1943–44 Sheboygan Red Skins season

NBL professional basketball team season Sheboygan Red Skins NBL 1944 14 8 2 Carl Roth Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory WHBL Lost NBL Championship to Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, 3–0 The 1943–44 Sheboygan Red Skins season was the Red Skins' sixth year in the United States' National Basketball League (NBL), which would also be the seventh year the NBL itself existed. NBL Season Index basketball-reference.com Sports Reference LLC https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/seasons/ October 12, 2019 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 eleventh overall season of play as well. For the entire 1943–44 season, the NBL would have only four total teams playing there due to the dropout of the Chicago Studebaker Flyers and the addition of the Amateur Athletic Union promoted Cleveland Chase Brassmen, which would officially be the league's lowest number of teams for an entire season by that point in time (largely caused by World War II), which caused the league to not use divisions for the fourth (and final) season in a row. 1943–44 NBL Season Summary basketball-reference.com Sports Reference LLC https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/seasons/1944.html October 12, 2019 The Red Skins played their home games at the Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory for a second straight season in a row. Sheboygan Red Skins → 1943–1944 Pro Basketball Encyclopedia https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1943-1944&t=Sheboygan%20Red%20Skins October 12, 2019 After having a slow start in the month of December, the Red Skins would showcase why they were one of the better teams in the NBL once 1944 arrived, with them picking up a 9–6 record by the end of January before ending the regular season with a 14–8 record that warranted another second-place finish. Because the NBL once again showcased all four (remaining) competing teams surviving this season, the NBL Playoffs for the second straight season would showcase all of the NBL teams competing for a shot at the championship this season. For the third time in franchise history (1941 & 1943) and second straight year in a row, the Red Skins advanced themselves to the NBL Championship, with Sheboygan beating the Oshkosh All-Stars 2–1 this time around in their semifinal round rematch. They then went on to the 1944 NBL Championship match-up, which was a rematch against the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, with Fort Wayne winning the rematch in a best-of-five series, this time sweeping them 3–0. Ed Dancker (First Team), Rube Lautenschlager (Second), and Ken Suesens (Second) also earned All-NBL honors by the end of this season. Also following the season's conclusion, Carl Roth would step down from the head coaching position for the team, with Dutch Dehnert replacing his position for the upcoming season. Roster 1943–44 Sheboygan Red Skins #C41E3A #FFFFFF #FFFFFF #C41E3A Ed Dancker C 6 7 200 South Division HS (WI) 1914–03–14 Elmer Gainer F/C 6 6 195 DePaul 1918–11–22 Kleggie Hermsen C/F 6 9 225 Minnesota 1923–03–12 George Jablonski C 6 7 215 Milwaukee 1919–07–18 Tony Kelly basketball G 6 1 165 DePaul 1919–02–18 Rube Lautenschlager G/F 6 2 190 UW–Oshkosh 1915–09–07 Bill McDonald basketball G/F 6 3 190 Marquette 1916–11–05 Mike Novak C/F 6 9 219 Loyola Chicago 1915–04–23 Johnny Orr basketball, born 1918 G 6 0 185 St. Benedict's 1918–06–04 Bob Regh G/F 6 2 190 Hammond Tech HS (IN) 1912–10–11 Dick Schulz G/F 6 2 192 Wisconsin 1917–01–03 Ken Suesens G 6 1 175 Iowa 1916–10–23 Carl Roth https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/teams/SHR/1944.html Note: Kleggie Hermsen would only join the team during the NBL Playoffs, while Bob Regh and Dick Schulz were not on the playoff roster. Not only that, but George Jablonski and Johnny Orr would join Regh, Schulz, and even Hermsen in not joining the rest of the team for the 1944 World Professional Basketball Tournament as well.Peach Basket Society: 1943-44 Sheboygan Redskins (NBL) https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2016/01/1943-44-sheboygan-redskins-nbl.html Peach Basket Society 26 March 2026 8 January 20161943-44 Sheboygan Red Skins basketball Statistics on StatsCrew.com https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/stats/t-SHE/y-1943 