1944–45 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1944–45 NBL season was the tenth overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its eighth 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. Entering this season, the NBL would return to a two division format, with the Eastern Division and Western Division returning to form once again for the first time since the 1939–40 NBL season, albeit with six teams competing in the NBL this time around (with three teams in both the Eastern and Western Divisions) due to the Chicago American Gears and Pittsburgh Raiders (the latter being a return of the old Pittsburgh Pirates NBL team) joining the NBL with the Cleveland Chase Brassmen rebranding themselves into the Cleveland Allmen Transfers. Due to the increasing number of teams at hand alongside the decreasing influence of World War II affecting things, the NBL would allow for each team to play a total of 30 scheduled NBL games for their respective seasons. Because of the return of the divisional formatting in the NBL, the NBL Playoffs this season would see the two best teams in each division in the NBL (in this case, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Cleveland Allmen Transfers in the Eastern Division and the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Chicago American Gears in the Western Division), with the NBL's championship series ending with Fort Wayne repeating as champions in their rematch over Sheboygan, beating them three games to two in a best of five reverse sweep, with the Zollner Pistons being the third and final NBL team to win back-to-back NBL championships throughout this league's existence. 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 this season of play.^[1]

Following its 12th season of existence as the NBL, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until 1946 just one year after this season's conclusion) 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 six 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 two-time 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 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, no other NBL team from this season would end up joining the NBA once the two leagues merged.

• Before the NBL season officially began, not only would the Cleveland Chase Brassmen change their team sponsor from the Chase Brass and Copper Company to the more local Allmen Transfer & Moving Company to essentially become the Cleveland Allmen Transfers for the rest of their existence, but the NBL would add two new teams for the season with a new team in Chicago called the Chicago American Gears works team (owned and operated by Maurice White, who also helped lead and operation the local American Gear & Manufacturing Company^[2]) and a new team in Pittsburgh called the Pittsburgh Raiders (who technically are considered the returning Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. MBC team and Pittsburgh Pirates NBL team under a new team name^[3][4]) to bring the number of teams back up for the NBL to six teams (with those two new teams being from locations involving from the previous season's mention of eight possible new locations (including two different mentions of Hammond, Indiana) being interested in teams for the upcoming NBL season^[5]). Not only that, but despite this season having a lesser number of teams than the first two seasons where they decided to not have any divisions while having seven teams around in their league, the NBL would bring back the Eastern Division and Western Division with three teams in each division for this season (Cleveland, Fort Wayne, and Pittsburgh in the Eastern Division; Chicago, Oshkosh, and Sheboygan in the Western Division), with each team playing a total of 30 scheduled games for this season (which would be the highest amount of games played for one NBL season yet).
• Also before this season began, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons sought to complete four key goals for their season with them starting out by winning a key clash against the "College All-Stars" team early in the season when no other professional team had yet to do by this point in time, followed by them winning both the regular season and NBL Championship series for this season and then finishing things off with repeating as champions for the World Professional Basketball Tournament in the 1945 event when no team had previously repeated as champions both there (never mind repeat as dual champions for the professional basketball league they played in (in the Zollner Pistons' case, the NBL) and the WPBT) and the NBL in the same season soon afterward. They would later complete their first goal of the season when Fort Wayne defeated the College All-Stars in a close 44–38 victory on December 1, 1944 at the Chicago Stadium, with their other three goals having to wait until later on in the 1945 year to determine whether if they would be met or not.^[6]
• Starting with this season of play, similar to what college basketball had done following the discovery of DePaul University star center George Mikan and his jumping ability to go with his size, the NBL would forbid the notion of defensive centers utilizing an idea of goaltending to interfere with the basketball itself while it's on the way to the basket, regardless of whether the intended shot would have been a make or a miss on its own accord. Previously, centers in the NBL had not had the size nor the jumping ability to utilize the goaltending rule on their ends, but after seeing the increasing height size of players like Ed Dancker and Mike Novak for the Sheboygan Red Skins in the previous season for the NBL's end alongside potential worrisome issues of college players like George Mikan and even the 7'0" tall Bob Kurland causing further issues with goaltending being allowed in professional basketball leagues like the NBL, they ultimately decided to implement the forbiddance of goaltending shots from this season onward in order to not worry about it future seasons, which would later influence other professional basketball leagues like the Basketball Association of America (later NBA) and the American Basketball Association in the future (alongside other international basketball leagues) to implement a similar ruling on goaltending as well.^[7]
