1942–43 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1942–43 NBL season was the eighth National Basketball League (NBL) season. The regular season began on November 25, 1942, and ran until mid-February, 1943. The playoffs began on February 20, 1943, and concluded on March 9, 1943, with the Sheboygan Red Skins winning the NBL championship by two games to one over the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons.

Due to the effects of World War II, the season began with only five teams, and one team (the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets) folded mid-season. The season was also highlighted by a continuation of racial integration in the NBL, with the Chicago Studebaker Flyers joining the Chevrolets in fielding black players.

Three teams from the previous NBL season did not return. The Akron Goodyear Wingfoots and the Indianapolis Katuskys (for the second time) both departed the league, not fielding teams due to World War II. The Katuskys would return for the 1945–46 season, but the Wingfoots would not return to the NBL, instead returning to play in the National Industrial Basketball League from its inception in 1947. The Chicago Bruins folded, but were replaced by another Chicago team, the Chicago Studebaker Flyers.^[2] However, by the time the 1943 World Professional Basketball Tournament began, the Chicago Studebaker Flyers would end up rebranding themselves into the South Bend Studebaker Champions for that event instead. In a somewhat similar manner, the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets would also rebrand themselves into the Toledo White Huts for games outside of the NBL's scheduled games due to a unique stipulation involved with the original ownership's franchise rights at hand.^[3]

The NBL considered shutting down operations due to World War II, but its continued operation was encouraged by the federal government as a means of boosting morale at home.^[9] The league also reached agreements with the rival American Basketball League and Connecticut State Basketball League to prohibit transfers of players between the leagues without due compensation to minimize the effects of many players joining the war effort.^[10]

Four games into the season, the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets withdrew from the league after losing most of their key players to the armed forces. They would later end up playing as the Toledo White Huts in an in-season tournament unrelated to the NBL outside of most of the NBL's teams participating in the event in February. Toledo's withdrawal from the season early on left the league with only four teams competing for the rest of the season, which left the league adjusting every team's schedules up so that each remaining team would play a total of 23 games instead of the originally planned 24 games they had intended to play for the season.^[11]

The season marked continued racial integration among NBL teams. Both Toledo and the Chicago Studebaker Flyers fielding integrated teams. Chicago became the first NBL team to field a starting five of all black players during a game against the Oshkosh All-Stars.^[12] Although reception to integration was positive overall, with Toledo player Bill Jones saying that he was not subjected to racial abuse,^[13] players were still discriminated against and neither integrated team would participate in future NBL seasons.^[14][15]

The season was seriously disrupted by World War II. The Office of Defense Transportation banned pleasure driving in 1943 in order to minimize civilian gasoline consumption, which made travel for the All-Stars and the Sheboygan Red Skins challenging.^[16][12]

During the early portion of February 1943, three of the four NBL's teams entered a midseason exhibition tournament, with the fourth team entering it being the Toledo White Huts, who surprisingly returned to compete for the event after previously removing themselves from NBL competition earlier in the season (as the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets); the four-team midseason exhibition tournament in Memphis, Tennessee rewarded a $1,000 grand prize for the winning team, $750 for the second place team, and $500 for the third place team.^[17] In the first round, Oshkosh beat Toledo 56–35 and Sheboygan beat Fort Wayne 52–44.^[18] In the final round, Oshkosh beat Sheboygan 40–36 to win the tournament and Fort Wayne beat Toledo 41–26 to claim third place.^[19]

All four of the remaining NBL teams played in a playoff to determine the season's champion. Both rounds were played in a best-of-three format. The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons were the 1-seed, and advanced to the finals after winning a 2–1 series over the 4-seed Chicago Studebaker Flyers. The Pistons were joined in the finals by the 2-seed Sheboygan Red Skins after they swept the 3-seed Oshkosh All-Stars in the other semifinal.^[20][17]

Game 1 of the finals was played on March 1, 1943, at the North Side High School Gym in Fort Wayne. Sheboygan came back to beat Fort Wayne 55–50 after trailing 27–21 at the half, with Ed Dancker scoring 16 points for the Red Skins and Bobby McDermott scoring 20 points for the Pistons.

The Pistons tied the series in Game 2 in Sheboygan, winning in overtime by a score of 50 to 45 after the game finished tied at 44 in regulation. McDermott, Curly Armstrong, and Gene Towery each scored 11 points for the Pistons, while the Red Skins were led by 13 points from Dancker.

The series returned to Fort Wayne for the third game, which was postponed to March 9, 1943, after a scheduling conflict.^[23] The game was a low-scoring affair (as noted by Sheboygan only making a single free-throw and Fort Wayne only getting a single basket (or two free-throws) in the entire third quarter), with Sheboygan scoring a near-buzzer beater to seal the title by a score of 30–29. Armstrong led the Pistons in scoring with 10 points, while Buddy Jeannette scored 7 points including the game winning shot to lead the Red Skins to the title.

Following the conclusion of the NBL playoffs, all four of the remaining NBL teams participated in the 1943 edition of the World Professional Basketball Tournament. The Chicago Studebaker Flyers, after moving to South Bend, Indiana and rebranding themselves the South Bend Studebaker Champions, were defeated in the first round at the hands of the Minneapolis Sparklers. The Sheboygan Red Skins entered the tournament at the quarterfinal stage, losing to the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. The Pistons lost to the Oshkosh All-Stars in the semifinals before claiming third place over the Dayton Dive Bombers. The All-Stars finished as tournament runners-up, losing 43–31 to the Washington Bears in the final.^[25]

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.

Sonny Boswell became the first and only African American named to an all-NBL team.^[30]

• NBL Most Valuable Player: Bobby McDermott, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons
• NBL Coach of the Year: Carl Roth, Sheboygan Red Skins
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Ken Buehler, Sheboygan Red Skins

^[31]

• National Basketball League (United States)

• "National Basketball League 1937-38 to 1948-49". Association for Professional Basketball Research. Retrieved 2026-01-08.
• "National Basketball League III". RetroSeasons. 2023-03-21. Retrieved 2026-01-08.