1925–26 Brooklyn Arcadians season

Brooklyn Arcadians American Basketball League (original) 1926 19 11 Garry Schmeelk (player-coach) Garry Schmeelk Harry HeilmannNelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 127 Arcadia HallBROOKLYN ARCADIANS - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/brooklyn-arcadians/ 1st (1st half); 4th (2nd half) Lost ABL championship series 0–3 to Cleveland Rosenblums 1 The 1925–26 Brooklyn Arcadians season was the first and only full professional basketball season of play for the Brooklyn Arcadians team (who sometimes were also referred to as the Brooklyn Rockets) in the city of Brooklyn, New York under the original version 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. The American Basketball League's inaugural season would have nine teams competing in that season (while a tenth team in East Liverpool, Ohio was intended to join the Arcadians and the other eight teams in question for this season, the East Liverpool team ultimately withdrew operations before the season even began properly,Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 125 with other failed locations that had submitted entries to start the ABL's inaugural season including Baltimore, Maryland (who eventually got their own team the following season); Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and two more locations in the state of Ohio via Columbus and Camdenhttps://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-union/202009397/), though the ABL would compete in a split season format with two half seasons being utilized instead of one whole season being utilized throughout the season (which would be the case throughout the majority of the league's existence in the first place). However, by the time the first half of the season ended and the second half of the season began, the Boston Whirlwinds would officially be expelled from the ABL on February 11, 1926 due to a dispute over player contracts (though some sources claim they withdrew from the ABL instead due to poor attendance numbers for their home games),Bradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, p. 410 which led to the ABL entering the second half of the season with only eight teams remaining in their league this time around. In any case, the first season for the Arcadians within the ABL would prove to be a very good one for the team, as the work done by player-coach Garry Schmeelk combined with the good player signings done in part by future Baseball Hall of Famer (and current (at the time) Detroit Tigers right fielder) Harry Heilmann (including the signings of players from the technically rivaling Metropolitan Basketball League's two-time champions in the nearby Brooklyn Visitations and former Original Celtics center George "Horse" Haggerty) would lead to the Arcadians surprising the rest of the newly-created league by finishing the first half of the season with a 12–4 record, being one game ahead of the Washington Palace Five / Laundrymen and two games ahead of the Cleveland Rosenblums for first place in that particular half of the ABL. Unfortunately for the Arcadians, they would end up struggling a fair bit more than they had expected they would have by the time the second half of the season began properly for them, as the Brooklyn squad would end up going through some larger than expected struggles throughout the second half of the season, which led to them finishing that half of the season with an average 7–7 record that placed them behind the Rochester Centrals, the Washington Palace Five squad, and the nearly undefeated Cleveland Rosenblums (who had obviously become the champions of the second half of the season by that point) to get an overall 19–11 record for the season as the Arcadians and Rosenblums competed against each other in an inaugural best-of-five championship series in lieu of a proper playoff format due to the split season motif. The poor performances of the Arcadians would end up continuing throughout the championship series, as they would end up being swept 3–0 by the Cleveland Rosenblums (which would be somewhat related to them being without former Original Celtics center George "Horse" Haggerty by this point in time), failing to be named the inaugural league champions for the season (though the championship series gave the people within the league optimism for its growth at the time due to the average attendance for the games played in Cleveland during that series in particular averaging around 10,000 fans at a time when fan turnaround wasn't even considered to go so high at the time). Worse yet, despite entering the following season with high expectations in mind, this season would later end up becoming the only full professional season ever played by the Arcadians franchise, as an unexpected takeover from a soon-to-be-created rivaling basketball league that looked to take away from the ABL's spotlight would end up doing far greater damage to the Arcadians once the second ABL season began than the Brooklyn squad would have ever expected once they had entered the offseason period.1926-1927 - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-08-15 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/seasons/1926-1927/ 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.1925-26 Brooklyn Arcadians (ABL) en peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com Mike Wilk 2026-07-15 https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2017/10/1925-26-brooklyn-arcadians-abl.html1925-26 Brooklyn Arcadians basketball Statistics en StatsCrew 2026-07-15 2026-07-15 https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLBRA/y-1925 Player PositionBuddy BushmanG/FRed ConatyG/FRody CooneyGGeorge GlascoG/FGeorge "Horse" HaggertyCWaite HoytFTubby RaskinG/FElmer RipleyGRusty SaundersFGary SchmeelkG/FTillie VossCJoe WallaceC Note: George Glasco, George "Horse" Haggerty, Waite Hoyt, Tubby Raskin, and Rusty Saunders would not be a part of the Arcadians' roster during the inaugural ABL championship series for one reason or another. American Basketball League Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Brooklyn Arcadians124.750Washington Palace Five / Laundrymen115.688Cleveland Rosenblums106.625Rochester Centrals97.562Fort Wayne Caseys79.438Chicago Bruins610.375Detroit Pulaski Post Five610.375Boston Whirlwinds×610.375Buffalo Bisons / Germans511.322 × – The Boston Whirlwinds were expelled by the end of the first half of the season due to a dispute over player contracts.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=1925-1926&t=BostonAmerican Basketball League 1925-26 to 1930-31, 1933-34 to 1952-53 www.apbr.org 2026-07-05 https://www.apbr.org/abl2552.html +Second Half TeamWinsLossesWinning %Cleveland Rosenblums131.919Washington Palace Five / Laundrymen113.786Rochester Centrals95.643Brooklyn Arcadians77.500Fort Wayne Caseys68.429Buffalo Bisons / Germans59.357Chicago Bruins311.214Detroit Pulaski Post Five212.143 ABL Championship Series Brooklyn Arcadians (1st Half Champions) Vs. Cleveland Rosenblums (2nd Half Champions): Cleveland Rosenblums win series 3–0 Game 1: April 7, 1926 @ Cleveland: Cleveland Rosenblums 36, Brooklyn Arcadians 33 Game 2: April 8, 1926 @ Cleveland: Cleveland Rosenblums 37, Brooklyn Arcadians 21 Game 3: April 9, 1926 @ Manhattan: Cleveland Rosenblums 23, Brooklyn Arcadians 22 A more detailed analysis of the inaugural 1926 ABL championship series of games played can be found on APBR.org.ABL Playoffs, 1926 and 1927 1926-01-01 apbr.org 2026-08-15 https://apbr.org/ablplayoffs.html Awards and honors By the end of the season, Rusty Saunders would end up being the leading scorer of the entire league in its inaugural season with 238 points scored for an average of 7.0 points per game. References Brooklyn Brooklyn Arcadians Brooklyn Arcadians