The 1935–36 MBC season was the first, inaugural 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 first official season for that league as well before properly utilizing the National Basketball League name in its future. Despite the MBC creating plenty of rule changes that would be implemented for the sport of basketball that would still be used in the present-day, their first season would still end in controversy due to them not only having the last-minute addition of the Chicago Duffy Florals taking a playoff spot over the Detroit Hed-Aids despite Chicago having a better win percentage due to Detroit having more wins and Chicago not meeting the minimum number of games played this season for required games played to qualify for their inaugural playoff system, but also having the Chicago Duffy Florals later winning the inaugural championship in a surprising upset over the Indianapolis Kautskys in a Round Robin Tournament format that lasted for only one whole day.
Creation of the League The MBC was the initiative of Indianapolis Kautskys team owner, head coach, and general manager Frank Kautsky and Akron Firestone Non-Skids head coach and general manager Paul Sheeks, who both decided they wanted to compete in a new professional basketball league of sorts after previously playing a season for the short-lived National Professional Basketball League (a short-lived precursor of sorts to the NBL that would exist not long afterward due to it featuring both the Kautskys (a team owned and operated by Frank Kautsky under Kautsky's Grocery store business) and Firestone Non-Skids (a team owned and operated by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company), alongside a third team from that league that later joined the MBC/NBL) and essentially wanting to revive it for something new both in regards to cheap advertising for businesses that they had and as a morale booster for the employees that were also considered basketball players during this time., pp. 11–12
A book focusing on the NBL's existence was 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 following 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., pp. 11–24
Teams Before beginning this season, the MBC would begin with an established eight teams joining the newly created league; joining the Akron Firestone Non-Skids and Indianapolis Kautskys (who both established the idea as a way to get back into a professional basketball league while doing so under better circumstances than their original run at the National Professional Basketball League), the likes of the Buffalo Bisons (a barnstorming franchise following their original runs in the original American Basketball League and the short-lived New York State Basketball League), the Dayton Metropolitans (who were sponsored by the Dayton Metropolitan Clothing Stores), the Detroit Hed-Aids (who were sponsored by a headache cure company called Hed-Aids), the Indianapolis U.S. Tires (who operated as inner city rivals to the Indianapolis Kautskys sponsored by U.S. Tire, Inc.), the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. (a young men's team created by the local Young Men's Hebrew Association, as it was known at the time), and the Canadian-based Windsor Cooper Buses (who were owned and operated by the Cooper Buses company) out in Windsor, Ontario, thus technically making this season in the MBC the first season to have a truly international basketball league, beating out the Basketball Association of America's Toronto Huskies from the 1946–47 BAA season for that honor by over a decade. Not only that, but the Rochester Seagrams (who later became the Rochester Royals in the NBL and still exist in the present day as the Sacramento Kings in the NBA) were also considered interested in joining the MBC as well, but they ultimately decided to not enter the new league due to travel concerns for the team at that point in time, with travel being done on the road through automobiles on non-paved roads instead of trains or even planes, with freeways created during this time being nothing more than just being lines done on a map. Former University of Pittsburgh head coach Doc Carlson was named the head commissioner of the Midwest Basketball Conference during its first two seasons of play. At some late point during this season, a ninth team from Chicago, Illinois called the Chicago Duffy Florals (a team owned and operated by a floral concern of sorts) became a late entry into the MBC's inaugural season, making them go from eight teams to nine teams during the season. However, because of the looser scheduling requirements where the MBC planned to have teams play only a minimum of twelve games to qualify for the upcoming MBC Playoffs at the time, there were no real concerns regarding the number of games played for the season at hand at that point in time.
