The 1946–47 Toledo Jeeps season was technically the first professional basketball season of play for the Toledo Jeeps in the city of Toledo, Ohio under the National Basketball League, which officially was the tenth 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, according to historian and author Murry R. Nelson in his book The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949, the Toledo Jeeps are actually a continuation of the original Toledo White Huts/Toledo Jim White Chevrolets franchise that, similar to the Jeeps franchise, started out playing in the World Professional Basketball Tournament in a previous year before officially joining the NBL, with the only difference in ownership being the partnership in question as the team owners this time around were at Willys-Overland Jeep Plant, which was owned and operated by Virgil Gladieux of Willys at the time (now known as the Toledo Complex) and sold Jeep cars instead of being owned and operated by a car salesman named Jim White for Chevrolet cars., p. 159 As such, if we count the history of the White Huts/Jim White Chevrolets alongside the Jeeps franchise here, including the two previous independent seasons of play where they participated in the aforementioned WPBT events before being promoted to the NBL while using a different team name at the time, this season would officially be their fifth season of play when including the four games they played in the final season using the Jim White Chevrolets team name before folding the first time around before returning to operate once again instead of their second season as a franchise properly. The newly revived Toledo White Huts (who were sometimes referred to as the Toledo Whites during the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament) under the new primary ownership led by Virgil Gladieux of Willys-Overland Jeep Plant became one of five new NBL teams for the 1946–47 NBL season (alongside the removal of the Cleveland Allmen Transfers), with the Toledo franchise rebranding themselves to the Toledo Jeeps this time around and taking over the position that the NBL had initially intended to use to bring back the Pittsburgh Raiders into their league once again by paying the necessary money for their spot at hand in the league., pp. 158–159 their position in the NBL would ultimately be bought out by the team that later became the Toledo Jeeps instead. The Jeeps would be one of twelve teams competing in the NBL this season, which was composed of six teams in the Eastern Division (the Toledo Jeeps' division) and six teams in the Western Division.

The Jeeps would be the host team to start out the 1946–47 NBL season, with them defeating the Syracuse Nationals 57–43 on November 7, 1946. Initially, they started out the season with a very promising 6–1 record, with them only losing by one point against the Anderson Duffey Packers on November 14 and looking like they'd be one of the elite teams of the NBL throughout this season. However, once November turned into December for Toledo, the Jeeps would hit a serious losing streak that would keep them around an average pace and then at a losing pace, with their paces as a team varying throughout the rest of the season soon afterward. Despite the eventual downgrade in performance the further they went into the season, the Jeeps would still end up with a third place finish in the Eastern Division (which would be tied with the Syracuse Nationals despite the losing record), which would be good enough for them to face off against the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in the new opening round section of the NBL Playoffs. During this opening round, the Jeeps would end up stunning Fort Wayne in the games they played in their home venue held in Toledo, but their efforts to pull off an early first round upset would not be enough on their end, as Fort Wayne's home court advantage proved to be too much for Toledo to overcome, leaving them eliminated in a 3–2 series defeat. Despite the mixed results, the Jeeps would still see rookie Hal Tidrick make it to both the NBL's All-Rookie Team and All-NBL Second Team this season for the results he provided for the team.

In addition to the NBL, the Jeeps also participated in the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament, which was still seen as the biggest tournament for professional basketball at the time, despite it being in direct competition with both the 1947 NBL Championship (which saw the Chicago American Gears going up against the Rochester Royals) and the 1947 BAA Finals (which saw the upstart rivaling BAA showcasing the Philadelphia Warriors competing against the Chicago Stags) due to it being held in Chicago during those two competing championship events. They first showed up with a surprise performance against the all-black New York Renaissance, who had won the inaugural championship for the WPBT in 1939, upsetting them with a close 62–59 victory in their favor in the opening round. Then in the quarterfinal round, the Jeeps would take care of business against the only remaining independent team left in the competition by that point, the Midland Dow Chemicals (who had previously destroyed the Syracuse Nationals in the opening round) with a close 59–55 victory in their favor. After taking care of the independent teams, Toledo would look to see revenge upon the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in the semifinal round in a single, winner-takes-all match-up, which the Jeeps ended up getting with a relatively close 61–56 victory over the Zollner Pistons, which coincidentally also ended their three-year streak of being repeating WPBT champions in the process. While Toledo tried to complete the Cinderella run of the season on their end, they were unfortunately stopped by another NBL team who just so happened to have their own Cinderella run in the WPBT this time around, the Indianapolis Kautskys (a team who had never won in that tournament before the 1947 event occurred); despite the best efforts of player-coach Jule Rivlin (who had been named the WPBT MVP this year despite losing the championship match) and the rest of the Jeeps, they would ultimately be outmatched by the Kautskys as they put on a 62–47 beatdown to end their WPBT Cinderella run.