• At an early point in the regular season in December 1944, the defending champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would have a 4–1 (losing one close game to the Oshkosh All-Stars 49–45 on December 10) in order to retake the NBL's regular season lead over the Oshkosh All-Stars at 3–1, with the Sheboygan Red Skins having an average 2–2 record and all three of the Chicago American Gears, Cleveland Allmen Transfers, and Pittsburgh Raiders having poor starts in their seasons; a later point in December would show Fort Wayne having a 6–1 record, with Oshkosh being 4–2 and Sheboygan being 3–2 instead.^[8] Not only that, but a later 59–50 victory over the Chicago American Gears would have the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons end the 1944 year with a 7–1 record for the start of this season.^[9]
• By the start of January 1945, American soldiers were starting to return home from their active duties in World War II once it appeared that an Allied forces victory was all but inevitable to come forth when they had the Axis powers get down to their last legs for the start of 1945. This would later lead to renewed interest in professional sports like basketball in a more positive light by this point in time as well.^[10]
• On January 24, 1945, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would host a match that would designate proceeds from this game onto the local Polio Fund in Fort Wayne, Indiana in order to try and help find a cure for polio, which would not be found until the 1950s by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin and later be distributed to the public by 1961. The game would later receive $1,000 in profit (worth almost $18,000 in 2025) for the Zollner Pistons franchise to donate to the Polio Fund after the operating expenses were subtracted from the overall costs for that night.^[10]
• Near the end of January, it was already seen as likely that the top two teams of the season would be the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (who appeared to be very likely to complete their second goal (of four total) in being the regular season champions for the NBL) with a nearly undefeated 16–1 record and the Sheboygan Red Skins with a 12–6 record, with the remaining four teams in the league all having below-average losing records with both Chicago and Pittsburgh having a 6–10 record and both Cleveland and Oshkosh (the latter of which had a surprising dropoff after their early hot start to the season) having a worse 6–12 record instead.^[10] At the actual end of the month in January, the Zollner Pistons would go 18–2 following an upset loss to the Chicago American Gears, with the Sheboygan Red Skins at 13–6 and no other team still having an above average record due to the Chicago American Gears going at 8–10, the Pittsburgh Raiders being 6–12, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers going 7–13, and the Oshkosh All-Stars being dead last by this time at 6–15, with Oshkosh being in serious danger of missing the NBL Playoffs for the first time in franchise history following January's detriments for this All-Stars franchise.^[11]
• Following a surprising 62–61 victory by the Cleveland Allmen Transfers over the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons that also saw Bobby McDermott score a record-high 36 points that match (breaking a record previously set not just by himself, but Leroy Edwards of the Oshkosh All-Stars during the inaugural 1937–38 NBL season),^[12] the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons saw themselves leading the entire NBL with a 19–3 record and then saw the Sheboygan Red Skins getting close to their mark with a 15–6 record, with the four remaining teams still having a below-average record with the Chicago American Gears being 10–13, the Oshkosh All-Stars now going 8–14 to finish last place in the showcasing of the new Western Division, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers being 9–15, and the Pittsburgh Raiders going 7–15 as the new last place team of not just the new Eastern Division, but also the entire NBL this season as well.^[13]
• Near the end of the season, the six managers (most of whom were also head coaches) of the NBL's teams for this season (Jack Tierney for Chicago, Jeff Carlin for Cleveland, Carl Bennett for Fort Wayne, Lon Darling for Oshkosh, Joe Urso for Pittsburgh, and Dutch Dehnert for Sheboygan) were polled to vote for what was called the "All-Time Stars of Professional Basketball". The first team (and main selectees) for the honor included three Original Celtics star players (Nat Holman, John Beckman (who won an original American Basketball League championship in 1929 with the Cleveland Rosenblums), and new Sheboygan Red Skins head coach/general manager Dutch Dehnert (who also won ABL championships with the Cleveland Rosenblums)) alongside current Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons guard Bobby McDermott and Oshkosh All-Stars forward/center Leroy Edwards, while the second team showcased two more Original Celtics and Cleveland Rosenblums players in Joe Lapchick and current Pittsburgh Raiders player-coach guard Nat Hickey being joined alongside longtime New York Renaissance star player and former Cleveland Chase Brassmen center Wee Willie Smith and two current Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons players in forward Jerry Bush and guard Buddy Jeannette; an honorable mention team that can be considered the third team of the listing showcased two more Original Celtics players in Davey Banks and Bennie Borgmann alongside current Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons guard/forward Curly Armstrong, Oshkosh All-Stars guard/forward Eddie Riska, and Sheboygan Red Skins center Ed Dancker was also announced there as well. Of the five players announced for the listing, only Edwards has yet to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as of 2025; with the second team had Hickey, Smith, and Bush not being inducted as of 2025 (though Smith technically would be inducted due to him playing with the 1932–33 New York Renaissance team that got inducted in their whole), and the honorable mention third team having Banks, Armstrong, Riska, and Dancker not being inducted as of 2025 (leaving Borgmann as the only honorable mention third team member to join the Hall of Fame in the process). It also helped to momentarily distract from the runaway lead that the Zollner Pistons squad had over the rest of the NBL by that point in time during this season.^[13]
