The 1946–47 Sheboygan Red Skins season was the Red Skins' ninth year in the United States' National Basketball League (NBL), which would also be the tenth year the NBL itself existed. However, if one were to include their few seasons they played as an independent team under a few various team names involving local businesses like the The Ballhorns (being sponsored by a local florist and funeral parlor), the Art Imigs (being sponsored by a local dry cleaning shop owned and operated by a man named Art Imig with team jerseys saying Art Imig's), and the Enzo Jels (being sponsored by a local gelatin manufacturer known as Enzo-Pac) at various points before becoming the Sheboygan Red Skins due to their promotion up into the NBL, this would officially be their fourteenth overall season of play as well. Entering this season, the NBL would have its highest success point being reached in the post-World War II era with twelve teams competing in the league, with five new teams being added into the league (three of which continue to play in the present-day in the NBA, albeit under different team names than what they first started by from this season of play), with only the Cleveland Allmen Transfers being lost entering the new season, with their spot being replaced by the Syracuse Nationals. As a result of this improvement of competition within the NBL, they would have twelve teams competing in the league, which was composed of six teams each in both the Eastern Division and the Western Division (which Sheboygan represented for the third straight season and its fifth overall season).

The Red Skins played their home games at the Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory. After having a below-average November to start out the season, Sheboygan would end up having a barely above-average finish for the 1946 year to get an 8–7 record, though they would later be 8–8 by New Year's Day in 1947, which made them feel unlikely to get into the newly expanded NBL Playoffs this season. That danger would continue by the end of January, where they did get an above-average 14–12 record, but were behind most of the Western Division teams this season. Luckily for them, Sheboygan would end their season with a 12–6 finish throughout February and March to get themselves a 26–18 record to tie themselves with the Chicago American Gears, who both surpassed the Anderson Duffey Packers for the last two playoff spots in the newly expanded Western Division, with Sheboygan being the #3 seed due to them (supposedly) grabbing the tiebreaker over Chicago this season. Because of that, they would go up against their cityside rivals in the Oshkosh All-Stars one more time, which saw Oshkosh be named the new Western Division champions, but Sheboygan would weirdly get the home court advantage over Oshkosh by comparison. Regardless of why that was the case, the Red Skins would end up being victims of another reverse sweep, with Sheboygan winning their first two games played against the All-Stars before Oshkosh ended up winning the final three games of the Western Division opening round to take that series 3–2 in a best-of-five series, though the Oshkosh All-Stars would later lose the Western Division Semifinals by being swept against the eventual NBL (playoff) champion Chicago American Gears, who had both young star center George Mikan and player-coach Bobby McDermott leading the team there. Following the season's conclusion, new rookie Fred Lewis would not only be named a part of the All-NBL First Team, but also was named the NBL's Rookie of the Year as well.

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 Sheboygan Red Skins 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 Red Skins' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up, with any information on who those selections might have been for Sheboygan being lost to time in the process.

Roster

Note: Jamie Dawson, Al Grenert, Pete Mount, Mike Novak, Bill Schroeder, Steve Sharkey, and Homer Thompson were not on the playoff roster, with Bob Sims also not joining them for the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament.