Draft picks Entering this season, the National Basketball League would utilize their own draft system that would be considered similar to what the NFL has done for the NFL draft. As such, the 1946 NBL draft would be considered the first ever professional basketball draft ever done, even before the 1947 BAA draft that was done by the soon to be rivaling Basketball Association of America. Because of that fact, the Toledo Jeeps would participate in the inaugural 1946 NBL draft, which had occurred sometime during the 1946–47 season's offseason period before that season officially began for the NBL. However, as of 2026, no records of what the Jeeps' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up, with any information on who those selections might have been for Toledo (especially since the Toledo Jeeps franchise would be considered an expansion franchise for the NBL this season) being lost to time in the process.

Roster 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.

Regular season Season standings

NBL Schedule Not to be confused with exhibition or other non-NBL scheduled games that did not count towards Toledo's official NBL record for this season. 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 Toledo Jeeps during their first season (or third overall season if the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets also gets counted as a part of the Toledo Jeeps' history) in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 7 Syracuse 57–43 1–0 2 November 12 @ Detroit 46–40 2–0 3 November 14 Anderson 50–51 2–1 4 November 16 @ Buffalo 50–39 3–1 5 November 25 Sheboygan 60–45 4–1 6 November 27 @ Youngstown 69–53 5–1 7 November 28 @ Syracuse 67–54 6–1 8 December 2 Fort Wayne 60–64 6–2 9 December 7 @ Rochester 44–60 6–3 10 December 8 Rochester 63–67 6–4 11 December 9 N Indianapolis 58–62 6–5 12 December 10 N Oshkosh 48–71 6–6 13 December 14 Indianapolis 64–56 7–6 14 December 17 Chicago 57–58 7–7 15 December 23 Buffalo 39–43 7–8 16 December 26 @ Sheboygan 57–60 7–9 17 December 27 @ Chicago 62–59 8–9 18 December 28 @ Oshkosh 59–61 8–10 19 January 5 @ Fort Wayne 68–67 9–10 20 January 6 @ Anderson 81–71 10–10 21 January 8 Youngstown 73–62 11–10 22 January 13 Detroit 69–51 12–10 23 January 20 Sheboygan 47–56 12–11 24 January 23 @ Youngstown 45–51 12–12 25 January 25 @ Rochester 88–86 (OT) 13–12 26 January 27 @ Tri-Cities 63–61 14–12 27 January 29 N Detroit 50–36 15–12 28 January 30 Detroit 73–51 16–12 29 February 2 @ Fort Wayne 41–51 16–13 30 February 3 @ Anderson 52–56 16–14 31 February 4 @ Indianapolis 42–44 16–15 32 February 5 Rochester 50–69 16–16 33 February 8 @ Syracuse 51–58 16–17 34 February 12 Chicago 57–55 17–17 35 February 13 @ Sheboygan 50–56 17–18 36 February 14 @ Chicago 50–72 17–19 37 February 15 @ Oshkosh 50–59 17–20 38 February 19 Youngstown 67–54 18–20 39 February 20 @ Buffalo/Tri-Cities* 52–64 18–21 40 February 22 Fort Wayne 60–54 19–21 41 February 27 Syracuse 69–48 20–21 42 March 5 Anderson 52–55 20–22 43 March 10 Indianapolis 45–58 20–23 44 March 13 Oshkosh 85–65 21–23 * – The February 20, 1947 road game the Toledo Jeeps had originally scheduled against the second version of the Buffalo Bisons in the NBL before they moved to Moline, Illinois and rebranded themselves as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks was one of two games that had originally been scheduled for the Buffalo Bisons that were still kept intact as a home match for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks on the same scheduled night of play (with the other match in question that kept the same home match in question being on February 17, 1947 against the Rochester Royals, which coincidentally also became a game the Tri-Cities Blackhawks won).

NBL Playoffs NBL Eastern Division Opening Round (3/4E) Toledo Jeeps vs. (2E) Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons: Fort Wayne wins series 3–2 Game 1: March 18, 1947 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 65, Toledo 38 Game 2: March 20, 1947 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 54, Toledo 31 Game 3: March 24, 1947 @ Toledo: Toledo 56, Fort Wayne 46 Game 4: March 25, 1947 @ Toledo: Toledo 58, Fort Wayne 53 Game 5: March 26, 1947 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 64, Toledo 46

Awards and honors Hal Tidrick – All-NBL Second Team, NBL All-Rookie Team, p. 169

World Professional Basketball Tournament