1936–37 Philadelphia Sphas season

American basketball team season Philadelphia Sphas / Hebrews Philadelphia Sphas American Basketball League (revived original) 1937 26 12 2nd (1st half), 1st (2nd half) Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Broadwood Hotel ABL Champions (Won 4–3 over Jersey Reds) yes Philadelphia Sphas The Philadelphia Sphas were an early, historical example of an American professional basketball team. The 1936–37 season was the fourth 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 tenth official season played by the original ABL properly, though this would officially be the 20th 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, 251–253 When trying to repeat as champions in the ABL properly following their victory from the previous season (as well as become ABL champions for the third time in four seasons), the Sphas would end up finishing the first half of the season (which weirdly happened during a doubleheader session they had during that day alongside the start to the second half of the season this time around) with a second place finish with an above-average 12–6 record, which was only surpassed by the Jersey Reds this time around with an even more impressive 14–4 first half record. With a chance at repeating as champions being on the line, the Sphas would lock in for the (mostly realigned) second half of the season and hold a first place finish for the second half of the season with an even better 14–6 record to close out that half of the season, being two games ahead of the Reds this time around. As a result of these finishes for this season, the ABL's championship series for this season would see the Jersey Reds and the Philadelphia Sphas compete for the league's championship this time around after the Sphas previously went up against the now-defunct Trenton Moose and the Brooklyn Visitations in their first two championship match-ups. Unlike the Sphas' first two championship runs in the ABL, they would lose their first game and face a serious 3–1 deficit following two straight matches where the Reds scored 34 points against them. However, after winning a close Game 5 and getting a blowout Game 6 victory, the Sphas would get another close victory in Game 7 to upset the Reds to repeat as champions with a 4–3 series win. With that being said, 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 the end of this season in 1937 due to the concerning rise of antisemitism within the U.S.A. before World War II was set to begin. 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.1936-37 Philadelphia SPHAs basketball Roster on StatsCrew.com https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLSPH/y-1936 StatsCrew.com 1936–37 Philadelphia Sphas / Hebrews #4070C0 #FFFFFF #FFFFFF #CC0000 Gil Fitch 1 G/F 6 0 175 Temple 1909–12–24 Lou Fox 1 G/F 6 2 190 Temple 1911–09–02 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 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: Lou "Jim" Fox would not play for the team during the 1937 ABL Championship series.PHILADELPHIA SPHAS https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/philadelphia-sphas-8/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia ABL Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Jersey Reds144.778Philadelphia SPHAs / Hebrews126.667Kingston Colonials116.647New York JewelsNote1 a a710.412Paterson Visitations / Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b412.250Atlantic City Sandpipers / Sand SnipersNote1 c c010.000 +Second HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Philadelphia SPHAs / Hebrews146.700Jersey Reds128.600Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b109.526New York (Original) CelticsNote1 d d1010.500Kingston Colonials911.450Brooklyn JewelsNote1 a a415.211 AMERICAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/league/american-basketball-league-14/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia ABL Schedule +First Half#DateOpponentScoreRecord1ANovember 4@ Kingston Colonials30–271–02ANovember 7Kingston Colonials40–272–03ANovember 8@ New York JewelsNote1 a a21–302–14ANovember 14New York JewelsNote1 a a27–213–15ANovember 20@ Paterson VisitationsBiesel David B. Can You Name that Team?: A Guide to Professional Baseball, Football, Soccer, Hockey, and Basketball Teams and Leagues 1 January 1993 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 978-1-4616-5710-1 134 