• On February 19, the standings for the NBL saw the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons holding a 22–5 record to still be on pace for the best record in franchise history by this point in time (though they would officially secure the best record in the league, thus completing their second team goal for the season by this time), the Sheboygan Red Skins still being the only other team with a winning record for the season by this point in time with a 16–9 record, and the remaining teams with losing records seeing the Chicago American Gears at 12–14 (with a chance to still end their season with either a winning record or an average 15–15 record), the Oshkosh All-Stars going 11–16 with a last ditch effort for a playoff push still being intact in the Western Division despite their third straight losing record in a row, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers being 10–16 with a chance at finishing the season with a better record than the long-standing Oshkosh franchise, and the Pittsburgh Raiders all but effectively being eliminated from playoff contention by this time with a 7–17 record.^[13]
• By the end of the regular season, on March 2, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would secure the best record in franchise history with a 25–5 record (which would still be their best franchise record in their overall history as of 2025) in a win over the Cleveland Allmen Transfers (who finished the season with the second-best record in the Eastern Division and an overall fourth place finish in the NBL), with player-coach Bobby McDermott and Mel Riebe both giving it their all to see who would win the scoring record for the NBL this season. While McDermott would score more points than Riebe with McDermott getting 30 points and Riebe scoring 29 points, it would be Mel Riebe who would get the scoring record for the NBL once again with 607 total points scored for an unofficial 20.2 points per game scoring average defeating McDermott's 603 total points scored for an unofficial 20.1 points per game scoring average for what would become the closest scoring total title in the NBL's entire history. Not only that, but it also saw the returning debut of former Detroit Eagles center Ed Sadowski (who scored 13 points in his only NBL regular season game), who returned to the NBL this season in time for Fort Wayne's key playoff push with the hopes that he would get to leave the military base he was on at Wilbur Wright Field nearby Dayton, Ohio (which was a part of the United States Army Air Forces, which would be a precursor to the current United States Air Force) to play for the Zollner Pistons on a more permanent basis starting with the final regular season game.^[13]
• Also at the end of the regular season, Stan Patrick of the Chicago American Gears would break a scoring record previously set by Bobby McDermott earlier in the season with 38 points scored on his end in a blowout 95–64 victory (with the 95 points scored that night being the highest scoring total by a team in this season, if not in the entire NBL's history).^[13]
• By the season's finale, it saw the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons get a 25–5 record for the best record in the league this season, with the Sheboygan Red Skins being the only other team with a winning record at 19–11 to secure first place in the revived Western Division, the Chicago American Gears securing a third place finish at 14–16, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers getting fourth place (and the final playoff spot available) with a second place finish at 13–17 in the revived Eastern Division, the Oshkosh All-Stars barely missing the NBL Playoffs for the first (and later, only) time in franchise history with a 12–18 last place finish in the Western Division (being one game behind the Cleveland Allmen Transfers), and the new Pittsburgh Raiders team being 7–23 for the worst record in the entire league this season.^[13]
• Due in part to the circumstances involved with this season in particular against other seasons played in the NBL, this season marked the first and only time in franchise history that the Oshkosh All-Stars would end up missing the NBL Playoffs entirely despite this not being their first season with a losing record in the NBL (their previous two seasons also had losing records involved, with the season before this one being their worst overall season in franchise history while in the NBL).^[13]
• Due to the two new teams being added to help bring back divisional formatting in the NBL, the new formatting for the NBL Playoffs would bring back the original formatting used in the first three seasons of the NBL's existence with the best teams in each division taking on the second-best teams in each division (or in more unofficial terms, the best team taking on the fourth place team and the second-best team taking on the third-best team) in a best of three format before the two best teams remaining would go up against each other in what would now be considered a best of five championship series instead.^[14]
