1935–36 Philadelphia Sphas season

American basketball team season Philadelphia Sphas / Hebrews Philadelphia Sphas American Basketball League (revived original) 1936 23 15 1st (1st half), 5th (2nd half) Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Broadwood Hotel ABL Champions (Won 4–3 over Brooklyn Visitations) yes The Philadelphia Sphas were an early, historical example of an American professional basketball team. The 1935–36 season was the third season played in the now-revived American Basketball League by the Sphas, although they did play in the original rendition of the ABL from 1926 to 1928 as the Philadelphia Warriors, which had no relation to the later BAA franchise of the same name that now exists in the present day as the Golden State Warriors in the NBA. As such, when including the past history of the original ABL with the revived version of the ABL in 1933 following historical problems that related to the Great Depression near the end of 1931, this would technically be the ninth official season played by the original ABL properly, though this would officially be the 19th season of play for the Sphas franchise when including previous seasons where they played under names like the "Philadelphia YMHA"; the "Philadelphia Passon, Gottlieb, Black", the "Philadelphia Warriors"; and most recently, the "Philadelphia Hebrews". Background The Sphas played in leagues around Philadelphia since 1917, but game-by-game records before the Sphas rejoined the ABL in 1933 are not (currently) available (at least, not to the general public if official game records did exist for the Sphas) and are therefore likely lost to time itself.The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team Stark Douglas Temple University Press 2011 978-1-59213-633-9 Philadelphia Appendix A, 250–251 After failing to repeat as champions of the revived ABL, the Sphas would enter this season with an attempt to return to championship form once again for this season to make up for their lost presence the previous season following their disappointing tiebreaker loss to the Brooklyn Visitations (led in part by future Hall of Famer Bobby McDermott alongside veteran guards Joseph Brennan and Rody Cooney). In their attempt to return to championship form, the Sphas would already be halfway there with an impressively above-average 14–5 record for first place in the first half of the season, surpassing the second-best team's record of 11–8 by the New York Jewels by three games this time around. While the Sphas had a chance to secure the ABL's championship once again by default had they also secured first place for the second half of the season as well, they would surprisingly perform a lot worse than expected by that half, ending that specific part of the season with a below-average 9–11 record to finish in fifth place ahead of only the rebranded Passaic Red Devils this time around. While their second half of the season would be a lot more disappointing than their first half of the season was, they would have a chance at redemption by having revenge against last season's ABL champions, the Brooklyn Visitations (the winners of the second half of this season with an above-average 12–8 record), for a chance at avenging the second half tiebreaker series they lost the previous season. While the championship series against Brooklyn would go down to the wire due to each team splitting their first six games against each other (with Philadelphia winning the odd-numbered games and Brooklyn winning the even-numbered games), it would be the Sphas that would win the decisive Game 7 with an easy 47–34 beatdown over the Visitations to avenge their previous season's defeat to the Visitations in the second half of that season and be crowned ABL champions once again with a 4–3 series victory. The Sphas were also referred to as the Philadelphia Hebrews in league records during this period of time, with the Hebrews name continuing to be utilized until 1937. 