https://books.google.com/books?id=fRz9AAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Paterson+Visitations%22&pg=PA134 enNote1 b b39–314–16ANovember 21Atlantic City Sandpipers / Sand SnipersNote1 c c45–385–17ANovember 28Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b37–276–18ANovember 29@ Jersey Reds36–386–29ADecember 5Jersey Reds42–307–210ADecember 6@ New York JewelsNote1 a aNote1 e e25–347–311ADecember 8@ Atlantic City Sandpipers / Sand SnipersNote1 c c34–258–312ADecember 12Kingston Colonials43–498–413ADecember 19New York JewelsNote1 a a52–389–414ADecember 25@ Kingston Colonials30–479–515ADecember 26Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b40–3410–516ADecember 27@ Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b37–2911–517AJanuary 9Jersey Reds49–4112–518AJanuary 10@ Jersey Reds33–5612–6 +Second Half#DateOpponentScoreRecord1BJanuary 10@ New York / Brooklyn JewelsNote1 a a37–361–02BJanuary 13@ Kingston Colonials38–461–13BJanuary 16Brooklyn JewelsNote1 a a50–322–14BJanuary 17@ New York (Original) CelticsNote1 d d28–352–25BJanuary 23Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b31–273–26BFebruary 6New York (Original) CelticsNote1 d d44–384–27BFebruary 7@ Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b31–255–28BFebruary 13Kingston Colonials48–346–29BFebruary 14@ Jersey Reds35–436–310BFebruary 17@ Kingston Colonials35–267–311BFebruary 20Brooklyn JewelsNote1 a a33–238–312BFebruary 22@ Brooklyn JewelsNote1 a a30–249–313BFebruary 27Jersey Reds42–3810–314BFebruary 28@ Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b38–5910–415BMarch 6Brooklyn VisitationsNote1 b b32–4010–516BMarch 7@ Jersey Reds33–3810–617BMarch 13Jersey Reds51–3411–618BMarch 14@ New York (Original) CelticsNote1 d d31–2212–619BMarch 15Kingston Colonials55–2913–620BMarch 20New York (Original) CelticsNote1 d d46–3314–6 +ABL Championship SeriesGameDateOpponentScoreRecordGame 1March 27Jersey Reds31–360–1Game 2March 28@ Jersey Reds39–361–1Game 3April 3Jersey Reds28–341–2Game 4April 4@ Jersey Reds30–341–3Game 5April 10Jersey Reds34–332–3Game 6April 14@ Jersey Reds45–233–3Game 7April 17Jersey Reds44–43 (OT)4–3 Notes Note1 a a Originally, the New York Jewels played as the New York Jewels for the first half of the season. However, by the start of the second half of the season, the team would rebrand themselves to the Brooklyn Jewels (likely because of the inclusion of the New York (Original) Celtics for the second half of the season following the departure of the Atlantic City Sandpipers / Sand Snipers near the end of the first half of the season) for the rest of that season only going forward.Team Standings by Year https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1936-1937&t=New%20York%20Jewels Pro Basketball Encyclopedia Note1 b b The Brooklyn Visitations originally moved from Brooklyn, New York to Paterson, New Jersey to become the Paterson Visitations early on before the first half of the season began. However, by November 23, 1936, the Visitations would decide to move back from Paterson, New Jersey to Brooklyn, New York to become the Brooklyn Visitations once again for the rest of the season going forward.Team Standings by Year https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1936-1937&t=Brooklyn Pro Basketball Encyclopedia Note1 c c After losing all ten of their regular season games in the first half of the season, the Atlantic City Sandpipers / Sand Snipers would drop out of the ABL entirely by December 21, 1936.Team Standings by Year https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1936-1937&t=Atlantic%20City Pro Basketball Encyclopedia Note1 d d For the second half of the season, the New York (Original) Celtics would return to the ABL by entering the league for that specific half of the season by January 3, 1937 and playing in the ABL for the rest of the season going forward.Team Standings by Year https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/team-standings-by-year/?y=1936-1937&t=New%20York%20Celtics Pro Basketball Encyclopedia Note1 e e Game was played somewhere in New Jersey instead of in New York.The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team Stark Douglas Temple University Press 2011 Philadelphia Appendix A, 252 References Philadelphia Sphas Philadelphia Sphas Philadelphia Category:American Basketball League (1925–1955) championship seasons Category:Philadelphia Sphas seasons