• Despite the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons being down 2–0 to the Sheboygan Red Skins in the championship series, Fort Wayne would complete a reverse sweep to win their second straight NBL Finals championship series 3–2 (albeit with the Sheboygan Red Skins competing in their final championship game without head coach Dutch Dehnert being around for it, who would be in New York to be with his wife after finding out that their only son, John Dehnert Jr. (who was suggested to have played both basketball and baseball as a fine, young prospect for Columbia University before entering the military), lost his life while fighting against Nazi Germany under service of the U.S. Army in World War II over a month before Adolf Hitler would end his own life to subsequently end the war against the Nazi Germans there^[15][16]), which subsequently led to the Zollner Pistons' third goal of the season being completed in a very close and especially tense manner.^[17]
• By the end of the NBL's season properly, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would see four of the five players in their starting line-up be named members of the All-NBL First or Second Team with the combined Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year winner Bobby McDermott and fellow Basketball Hall of Fame member Buddy Jeannette being named members of the All-NBL First Team, while Jerry Bush and Jake Pelkington were both named members of the All-NBL Second Team.^[18]
• Following the second championship series rematch between Fort Wayne and Sheboygan, five of the NBL's six teams (only the Sheboygan Red Skins, who had previously played in every World Professional Basketball Tournament before this particular event came up, ended up declining their entry for this event for some reason) would enter the 1945 edition of the World Professional Basketball Tournament, which saw the local hometown team for the event, the Chicago American Gears, and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons compete against not just the other NBL teams in the event with the Cleveland Allmen Transfers, the Oshkosh All-Stars, and the new Pittsburgh Raiders franchise all competing in a 14 team tournament that primarily saw other independent teams (either military based or proper independent teams similar to the world famous all-black Harlem Globetrotters and the all-black New York Renaissance) going up against each other in a winner takes all format on a round-by-round basis, with the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the world famous Harlem Globetrotters being the teams to get first round byes this time around. This tournament would see the Cleveland Allmen Transfers be eliminated in the first round to the Midland Dow Chemicals works team sponsored by the Dow Chemical Company, the Oshkosh All-Stars and Pittsburgh Raiders would lose their quarterfinal matches to the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and all-black New York Renaissance respectively in the same bracket, the Chicago American Gears would be blown out in the semifinal round by the Dayton Acmes military team (but win third place in the event with a victory over the New York Renaissance), and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would repeat as champions in the WPBT with their own blowout victory over the Dayton Acmes. With their repeat championship that they won on March 24, Fort Wayne would complete all four of their planned goals for the season with big success. Not only that, but seven of the ten All-WPBT Team members would come from the NBL's teams this time around.^[19]
• Two days after winning their second WPBT championship on March 24, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would get a bonus goal for the season completed by winning 59–47 over the NBL's All-Star Team in a special end of the season match that 3,000 people saw live at the North Side High School Gym in Fort Wayne, Indiana.^[18]

Due to the NBL allowing for divisions to come back into their league once again (despite having a lesser number of teams this season than the first two seasons that they decided to abandon using divisions under what would be considered a temporary basis), the formatting of the NBL Playoffs for this season would return to the format first held in the 1938 and 1940 NBL Playoffs where the two best teams in each division would compete against each other in a best of three series before the remaining two teams from each series would compete against each other for the championship round, though this year's championship series would be a best of five series akin to the previous season's playoffs instead of a best of three series. The two best teams in the Eastern Division were the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, who were a works team that were also the previous season's champions, and the Cleveland Allmen Transfers (who rebranded from their previous team name of the Cleveland Chase Brassmen), while the two best teams in the Western Division involved the former NBL champions in the Sheboygan Red Skins and the newly-created Chicago American Gears competing against each other for the first time in their playoff history after this new Chicago squad upset the Oshkosh All-Stars out of a playoff spot for the first and only time in NBL history. The Fort Wayne Zollners would sweep the Detroit Eagles 2–0, while the Sheboygan Red Skins defeated the Chicago American Gears 2–1 for a rematch of the previous two NBL championship matches. Unlike the previous season's championship series, the Sheboygan Red Skins would look to have Fort Wayne on the ropes by surprising them with a 2–0 series lead before the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons managed to reverse their fortunes in the final three games of the series to reverse sweep Sheboygan 3–2 to repeat as champions, similar to the 1940 NBL Playoffs when the Akron Firestone Non-Skids completed a reverse sweep upon the Oshkosh All-Stars. Regardless, this championship won by the Zollner Pistons marked the third and final team (or fourth and final team if you include the back-to-back MBC and NBL championships that the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots acquired during the last MBC precursor season and the first official NBL season) to repeat as champions in the NBL's entire history, as well as this team's final championship won until the 1989 NBA Finals once they became the present-day Detroit Pistons there.

