The 1945–46 Oshkosh All-Stars season was the All-Stars' ninth year in the United States' National Basketball League (NBL), which was also the ninth year the league existed. However, if one were to include the independent seasons they played starting all the way back in 1929 before beginning their NBL tenure in 1937, this would officially be their sixteenth season of play. For this season, eight teams would play in the 1945–46 NBL season due to the Rochester Royals and the Youngstown Bears being new teams added and the Indianapolis Kautskys returning to the NBL following the end of World War II while the Pittsburgh Raiders left the NBL altogether for good, meaning this would be the strongest NBL season in terms of available teams since the 1939–40 NBL season. As such, Oshkosh would compete in the Western Division once again, with four teams representing the Eastern Division and four teams (including Oshkosh) representing the Western Division. The All-Stars played their home games at the South Park School Gymnasium in the South Park Middle School within the Oshkosh Area School District.

Unlike their last few seasons of play within the NBL, Oshkosh would manage to find some consistent success once again within the NBL during this season (thanks, at least in part, to some of their key players like Bob Carpenter and Gene Englund returning to the team once again after serving the U.S. military in previous seasons). While they would not be able to repeat the same highs that they had throughout their early history in the NBL (to the point where they had risked getting another below-average season to their name once again a few times), a late-season push in late February and early March would help the All-Stars get back into the NBL Playoffs once again by finishing the season with a 1915 record for a second-place finish in the Western Division, which would be two games better than the Chicago American Gears team that had overtaken them the previous season (and was a team that would have utilized young star center George Mikan as a secret weapon for the NBL Playoffs alongside Price Brookfield had they somehow managed to overtake Oshkosh's position this season once again instead of falter into third place for this season). As such, the All-Stars' return to the NBL Playoffs would once again have them competing against their in-state rivals in the Sheboygan Red Skins in the Western Division Playoff, with them once again not having home court advantage to help themselves out (though this playoff series would have them compete in a best-of-five series this time around instead of the previously typical best-of-three types of match-ups that they usually got). Unfortunately for Oshkosh, the home court advantage that Sheboygan got would prove to be a bit of a difference maker once again for them, as while Oshkosh would take a game from the Red Skins in Game 2 through an easy victory following a close Game 1 defeat, Sheboygan would defeat the All-Stars at their home venue in a close match for Game 3 before they later blew them out of the water in the decisive fifth game of the series, though the Red Skins would fail to win another championship to their name due to the new Rochester Royals franchise sweeping what was considered to have been the more experienced Sheboygan franchise in the NBL Championship series. Following Oshkosh's elimination from the NBL Playoffs, they would see Bob Carpenter be named a member of the All-NBL First Team (as well as become the leading scorer for the entire NBL this season), while Leroy Edwards was named a member of the All-NBL Second Team for what later became the final time he would be named a member of an All-NBL Team in that league's existence.

In addition to the NBL Playoffs, the Oshkosh All-Stars also participated in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament as well. The first half of their tournament run would involve them competing against independently ran teams in the Detroit Mansfields and the all-black New York Renaissance, while the second half of their tournament run had them against other NBL teams in the Chicago American Gears and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. The semifinal round would be notable for Oshkosh giving young star center George Mikan (who would later be named the WPBT MVP that year) his first defeat in a professional setting while with the Chicago American Gears. However, the championship round would be more controversial for them due to this WPBT being the only one in the event's history where the championship round (and third place consolation prize round) would be a best-of-three series instead of a single winner-takes-all game, which would have led to Oshkosh being named the official champions of that tournament that year had it been like any other year for the WPBT. Instead, the extra games would give Fort Wayne the extra support necessary to help them upset Oshkosh in a 2–1 series defeat to give the Zollner Pistons their third straight tournament championship after Fort Wayne failed to win the NBL Championship this season. Had Oshkosh's first game been the only championship game that year, it would have made the Oshkosh All-Stars tie the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons as the only other team to have two WPBT championships in the tournament's history instead of being eliminated in the championship round yet again during their history in the event's existence.

Roster

Note: Dick Lange, Pete Pasko, Don Smith, and Ray Terzynski were not a part of the playoff roster for this season, with both Ed Erban and Bob Sullivan not participating in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament alongside them.