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.1935-36 Philadelphia SPHAs basketball Roster on StatsCrew.com https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLSPH/y-1935 StatsCrew.comWilk Mike Peach Basket Society: 1935-36 Philadelphia SPHA's (ABL) https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/01/1935-36-philadelphia-sphas-abl.html Peach Basket Society 31 January 2018 1935–36 Philadelphia Sphas / Hebrews #4070C0 #FFFFFF #FFFFFF #CC0000 Gil Fitch 1 G/F 6 0 175 Temple 1909–12–24 Moe Goldman 1 F/C 6 3 175 CCNY 1913–05–30 Shikey Gotthoffer 1 G/F 6 0 195 NYU 1911–01–01 Cy Kaselman 1 G 5 10 165 Temple 1909–05–01 Inky Lautman 1 F/C 6 2 205 Central HS (PA) 1914–05–22 Harry Litwack G 5 7 170 Temple 1907–09–20 Red Rosan F/C 6 2 195 Temple 1911–05–22 Red Wolfe basketball G 5 11 165 St. John's 1905–07–18 Eddie Gottlieb Note: Harry Litwack would not play for the team during the 1936 ABL Championship series.PHILADELPHIA SPHAS https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/philadelphia-sphas-7/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia ABL Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Philadelphia SPHAs / Hebrews145.737New York Jewels118.579Brooklyn Visitations1010.500Jersey Reds99.500Kingston Colonials1011.476Paterson Panthers / Trenton BengalsNote1 a a411.267 +Second HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Brooklyn Visitations128.600Jersey Reds119.550New York Jewels1010.500Kingston Colonials910.474Philadelphia SPHAs / Hebrews911.450Passaic Red DevilsNote1 a a811.421 ABL Schedule +First Half#DateOpponentScoreRecord1ANovember 2Kingston Colonials52–361–02ANovember 3@ Brooklyn Visitations30–252–03ANovember 9Passaic PanthersNote1 a a43–263–04ANovember 16New York Jewels29–313–15ANovember 17@ New York Jewels24–164–16ANovember 20@ Kingston Colonials34–265–17ANovember 23Brooklyn Visitations29–256–18ANovember 30Jersey Reds41–317–19ADecember 1@ Brooklyn Visitations21–257–210ADecember 7Kingston Colonials47–378–211ADecember 8@ Jersey Reds23–338–312ADecember 14New York Jewels28–408–413ADecember 15@ New York Jewels29–259–414ADecember 21Trenton BengalsNote1 a a41–3010–415ADecember 25@ Trenton BengalsNote1 a a29–2511–416ADecember 28Brooklyn Visitations35–3312–417AJanuary 4Jersey Reds37–2413–418AJanuary 5@ Jersey Reds19–3113–519AJanuary 8@ Kingston Colonials37–2614–5 +Second Half#DateOpponentScoreRecord1BJanuary 11Brooklyn Visitations43–401–02BJanuary 12@ Brooklyn Visitations33–361–13BJanuary 18Passaic Red DevilsNote1 a a30–252–14BJanuary 22@ Passaic Red DevilsNote1 a a18–302–25BJanuary 26(Game 1)@ Jersey Reds41–253–26BJanuary 26(Game 2)@ New York Jewels25–283–37BJanuary 29@ Kingston Colonials34–314–38BFebruary 1New York Jewels27–354–49BFebruary 8Kingston Colonials32–364–510BFebruary 15Jersey Reds31–334–611BFebruary 16@ Brooklyn Visitations21–334–712BFebruary 22Brooklyn Visitations29–444–813BFebruary 23@ New York Jewels27–205–814BFebruary 26@ Passaic Red DevilsNote1 a a41–455–915BFebruary 29Passaic Red DevilsNote1 a a42–276–916BMarch 7Kingston Colonials40–187–917BMarch 11@ Kingston Colonials19–257–1018BMarch 14New York Jewels28–337–1119BMarch 15@ Jersey Reds25–248–1120BMarch 21Jersey Reds28–219–11 +ABL Championship SeriesGameDateOpponentScoreRecordGame 1March 28Brooklyn Visitations30–281–0Game 2March 29@ Brooklyn Visitations24–271–1Game 3April 4Brooklyn Visitations30–272–1Game 4April 5@ Brooklyn Visitations24–312–2Game 5April 11Brooklyn Visitations26–233–2Game 6April 12@ Brooklyn Visitations30–313–3Game 7April 13Brooklyn Visitations47–344–3 Notes Note1 a a During the first half of the season, after losing all five of the games they played this season, the Paterson Panthers would move from Paterson, New Jersey to nearby Trenton, New Jersey on December 12, 1935 to become the newer version of the Trenton Bengals for the rest of the season. Trenton would finish the first half of the season with a 4–6 record for an overall record of 4–11 between the two teams before the Trenton squad moved out to nearby Passaic, New Jersey on December 30, 1935 to play as the Passaic Red Devils by the time the second half of the season began.Team Standings by Year https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1935-1936&t=Passaic Pro Basketball Encyclopedia References Philadelphia Sphas Philadelphia Sphas Philadelphia Category:American Basketball League (1925–1955) championship seasons Category:Philadelphia Sphas seasons