The 1950–51 Sheboygan Red Skins season was the Red Skins' was the thirteenth and final year of professional basketball ever played by this franchise (though it would not be their final overall season of existence as a team entirely). 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 eighteenth overall season of play as well, though still not quite their final overall season of existence. This would become the only season that the team would play in the short-lived National Professional Basketball League (NPBL), which was where they alongside the Anderson Packers, the original Denver Nuggets franchise (who ended up first rebranding into the Denver Frontier Refiners and then the Evansville Agogans later in this particular season), and the Waterloo Hawks would go and create their own rivaling professional basketball league to compete directly against the National Basketball Association (NBA) after those four teams were kicked out of the NBA (following its initial creation due to the merger between the older National Basketball League (which those four teams were a part of) and the younger Basketball Association of America (which still utilizes that league as its official starting point to this day)) before the 1950 NBA draft began due to a failed league assessment payment of $50,000 in mind. Those four teams originally envisioned there to be ten teams competing in addition to those four squads before them (with failed starting ideas alongside the return of the Oshkosh All-Stars (or Milwaukee All-Stars) including potential spots in Hammond, Indiana; Rockford, Illinois; the Colorado Springs; Terre Haute, Indiana, Dayton, Ohio, Omaha, Nebraska, and Evansville, Indiana, with the last spot notably getting a team later on in that season) before they ultimately cut down the number of teams to start the season down to eight, with all of them initially having 60 games against each other (each playing four times, with one opponent having two extra games against their nearest opponent) for good measure. Due to how sudden the NPBL's existence was (to the point where the NPBL was considered such a major surprise to the NBA before the start of the 1950–51 NBA season), the NBA and NPBL agreed to end player raids before they could begin again, similar to what had happened between the NBL and BAA originally (to the point of having a cash settlement at hand for past player raids at hand), with exhibition scheduled games being planned out between the two leagues (although those exhibition games never happened)., p. 425 Due to the way the NPBL was created, they allowed for former Sheboygan Red Skins head coach Doxie Moore to be the new league's commissioner (similar to how he was once the commissioner of the NBL for that league's final season of existence), with team president Magnus Brinkman also being the NPBL's president as well.
The Red Skins played their home games at the Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory, much like they had done in every season since their only championship season in the NBL. For Sheboygan's first ever game in the NPBL (which was the second NPBL game ever played), Bob Brannum would showcase himself as a star player for the team and the new league early on there, as he scored a game-high 37 points in an 86–80 win over the Louisville Alumnites., pp. 425–426 Early on in their season, Sheboygan looked like they would join the Anderson Packers, Waterloo Hawks, and the newly created Louisville Alumnites as one of the teams that would be considered average throughout the season, as the Red Skins ended the month of November with an average 5–5 record., p. 426 However, despite the NPBL losing two of their own teams this season in the Grand Rapids Hornets and St. Paul Lights (the latter team having a winning record this season), Sheboygan would end the 1950 year with a 12–9 record by the end of December.thanks to a four-game winning streak that ended up with Bob Brannum scoring a career-high 45 points in a win against the Kansas City Hi-Spots on December 28, 1950. By the middle of January, Sheboygan would win five of their last six games (losing only on New Year's Day in 1951 against the Anderson Packers), which led to the Red Skins being a leading team in the league with a 19–11 record by the end of the month, even after seeing two more NPBL teams folding operations in the Kansas City Hi-Spots and the Denver Frontier Refiners (though the latter team would end up being replaced by the Evansville Agogans for the rest of the season afterward). By February, a fifth team would fold from the NPBL in the Louisville Alumnites despite Sheboygan and the Waterloo Hawks trying their best to promote their new league throughout the US, though the Red Skins would still see themselves leading the rest of their league with a 24–13 record. By the time the regular season was officially over with, following a home-and-home series against the Waterloo Hawks that Sheboygan played that saw them win their season series 8–7, the Red Skins ended the season with a 29–16 record, showcasing themselves as the best (surviving) team in the league and feeling like they were the champions of the league this season., p. 427 (Interestingly, the Waterloo Courier listed the Sheboygan Red Skins having a final record of 21–16 for a second-place finish behind the Waterloo Hawks, while the local Sheboygan Press listed them having a final record of 17–10 for a proper, overall first-place finish instead. Appendix B) While the Waterloo Hawks tried to get a championship series down this season and later tried to collaborate with the Red Skins franchise in order to try and create a new rivaling professional basketball league for the following season in the Western Professional League, neither scenario would ultimately happen, with Sheboygan continuing to exist as a franchise for one last season as an independent team before folding operations for good by the end of that independent season instead (with Sheboygan's final season of independent play (presumably) resulting in them having a 22–34 record (with their final game that they also lost being against the College All-Stars) before folding operations for good).