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 Sheboygan Red Skins during their ninth season in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 16 @ Oshkosh 49–55 0–1 2 November 21 Anderson 72–54 1–1 3 November 25 @ Toledo 45–60 1–2 4 November 26 @ Indianapolis 51–55 1–3 5 November 28 Chicago 48–40 2–3 6 December 5 Syracuse 74–47 3–3 7 December 8 Detroit 50–37 4–3 8 December 12 Fort Wayne 65–56 5–3 9 December 14 @ Rochester 51–53 5–4 10 December 16 @ Buffalo 50–38 6–4 11 December 19 Rochester 52–59 6–5 12 December 22 @ Fort Wayne 57–69 6–6 13 December 23 @ Youngstown 48–67 6–7 14 December 26 Toledo 60–57 7–7 15 December 29 @ Chicago 63–58 8–7 16 January 1 Indianapolis 45–46 8–8 17 January 2 @ Anderson 64–80 8–9 18 January 9 Oshkosh 54–52 9–9 19 January 12 Youngstown 56–26 10–9 20 January 14 @ Anderson 60–63 (OT) 10–10 21 January 19 Detroit 62–49 11–10 22 January 20 @ Toledo 56–47 12–10 23 January 23 Anderson 47–44 13–10 24 January 26 @ Tri-Cities 52–47 14–10 25 January 28 @ Indianapolis 43–63 14–11 26 January 29 @ Fort Wayne 49–56 14–12 27 February 2 Oshkosh 67–58 15–12 28 February 6 Chicago 60–59 16–12 29 February 8 @ Oshkosh 51–53 (OT) 16–13 30 February 9 Detroit 59–52 17–13 31 February 12 @ Tri-Cities 48–54 17–14 32 February 13 Toledo 56–50 18–14 33 February 16 @ Chicago 44–62 18–15 34 February 20 Rochester 52–49 19–15 35 February 23 Indianapolis 56–44 20–15 36 February 27 Fort Wayne 57–52 21–15 37 March 2 Syracuse 63–61 22–15 — March 3 @ Buffalo Cancelled 38 March 4 @ Rochester 55–65 22–16 39 March 6 Youngstown 59–49 23–16 40 March 7 N Detroit 57–42 24–16 41 March 9 @ Tri-Cities 60–50 25–16 42 March 11 @ Youngstown 45–44 26–16 43 March 12 @ Syracuse 40–63 26–17 44 March 13 @ Syracuse 48–55 26–18

NBL Playoffs NBL Western Division Opening Round (3/4W) Sheboygan Red Skins vs. (1W) Oshkosh All-Stars: Oshkosh wins series 3–2 Game 1: March 18, 1947 @ Oshkosh: Sheboygan 54, Oshkosh 48 Game 2: March 19, 1947 @ Oshkosh: Sheboygan 40, Oshkosh 35 Game 3: March 20, 1947 @ Sheboygan: Oshkosh 53, Sheboygan 44 Game 4: March 21, 1947 @ Sheboygan: Oshkosh 53, Sheboygan 45 Game 5: March 22, 1947 @ Sheboygan: Oshkosh 49, Sheboygan 47

Awards and honors First Team All-NBL – Fred Lewis NBL Rookie of the Year – Fred Lewis NBL All-Rookie Team – Fred Lewis, p. 169 All-Time NBL Team – Ed Dancker and Mike Novak

World Professional Basketball Tournament For the eighth time in nine years, the Sheboygan Red Skins would participate (for what later turned out to be for the last time) in the annual World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, which the 1947 event was held on April 7–11, 1947 and was mostly held by a mixture of NBL teams and independently ran teams alongside the rivaling American Basketball League's defending champions in the Baltimore Bullets (who had a 34–3 record this season) and the Portland Indians from the short-lived Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League. Because the Red Skins weren't given a first round bye this time around (those specific byes were given out to both the three-time defending WPBT champions in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Indianapolis Kautskys for some odd reason), Sheboygan would participate in the first round of the WPBT once again (for the first time since 1942), which saw the Red Skins going up against the runners-up for the PCPBL in the Portland Indians during the first round. Luckily, Sheboygan would make rather easy work of the Portland squad in question with a 27–5 fourth quarter romp after being down 43–35 by the third quarter,https://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/PCPBL/index.html resulting in the Red Skins defeating the Indians with a 62–48 to showcase every NBL team (outside of the Syracuse Nationals) qualifying for the quarterfinal round. Once they returned to the quarterfinal round once again, Sheboygan would have one last playoff match of sorts against their cityside rivals in the Oshkosh All-Stars (who had defeated the unrelated Herkimer Mohawk Redskins from the recently created (and soon to be short-lived) New York State Professional Basketball League in the first round), which would also be a rematch of the Western Division opening round for this season's NBL Playoffs this time around. Unfortunately for the Sheboygan Red Skins, they would not be able to succeed in enacting their revenge upon the All-Stars this time around, as Oshkosh would end up easily defeating the Red Skins with a 53–44 final score, which led to Sheboygan's final elimination from the WPBT. Oshkosh would later be eliminated in a blowout manner by the semifinal round to the eventual new WPBT champions in the Indianapolis Kautskys (who had themselves a Cinderella run there after previously never winning a single WPBT match before this season), with the All-Stars also being blown out in the third place consolation prize round against the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons.

Games Won first round (62–48) to the Portland Indians. Lost quarterfinal round (44–53) to the Oshkosh All-Stars.

References