1937–38 Warren Penns season

The 1937–38 Warren Penns season was the first professional basketball season of play for the Warren Penns in the small town of Warren, Pennsylvania at the Beaty Jr. High Gym within the Warren County School District under the National Basketball League, which officially was the first season that it existed as a professional basketball league after previously existing as a semi-pro or amateur basketball league called the Midwest Basketball Conference in its first two seasons back in 1935. However, if one were to include their previous seasons where they first started out as a team in the Central Basketball League called the Warren Buckeyes^[1][2] back in 1926 before becoming an independent team called the Warren Crescents, the Corry Keystones of the short-lived New York-Pennsylvania Basketball League,^[3] the Warren Merchants, the Warren Transits, and the Warren HyVis Oilers (sometimes shortened down to the Warren HyVis Oils, including during the MBC's second and final season under that name when they entered the MBC that season) before becoming the Warren Penns in their first season of the NBL's official existence,^[4][5] this would officially be the franchise's thirteenth season of existence as a team.^[6] While the Warren franchise kept their HyVis (Penn) Oil sponsorship entering the season when the MBC changed their league name to the NBL, they would end up changing their team name from the Warren HyVis Oilers (or Warren HyVis Oils) to just the Warren Penns entering this season. With that being said, this Warren franchise was still one of nine MBC teams from the previous season (one of ten overall MBC teams if you include the original Buffalo Bisons NBL team) to join the inaugural NBL season as it rebranded itself from the MBC to the NBL professional basketball league, with the Richmond King Clothiers / Cincinnati Comellos, Kankakee Gallagher Trojans, and the Oshkosh All-Stars (the last team by December 1937) being the only non-MBC teams joining the NBL for this season. They also were one of six teams to compete in the Eastern Division this season, with them representing thirteen inaugural NBL teams to compete in the first season under the NBL name, comprising six teams competing in the Eastern Division and seven teams competing in the Western Division.

In their first season of existence in the NBL, the Warren Penns would end up getting a poor 3–9 record for a fifth-place finish in the Eastern Division (with them being only better than the Columbus Athletic Supply team that had the worst record in the entire NBL this season in terms of fellow Eastern Division teams), with the Penns getting their record thanks to a less than decent 2–3 home record to go with a brutal 1–6 road record for their season.^[7] Even then, they wouldn't have qualified for the NBL Playoffs anyway due to them not playing a minimum of 13 games for this season in order to do so. However, despite ending their season with a poor record, the Warren Penns would be one of seven teams from the inaugural NBL season to enter the second NBL season of play under that new league name, though they wouldn't keep the Warren Penns name by the conclusion of that second season there.

Please note that due to the way records for professional basketball leagues like the NBL and the ABL were recorded at the time, some information on both teams and players may be harder to list out than usual here.

^[8][9][10]

An official database created by John Grasso detailing every NBL match possible (outside of two matches that the Kankakee Gallagher Trojans won over the Dayton Metropolitans in 1938) would be released in 2026 showcasing every team's official schedules throughout their time spent in the NBL. As such, these are the official results recorded for the Warren Penns in their first season (and only full season when using that specific team name) while in the NBL.^[11]

• December 11, 1937 @ Warren, PA: Pittsburgh Pirates 31, Warren Penns 23
• December 14, 1937 @ Warren, PA: Akron Firestone Non-Skids 43, Warren Penns 21
• December 15, 1937 @ Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh Pirates 36, Warren Penns 34
• December 18, 1937 @ Warren, PA: Buffalo Bisons 25, Warren Penns 33
• December 26, 1937 @ Buffalo, NY: Warren Penns 21, Buffalo Bisons 33 (Experimented with using 3 periods that were 15 minutes of length similar to the rivaling American Basketball League as opposed to the more typical 4 quarters that would be 10 minutes long on the NBL's end for their games.)
• January 3, 1938 @ Warren, PA: Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 43, Warren Penns 23
• January 5, 1938 @ Pittsburgh, PA: Warren Penns 28, Pittsburgh Pirates 49
• January 8, 1938 @ Warren, PA: Fort Wayne General Electrics 26, Warren Penns 30
• January 27, 1938 @ Fort Wayne, IN: Warren Penns 25, Fort Wayne General Electrics 63
• January 28, 1938 @ Akron, OH: Warren Penns 17, Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 42
• January 30, 1938: Dayton Metropolitans 30, Warren Penns 31 (OT @ Dayton, OH)
• February 8, 1938 @ Warren PA: Akron Firestone Non-Skids 42, Warren Penns 32