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 Player: Bobby McDermott, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons
• NBL Coach of the Year: Bobby McDermott, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Stan Patrick, Chicago American Gears

^[27]

For the seventh World Professional Basketball Tournament ever hosted, it would feature a total of fourteen teams competing in the event held in Chicago on March 19–25, 1945, with every team NBL team outside of the Sheboygan Red Skins (who had previously participated in every WPBT held before this point in time) participating in this event, which was mostly held by independently ran teams due to the still-ongoing effects of World War II. For the five participating NBL teams that competed in this event, the newly created Chicago American Gears would defeat the Hartford Nutmegs 57–48, the Oshkosh All-Stars would barely survive against the Detroit Mansfields 60–56, the newly renamed Cleveland Allmen Transfers would lose to the independently ran Midland Dow Chemicals works team 61–46 as the only NBL loss to start out the tournament, and the technically new Pittsburgh Raiders NBL team barely survived against the Newark C-O Twos 53–50 as the only first round matches the NBL's teams had this time around for March 19 and 20. When it came to the quarterfinal matches by the following day, the defending NBL and WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (who held one of two byes in the first round for this event) would end up beating the Oshkosh All-Stars 63–52, the all-black New York Renaissance would close the Raiders' only season in the NBL with a 61–52 defeat on Pittsburgh's end, and the newly created Chicago American Gears would upset the all-black world famous Harlem Globetrotters (who were considered the more fun and quirky version of the Renaissance and held the other bye in the first round of the event) with a 53–49 victory allowing for two NBL teams to potentially meet in the WPBT championship this time around. Unfortunately, that would not happen for this event, as while the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would beat down the New York Renaissance 68–45, the Dayton Acmes (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 and previously beat both the similarly military based Long Island Grumman Hellcats and the previously mentioned Midland Dow Chemicals works team in the first two rounds) would crush the Chicago American Gears with an 80–51 blowout defeat against the hometown team that hosted the event in Chicago, meaning the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would get a chance to repeat as both NBL and WPBT champions against an independently ran military-based squad while the Chicago American Gears would look to try and get third place against the more established New York Renaissance. Finally, on March 25, the Chicago American Gears would end up upsetting the New York Renaissance with a 64–55 victory for a third place finish, while the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would be unimpressed by the methods that Dayton used to beat their previous opponents, as they would wallop the Acmes 78–52 in a beatdown to prove their superiority as the only back-to-back champions for both the NBL and WPBT's entire history of operations, with Buddy Jeannette getting his second WPBT MVP (being the first player to earn such an honor for the WPBT) in his career (and the Zollner Pistons getting a third straight WPBT MVP winner) after Buddy Jeannette previously won the WPBT MVP award in 1941 while with the Detroit Eagles and Fort Wayne previously had two other WPBT MVP winners in Curly Armstrong and Bobby McDermott respectively.

• National Basketball League (United States)

• NBL Standings, 1937–1949 on apbr.org
• National Basketball League III – 1944–45 NBL Season Overview on retroseasons.com