Regular season Season standings

NBL Schedule Not to be confused with exhibition or other non-NBL scheduled games that did not count towards Fort Wayne'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 Oshkosh All-Stars during their ninth season in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 24 Indianapolis 65–47 1–0 2 November 25 @ Chicago 38–47 1–1 3 November 29 @ Sheboygan 33–30 2–1 4 December 2 Sheboygan 42–36 3–1 5 December 5 N Youngstown 60–43 4–1 6 December 8 Chicago 51–55 4–2 7 December 9 Indianapolis 52–37 5–2 8 December 15 Fort Wayne 48–58 5–3 9 December 22 Indianapolis 44–40 6–3 10 December 23 @ Fort Wayne 44–53 6–4 11 December 26 @ Youngstown 41–53 6–5 12 December 29 Youngstown 59–50 7–5 13 January 1 @ Sheboygan 42–54 7–6 14 January 5 Sheboygan 53–46 8–6 15 January 12 Fort Wayne 45–46 8–7 16 January 19 Chicago 55–42 9–7 17 January 20 @ Chicago 48–49 9–8 18 January 22 @ Rochester 55–64 9–9 19 January 26 Rochester 52–45 10–9 20 January 27 @ Indianapolis 33–43 10–10 21 January 31 @ Sheboygan 48–52 (OT) 10–11 22 February 2 Chicago 69–51 11–11 23 February 4 @ Cleveland 59–43 12–11 24 February 5 @ Fort Wayne 59–68 12–12 25 February 7 @ Youngstown 45–49 12–13 26 February 9 Cleveland 77–45 13–13 27 February 15 @ Chicago 67–66 (OT) 14–13 28 February 16 Sheboygan 52–56 14–14 29 February 22 Indianapolis 61–40 15–14 30 February 23 Indianapolis 66–45 16–14 31 February 26 @ Rochester 58–50 17–14 32 March 2 Rochester 62–64 17–15 33 March 6 @ Rochester 67–59 18–15 34 March 9 Cleveland 60–46 19–15

NBL Playoffs NBL Western Division Playoff (2W) Oshkosh All-Stars vs. (1W) Sheboygan Red Skins: Sheboygan wins series 3–2 Game 1: March 12, 1946 @ Sheboygan: Sheboygan 46, Oshkosh 45 Game 2: March 13, 1946 @ Sheboygan: Oshkosh 53, Sheboygan 41 Game 3: March 14, 1946 @ Oshkosh: Sheboygan 58, Oshkosh 52 Game 4: March 16, 1946 @ Oshkosh: Oshkosh 68, Sheboygan 42 Game 5: March 17, 1946 @ Sheboygan: Sheboygan 65, Oshkosh 46

Awards and honors NBL leading scorer – Bob Carpenter First Team All-NBL – Bob Carpenter Second Team All-NBL – Leroy Edwards NBL All-Time Team – Bob Carpenter, Leroy Edwards, and Gene Englund

World Professional Basketball Tournament For the eighth straight year in a row, the Oshkosh All-Stars would participate in the annual World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, which the 1946 event was held on March 25 – April 8, 1946 and was mostly held by independently ran teams alongside six out of eight teams in the NBL this season (with the new NBL champion Rochester Royals and the Youngstown Bears being the only two teams missing out on the even this season) and the rivaling American Basketball League's newest champions in the Baltimore Bullets. In the first round, Oshkosh would see themselves go up against the Detroit Mansfields once again, though they would end up crushing the Detroit squad with a 60–32 blowout victory as opposed to having a close victory over them in the previous year's event. In the quarterfinal round, the All-Stars would go up against the all-black New York Renaissance (the team who won the inaugural WPBT championship against the Oshkosh All-Stars), with Oshkosh managing to defeat the Renaissance through a close 50–44 victory thanks to balanced scoring efforts by Bob Carpenter scoring 14 points, Clint Wager scoring 12 points, and both Leroy Edwards and Fred Rehm each scoring 10 points there., p. 155 By the semifinal round, Oshkosh would see themselves go up against the team that essentially held home court advantage throughout the tournament, the Chicago American Gears. Unlike this regular season's period, however, Oshkosh would have to try and manage to defeat the American Gears roster while holding two new secret weapons on their upgraded roster (both of whom were intended to have been signed up for the NBL Playoffs at the time had Chicago upset Oshkosh in the regular season's finale) in Price Brookfield and rookie star center George Mikan, with the latter proving to be especially challenging for most teams, never mind the Oshkosh All-Stars in particular, due to the size he had against the rest of their roster. Luckily for the All-Stars, they would manage to figure out how to expose a key weakness the American Gears had during the second half of the game after they were behind 36–33 in the first half of the game. In this specific case, Oshkosh would end up fouling out the likes of not just George Mikan (and Dick Triptow) during the third quarter (where the All-Stars would be up 50–44 in the third quarter after Mikan scored a game-high 25 points), but also fouled out the likes of Stan Szukala and George Ratkovicz in the fourth quarter for good measure to defeat Chicago once again with a 72–66 final score, thus giving Oshkosh their first return into the WPBT's championship round since the 1943 World Professional Basketball Tournament where they went up against the all-black Washington Lichtman Bears team that had been undefeated (or at least close to undefeated) up until that point in time., pp. 155–156