StatsCrew.com 26 March 2026 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 sixth season in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 December 2 Fort Wayne 44–55 0–1 2 December 12 @ Cleveland 47–41 1–1 3 December 13 @ Fort Wayne 46–54 1–2 4 December 26 @ Oshkosh 38–34 2–2 5 December 30 Oshkosh 54–36 3–2 6 January 2 Cleveland 37–36 4–2 7 January 6 Oshkosh 42–28 5–2 8 January 8 @ Oshkosh 34–42 5–3 9 January 10 @ Fort Wayne 44–52 5–4 10 January 11 @ Cleveland 36–30 6–4 11 January 13 Fort Wayne 36–51 6–5 12 January 16 Cleveland 52–44 7–5 13 January 25 @ Fort Wayne 41–29 8–5 14 January 27 @ Oshkosh 38–29 9–5 15 January 29 @ Oshkosh 27–37 9–6 16 February 3 Fort Wayne 36–51 9–7 17 February 6 Cleveland 46–45 10–7 18 February 12 @ Oshkosh 50–49 11–7 19 February 17 Oshkosh 39–33 12–7 20 February 19 @ Cleveland 55–46 13–7 21 February 20 @ Fort Wayne 34–44 13–8 22 February 27 Fort Wayne 37–34 14–8 It's suggested that during this season, both a home and road game that Sheboygan had scheduled against the Cleveland Chase Brassmen would end up being cancelled by the two teams, which would help the Sheboygan Red Skins get 22 scheduled games played for this season, while the Cleveland Chase Brassmen played only 18 regular season games this season. NBL Playoffs NBL Semifinals (2) Sheboygan Red Skins vs. (3) Oshkosh All-Stars: Sheboygan wins series 2–1 Game 1: March 3, 1944 @ Sheboygan: Sheboygan 32, Oshkosh 31 Game 2: March 4, 1944 @ Oshkosh: Oshkosh 34, Sheboygan 32 Game 3: March 7, 1944 @ Sheboygan: Sheboygan 40, Oshkosh 27 NBL Championship (2) Sheboygan Red Skins vs. (1) Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons: Fort Wayne wins series 3–0 Game 1: March 9, 1944 @ Sheboygan: Fort Wayne 55, Sheboygan 53 Game 2: March 12, 1944 @ Sheboygan: Fort Wayne 36, Sheboygan 26 Game 3: March 14, 1944 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 48, Sheboygan 38 Awards and honors First Team All-NBL – Ed Dancker Second Team All-NBL – Rube Lautenschlager and Ken Suesens All-Time NBL Team – Ed Dancker and Mike Novakhttp://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/6925/nbl.html Steve Dimitry's NBL Web Site www.geocities.com October 25, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20050311095835/http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/6925/nbl.html March 11, 2005 dead World Professional Basketball Tournament For the sixth year in a row, the Sheboygan Red Skins would participate in the annual World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, which the 1944 event was held on March 20–24, 1944 and was mostly held by independently ran teams alongside the four NBL teams from this season due in part to World War II. The Red Skins were given a first round bye alongside this season's NBL champions in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons due to them being the two best teams of the NBL this season. In Sheboygan's first (and only) match for the WPBT this year, the Red Skins would go up against the former American Basketball League team in the Brooklyn Eagles, who previously were the Brooklyn Indians in that rivaling league during that season before leaving that league during this season and then rebranding themselves from the Indians to the Eagles for the rest of this season. Unfortunately for Sheboygan, they would lose their first and only match they played in the tournament despite looking like they would have a solid advantage at the time over the Brooklyn squad that previously defeated the Camp Campbell Tankmen team in the first round, losing 49–43 to be eliminated in the quarterfinal round once again. The Brooklyn Eagles would end up going as far as the WPBT championship round this time around, with them blowing out the world famous (all-black) Harlem Globetrotters in the semifinal round with their small-ball style of play (primarily with the (at the time) record-high 32 points scored by Bob Tough) before the Eagles were blown out by the new NBL champions in the won Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons to have the Fort Wayne squad become both the new NBL and WPBT champions this season. Game Played Sheboygan had a bye in the first round. Lost quarterfinal round (43–49) to the Brooklyn Eagles. References Category:Sheboygan Red Skins seasons Sheboygan Sheboygan Red Skins Sheboygan Red Skins