cleveland before entering the NBL's championship series with a rematch against the defending champion Sheboygan Red Skins.^[1]
• During the NBL Finals, the league announced that this season would have co-MVP honors be given out to not just player-coach Bobby McDermott for the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, but also Mel Riebe (who was considered a rookie to the NBL this season) for the Cleveland Chase Brassmen due to their scoring production for their respective teams, with Riebe leading the NBL in scoring with 324 total points scored in 18 games (which would amount to a 17.9 points per game scoring average) and McDermott scoring 306 points in 22 games (which would amount to a lower 17.3 points per game scoring average).^[1]
• Following a 3–0 sweep by the #1 seeded Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons against the defending NBL champion #2 seeded Sheboygan Red Skins, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would be named NBL champions for the first time in franchise history.^[1]
• Following the championship series rematch between Fort Wayne and Sheboygan, all four of the NBL's teams would enter the 1944 edition of the World Professional Basketball Tournament, which saw an increase from 12 to 14 teams in this event (which still primarily featured other independent teams, though the defending WPBT champion Washington Bears would be considered replaced by the similarly all-black New York Renaissance) due to the Office of Defense Transportation's ban on pleasure driving being lightened up a bit by this time, meaning that all four of the new defending NBL champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the former NBL defending champion Sheboygan Red Skins, the former WPBT defending champion Oshkosh All-Stars, and the newly promoted AAU to NBL Cleveland Chase Brassmen would compete in the WPBT as they were throughout the season, though both Fort Wayne and Sheboygan were given first round byes due to their standings as the two best teams of the NBL this season (as well as both the current and previous NBL champions for the league as a whole). This time around, the tournament would see all four of the NBL's teams enter the second round (with Cleveland upsetting the Indianapolis Pure Oils team that was slated to be the Indianapolis Kautskys under a different team name this season and Oshkosh defeating the Rochester Wings) before three of the four NBL teams were eliminated in the quarterfinal round (with Cleveland being beat down by the all-black New York Renaissance, Oshkosh arguably forfeiting a match by force of volition against the all-black Harlem Globetrotters,^[10] and Sheboygan being upset by another WPBT favorite in the former rivaling American Basketball League turned independent Brooklyn Eeagles (formerly known as the Brooklyn Indians before they dropped out of the ABL on January 4, 1944)), with the remaining, defending NBL champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons later joining the 1941–42 Oshkosh All-Stars as the only other NBL team to be crowned dual champions in a season by this point in time by defeating the Brooklyn Eagles 50–33 in the championship round.^[11]
• With the conclusion of this season, the NBL would consider themselves thankful to have essentially survived the worst of the wartime era in a mostly intact manner (while they did lose the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets the previous season in a surprisingly early manner and were forced to lose the Chicago Studebaker Flyers after only one season of play, they did make sure not to lose anymore teams in the process afterward), with the league hoping to see the long-standing Oshkosh All-Stars gain their own new professional basketball venue sooner than later (or worse yet, never) similar to what Sheboygan had done, as well and the new NBL champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons obtain their own professional sports venue sooner than later to go with them.^[12]

Due to the effects of World War II significantly affecting the health of the league during this season by having only four total teams for the entire season combined with the NBL abandoning the usage of divisions entirely for a fourth (and final) straight season, the NBL would utilize this season's playoffs with an entirely different formatting by having all four of their teams competing in a best of three format with each other (with the best NBL team competing against the worst NBL team and the second-best NBL team competing against the second-worst NBL team), with the two remaining teams going up against each other in a best of five championship series. In this case, the two teams that were more or less considered works teams of the NBL in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the newly established Amateur Athletic Union turned professional Cleveland Chase Brassmen franchise would compete against each other as the best and worst NBL teams respectively this season, while the second-best team this season in the defending champion Sheboygan Red Skins went up against their cityside rivals in the Oshkosh All-Stars (who were the second-worst NBL team this season) for the fourth battle of Wisconsin in five straight seasons while competing against each other in the NBL Playoffs. With this season, the Zollner Pistons would sweep the new Cleveland Chase Brassmen 2–0 to end what would become Cleveland's only season under the Chase Brassmen name, while the defending champion Red Skins would barely defeat the Oshkosh All-Stars 2–1 themselves in order to set up a 1943 NBL Championship series rematch between Fort Wayne and Sheboygan. Unlike the previous season's championship series that required all three games being played in a best of three series, the Zollner Pistons would end up using three games in that series to sweep the Sheboygan Red Skins in a 3–0 series cleansing for a best of five series redemption season that saw Fort Wayne be named champions for the first time in franchise history.

