1930–31 Chicago Bruins season

Chicago Bruins American Basketball League (original) 1931 18 19 Pop Morgenweck George Halas George Halas & Charles BidwillNelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 84 Chicago ColiseumCHICAGO BRUINS - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-27 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/chicago-bruins-6/ 5th (1st half); T–1st (2nd half) Did not qualify(Lost second half first place tiebreaker to Fort Wayne Hoosiers) 1940 The 1930–31 Chicago Bruins season was both the Bruins' sixth season of existence as a professional franchise (after previously playing at least one season independently as a teamLAURIE WALQUIST - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-02-23 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/player/Laurie-Walquist/) and the sixth and final season of existence for the original iteration of the American Basketball League, which was the first professional basketball league that had truly attempted to go fully national after previous professional basketball leagues were mostly regional at the time.Chicago Bruins/Studebaker Flyers nbahoopsonline.com 2026-07-05 https://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/NBL/Teams/ChicagoBruins/index.html For the fifth and final time in the six original seasons that the ABL first had within that original era of existence, the American Basketball League would utilize the split season formatting, though unlike their other seasons of existence, they would only see seven teams competing in the two half seasons being utilized this time around instead of eight or nine teams with one whole season being utilized throughout that entire period of time (which would be the case throughout the majority of the league's existence in the first place). Worse yet for the ABL, similar to the previous season, two teams in the first half of the season would end up dropping out of the season with average records on their ends, with the long-standing, champion favorite Cleveland Rosenblums dropping out of the ABL by December 8, 1930 with a 6–6 record and the (original) Paterson Crescents dropping out of the ABL on December 30, 1930 with a 9–9 record.Bradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, p. 411 For the first half of their final season in the ABL under new head coach Pop Morgenweck, the Bruins looked like they would have yet another disappointing season with a 7–14 record for a last place finish in terms of teams that actually completed their regular seasons this time around. However, once they entered the second half of the season, the Bruins had felt like a completely different team by comparison to how they performed back in the first half of the season, to the point where they ended up tying the Fort Wayne Hoosiers with a first place finish through an 11–5 record to tie as the best team in the league for that half of the season. Unfortunately, due to the ABL only allowing for one team to qualify for each spot in their playoff formatting (which would just be a championship round in this case), the ABL would utilize an impromptu best-of-three first place tiebreaker series between the Bruins and the Hoosiers to see which team would earn their chance at being named the final (original) league champions for the ABL against the Brooklyn Visitations. With the Bruins, they would unfortunately revert back to the typical poor play that had previously defined their standings within their history in the ABL in the tiebreaker series, as they would lose their two games in low-scoring affairs through 25–11 and 20–16 defeats resulting in their final elimination in the ABL. Following this season's conclusion, the ABL would temporarily remain dormant due to the long-term effects of the Great Depression until 1933 despite initially planning to have the 1931–32 hold 16 teams competing in an Eastern and Western Division for that season (though they'd return under a smaller, more regional scope by comparison to their initial national scope they had in mind when first creating the ABL back in 1925 due, in part, to the consequences of the Great Depression in question), while the Bruins decided to remain dormant and not return to the ABL upon its return in 1933, instead deciding to bide its sweet time to return as a professional franchise for the eventual rivaling National Basketball League by the 1939–40 NBL season. Roster Due to information on American Basketball League players being generally hard to find, there are bound to be more gaps and/or inaccuracies found in certain areas on the team's roster spots than usual.1930 Chicago Bruins basketball Statistics en StatsCrew 2026-07-05 2026-07-05 https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLCHB/y-19301930-31 Chicago Bruins (ABL) en peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com Mike Wilk 2026-07-05 https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/01/1930-31-chicago-bruins-abl.html Player PositionTommy AllenF-CRed BarakF-CBennie BorgmannGArt BramhallG-FGil ElyG-FChuck GilliumCPat HerlihyCNat HickeyG-FRay KennedyGLefty KintzingG-FRalph MillerGCharlie "Feed" MurphyF-CBuck PiersonGRed SkurnickGWhitey WickhorstG-F American Basketball League Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Brooklyn Visitations147.667Fort Wayne Hoosiers139.591Rochester Centrals109.526Toledo Red Man Tobaccos813.381Chicago Bruins714.333Cleveland Rosenblums*66.500Paterson Crescents**99.500 * – The two-time defending ABL champions (and three-time overall ABL champions) in the Cleveland Rosenblums would surprisingly end up dropping out of the league on December 8, 1930 due to the long-term effects of the Great Depression kicking in for them.Team Standings by Year - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-01-26 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1930-1931&t=Cleveland ** – The (original) Paterson Crescents franchise would end up dropping out of the league near the end of the first half of the season on December 30, 1930.Team Standings by Year - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-01-26 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1930-1931&t=Paterson +Second Half TeamWinsLossesWinning %Fort Wayne Hoosiers115.688Chicago Bruins115.688Brooklyn Visitations88.500Rochester Centrals510.333Toledo Red Man Tobaccos411.274 ABL Playoffs ABL Second Half First Place Tiebreaker Series Both the Chicago Bruins and the Fort Wayne Hoosiers would compete in a best-of-three series, with the winning team in this series being able to automatically qualify for the ABL's championship series as the second half first place team competing against the first half first place team this season, the Brooklyn Visitations. Unfortunately for the Bruins, they would be swept by the Hoosiers and fail to qualify for the championship series, which would be the official playoffs for the ABL properly during their existence in that league.AMERICAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-27 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/league/american-basketball-league-10/ Game 1: February 28, 1931 @ Chicago: Fort Wayne 25, Chicago 11 Game 2: March 1, 1931 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 20, Chicago 16 Awards and honors By the end of the season, Bennie Borgmann would end up being the leading scorer of the entire league for the third straight season in a row in its sixth and final season of its original existence with 290 points scored for an average of 8.8 points per game. References Category:Chicago Bruins seasons Chicago Chicago Bruins Chicago Bruins Chicago Bruins Chicago Bruins