Roster
Regular season Overall (Final) standings without divisions These standings would be applied based on the NPBL eventually getting rid of divisions altogether once they would go down to four (and then potentially three?) teams left by the end of their season. Teams W L PCT GB Sheboygan Redskins 29 16 .644 – Waterloo Hawks 32 24 .571 5.5 Anderson Packers 22 22 .500 6.5 St. Paul Lights † 12 8 .600 2 Louisville Alumnites † 18 17 .514 6 Denver Frontier Refiners / Evansville Agogans†‡ 18 22 .450 8.5 Grand Rapids Hornets † 6 13 .316 10 Kansas City Hi-Spots † 4 19 .174 11.5
Eastern Division These standings would be applied based on the NPBL keeping their original Eastern and Western Division formatting for the entire season. Eastern Division W L PCT GB Sheboygan Redskins 29 16 .644 – Anderson Packers 22 22 .500 6.5 Louisville Alumnites † 18 17 .514 6 Grand Rapids Hornets † 6 13 .316 10 Evansville Agogans †‡ 0 6 .000 9.5
Western Division These standings would be applied based on the NPBL keeping their original Eastern and Western Division formatting for the entire season. Western Division W L PCT GB Waterloo Hawks 32 24 .571 – Denver Frontier Refiners †‡ 18 16 .529 6 St. Paul Lights † 12 8 .600 2 Kansas City Hi-Spots † 4 19 .174 11.5 Notes † Disbanded during the season. ‡ Denver moved to Evansville during the season.
NPBL Schedule Not to be confused with exhibition or other non-NPBL scheduled games that did not count towards Sheboygan's official NPBL record for this season. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 2 Louisville 86–80 1–0 2 November 8 @ Louisville 63–70 1–1 3 November 12 St. Paul 75–65 2–1 4 November 16 @ Denver 65–87 2–2 5 November 18 N Denver 63–67 2–3 6 November 19 @ Kansas City 84–69 3–3 7 November 21 @ St. Paul 82–88 3–4 8 November 23 Waterloo 86–96 3–5 9 November 25 @ Anderson 86–107 3–6 — November 26 Louisville Cancelled (Snowed Out) 10 November 28 N Grand Rapids 106–78 4–6 11 November 30 Kansas City 96–76 5–6 12 December 3 Louisville 81–93 5–7 13 December 6 @ Waterloo 80–89 5–8 14 December 7 Grand Rapids 117–92 6–8 15 December 10 Anderson 91–80 7–8 16 December 14 Louisville 84–82 8–8 17 December 17 @ Louisville 88–89 8–9 18 December 20 @ Waterloo 84–90 8–10 19 December 21 Waterloo 122–79 9–10 20 December 25 Denver 91–66 10–10 21 December 27 @ Waterloo 77–74 11–10 22 December 28 Kansas City 132–86 12–10 23 January 1 Anderson 85–86 (OT) 12–11 24 January 4 Kansas City 106–60 13–11 25 January 7 @ Kansas City 95–81 14–11 26 January 11 Waterloo 102–88 15–11 27 January 14 Anderson 86–71 16–11 28 January 18 Denver 121–74 17–11 29 January 21 Waterloo 87–73 18–11 30 January 25 @ Anderson 91–104 18–12 31 January 27 Denver 157–72 19–12 — January 28 @ Kansas City Cancelled (Kansas City Folded) 32 February 2 Anderson 110–66 20–12 33 February 3 @ Waterloo 82–101 20–13 34 February 8 Louisville 108–97 21–13 35 February 11 Waterloo 117–102 22–13 36 February 22 Anderson 97–73 23–13 37 February 25 Evansville 102–77 24–13 38 February 28 Waterloo 76–84 24–14 39 March 1 Waterloo 101–89 25–14 40 March 3 @ Waterloo 103–107 25–15 41 March 4 Anderson 99–92 26–15 42 March 5 @ Anderson 71–98 26–16 43 March 6 @ Evansville 114–80 27–16 44 March 8 Waterloo 93–76 28–16 45 March 11 @ Waterloo 102–101 29–16 — March 15 Anderson Cancelled Originally, Sheboygan was planned by the Waterloo Hawks for them to be the road team for some scheduled playoff games against Waterloo on March 24 & 25, 1951, but those games were cancelled due to the Red Skins deciding that those playoff games for the NPBL championship had no clout left to force anything by this point in time.
Exhibition Schedule These were games that were scheduled for Sheboygan to play that didn't count toward their official record this season. Most of their planned exhibition games this season were with the Waterloo Hawks in an attempt to help get the NPBL a new lifeline in terms of survival with finding new places to help expand their league for the season, with ideas in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa coming to mind, with those same games being the only exhibition games that they would actually play this season.
January 22, 1951 @ Evansville, IN: The exhibition match between the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Evansville Agogans (at least, they were presumed to be the Evansville Agogans) was cancelled that day. February 14, 1951 @ Aberdeen, SD: Sheboygan Red Skins 95, Waterloo Hawks 85 February 15, 1951 @ Fargo, ND: Waterloo Hawks 99, Sheboygan Red Skins 97 February 18, 1951 @ Mitchell, SD: Waterloo Hawks 114, Sheboygan Red Skins 88 February 19, 1951 @ Sioux City, IA: Waterloo Hawks 96, Sheboygan Red Skins 91 February 20, 1951 @ Muscatine, IA: Sheboygan Red Skins 105, Waterloo Hawks 95
Awards and honors All-NPBL First Team – Bob Brannum All-NPBL Second Team – Jack Burmaster & Wally Osterkorn
References