Note: 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 NBL like they would be in the BAA/NBA, as would field goal and free-throw shooting percentages.

• NBL Most Valuable Players: Bobby McDermott, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons & Mel Riebe, Cleveland Chase Brassmen^[1]
• NBL Coach of the Year: Bobby McDermott, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Mel Riebe, Cleveland Chase Brassmen

^[19]

For the sixth World Professional Basketball Tournament ever hosted, it would feature a total of fourteen teams competing in the event held in Chicago on March 20–24, 1944, with all four of the NBL's teams competing in the event against mostly independently ran squads (alongside the Brooklyn Eagles, who may or may not represent the rivaling American Basketball League, depending on whether the Eagles are viewed as a continuation of the Brooklyn Indians squad that left during the first half of the ABL's season this time around or not) due to the still-lingering effects of World War II. In any case, the first round that was held on March 20 and 21 saw the new Cleveland Chase Brassmen upset the Indianapolis Pure Oils (who were slated to be the Indianapolis Kautskys participating in the WPBT under a different name following their second hiatus from the NBL starting in 1942) with a 55–52 victory and the Oshkosh All-Stars get a 51–40 win over the Rochester Wings on March 21, leaving the NBL with all four of their teams surviving into the quarterfinal round due to both the new NBL champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and former defending NBL champion Sheboygan Red Skins both getting first round byes. Unfortunately, the quarterfinal round wouldn't go as smoothly for most of the other NBL teams by comparison for the following day, as while the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would blow out the Dayton Aviators (who were composed of servicemen players that previously played for both the rivaling American Basketball League and the New York Renaissance that were stationed at Wright Field in Riverside, Ohio) with a 59–34 beatdown, the all-black New York Renaissance would beat down on the newer Cleveland Chase Brassmen 62–38 in what would be Cleveland's final game while using the Chase Brassmen name, the Brooklyn Eagles would upset the Sheboygan Red Skins with a 49–43 defeat on Sheboygan's end, and the world famous all-black Harlem Globetrotters (who would normally be considered a more humorous and fun version of the New York Renaissance) wound up getting into multiple fights with the Oshkosh All-Stars, which led to team owner, general manager, and head coach Lon Darling calling off the players for the match with a few minutes left in the game, leaving either the final score of 41–31 in favor of Harlem or a forfeit by Oshkosh leading to a 2–0 victory by Harlem both being seen as valid either way, depending on the news outlet at the time. Regardless, this led to the new NBL champions in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons being the only NBL team left by the semifinal round of the WPBT. Luckily for them, they would not only barely survive against the New York Renaissance with a 42–38 score on March 23, but also beat down the Brooklyn Eagles (who had earlier on blown out the world famous Harlem Globetrotters with a 63–41 final score) the day after that with a 50–33 blowout win (with the Harlem Globetrotters beating the New York Renaissance 37–29 for a third place finish) to join the Oshkosh All-Stars in 1942 as the only other NBL team by this time to win multiple championships in the same season, with Bobby McDermott joining Curly Armstrong as the only Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons players at this time to win WPBT MVP honors.

• National Basketball League (United States)

• NBL Standings, 1937–1949 on apbr.org
• National Basketball League III – 1943–44 NBL Season Overview on retroseasons.com