+Eastern DivisionAkron Firestone Non-Skids Akron, OhioBuffalo Bisons Buffalo, New YorkDayton Metropolitans Dayton, OhioPittsburgh Y.M.H.A. Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaWestern DivisionChicago Duffy Florals Chicago, IllinoisDetroit Hed-Aids Detroit, MichiganIndianapolis Kautskys Indianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis U.S. Tires Indianapolis, IndianaWindsor Cooper Buses Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Basketball Rule Changes One rule that the MBC implemented that would help change the sport of basketball forever was the removal of the center court jump ball between teams after every made free-throw, which was done to help speed up professional basketball games since it had been noticed that teams that had a dominant center there would have the clear cut advantage in jump ball situations there. The removal of jump balls after free-throws that were made by the MBC would later cause the jump ball after made free-throws rule to be removed from other professional basketball leagues alongside college basketball a couple of years afterward, especially with Jim Tobin of the International Rules Committee noting that the rule worked out very successfully in international countries that tried that rule out., p. 17 The MBC would also allow for home teams to decide whether the jump ball after making baskets in general should be allowed for the game that was played or not, which Indianapolis Kautskys player and later UCLA head coach John Wooden described as "the most significant rule change ever made"., pp. 17–18 Other rules that helped out the MBC during this season of play included players being fouled out of a game if they had five fouls on them instead of what was considered the standard four at the time (though a player can return to action if the team in question was down to four remaining players at a certain point, with the likely condition of gaining what can be considered technical fouls instead of just extra fouls to their names); the start of the dribble or traveling would not be called under what can be considered a "too close" basis unless a real advantage were gained from those notions; and fouls on the offensive end would be called only if the player was shooting or if them trying to advance the ball was affected, unless the foul was deemed to be a flagrant foul., p. 18 Official MBC games scheduled during this season and the following season afterward were primarily held on Sundays due to blue laws in the United States being very significant in those areas at the time. Usually, those blue laws were enforced by either the people themselves or the churches that were involved with those blue laws to help prevent entertainment offerings like professional basketball games being played, with Saturday oftentimes being considered a work day and Sundays being the one day that citizens were allowed to play after attending church., p. 20 The first African-American player to play in a professional basketball league of sorts that would be considered fully integrated by white players otherwise would be a player named Hank Williams for the Buffalo Bisons.
Tournament Controversies Despite the season ending with the intentions of having the Detroit Hed-Aids competing alongside the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, Indianapolis Kautskys, and the Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. squad due to them playing the necessary minimum number of games required for the inaugural MBC Playoffs to begin, the inaugural MBC Playoffs ended up getting the Chicago Duffy Florals (who had played a league low total of five games for a 3–2 record there, which had a higher win percentage than the 9–7 record that the Detroit Hed-Aids had, though at the cost of being more games behind first place in the process) partially due to the better win percentage, partially due to the one win that the Duffy Florals had over the Hed-Aids being a significant one in terms of records held (especially since it was noted that Chicago won over Detroit that day in a decisive manner), and partially because of Chicago being seen as more financially viable for the new league to play their playoff games in than Detroit would be (though the owner of the Rochester Seagrams franchise at the time, Les Harrison, had reported that the reasons didn't necessarily relate to money so much as it did Detroit's potentially shaky nature as a franchise by this point in time). This controversial decision would later greatly affect the MBC Playoffs this season in the process., p. 22
Originally, the inaugural MBC Playoffs were planned to have the four playoff teams in question in Akron, Chicago (as opposed to Detroit), Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh meet in a "double-knockout" system with games staged at Indianapolis on March 8, at Chicago on March 15, at Pittsburgh on March 21, and at Akron for the Firestone Clubhouse nearby the Firestone Country Club a day later on March 22, 1936. However, when the four team owners found out that not every home venue would be available for those planned dates in question, the four owners agreed to a round robin tournament style of formatting on March 20–22, 1936 before later modifying that to be a one-day affair on March 22 at the White City Stadium in Chicago with Indianapolis going up against Pittsburgh in the morning, Chicago going up against Akron in the early afternoon game, the losers of those matches competing in a third place consolation prize match, and the winners competing for the inaugural MBC championship on the same day., pp. 22–23
Assessment Following the end of the season, the MBC itself considered its progress a success due to it showcasing great stability when compared to most other attempts at professional basketball leagues in the last twenty or so years before this point in time due to every team surviving the end of the regular season and playoffs, as well as there being some good crowds coming into numerous cities alongside the best players in the sport for each region involved actually playing for the teams involved with the respective regions in question. While the players weren't paid particularly highly (due in part to the effects of the Great Depression), they had considered the MBC's games to be a good source of secondary income (akin to a hobby) for that period of time, with their genuine love for the game of basketball being the key factor for them to keep going despite the lower than expected pay and poor travel conditions on a game-by-game basis for this season, to the point where some players were late to work for their main jobs at certain points in time.