1946–47 Youngstown Bears season

NBL professional basketball team season Youngstown Bears NBL 1947 12 32 Eastern 6 Frank Shannon (player-coach) Youngstown South Field House Did not qualify 1 The 1946–47 Youngstown Bears season was technically the second and final professional basketball season of play for the Youngstown Bears in the smaller city of Youngstown, Ohio under the National Basketball League, which officially was the tenth season that it existed as a professional basketball league after previously existing as a semi-pro or amateur basketball league called the Midwest Basketball Conference in its first two seasons back in 1935. However, according to some older material that covered the NBL's history, the Youngstown Bears franchise are considered to be an extension of the Pittsburgh Raiders franchise, which originally started out as the independently created Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A. team back when they were an amateur team from the Pittsburgh Young Men's Hebrew Association all the way back in 1931 before joining the Midwest Basketball Conference precursor in 1935 before the team rebranded themselves into the Pittsburgh Pirates NBL team honoring the Major League Baseball team of the same name that joined the rebranded NBL in 1937 before they first left it in 1939 before supposedly reforming themselves independently as the Raiders in 1943 before returning to the NBL in 1944 before having the Youngstown Bears team replace the Pittsburgh Raiders team due to local fans in Youngstown looking to have the Raiders play in Youngstown instead (though the Raiders would still later exist as an independent team insteadPittsburgh Pirates https://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/NBL/Teams/Pittsburgh/index.html nbahoopsonline.com 12 January 2026Pittsburgh Raiders https://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/NBL/Teams/Pittsburgh2/index.html nbahoopsonline.com 12 January 2026).Bradley Robert The Compendium of Professional Basketball 1999 Xaler Press 0-9644774-3-2, p. 35 As such, if one were to include the wild Pittsburgh Y.M.H.A./Pirates/Raiders team history as a part of the Youngstown Bears' newly established history, this would officially be (at least) their eleventh and final season of play as a franchise instead of their second and final season of play as a franchise. Throughout their second and final season in Youngstown, the Bears would continue to see significant struggles and issues that related from the previous season they dealt with (including the tragic passing of young rising star center Huck Hartman to pneumonia from the end of the previous season on March 25, 1946Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 155) plague their entire season. While they did see themselves competing for one of the playoff spots in the Eastern Division at one point under new player-coach Frank Shannon (despite being in last place at the time with a 9–21 record by the end of January 1947 and start of February 1947Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 165), the Bears would finish their season with only three more wins afterward for the rest of the way throughout this season to finish with a worse 12–32 record for a last place finish in the Eastern Division, with only the Detroit Gems (who later became the Minneapolis Lakers (now known as the Los Angeles Lakers)) having a worse record than them with a 4–40 record. Following this season's conclusion, the Youngstown Bears would join the eventual NBL champion Chicago American Gears as one of two NBL teams to leave the league this season, with Youngstown's departure being more related to financial issues at hand. Draft picks Entering this season, the National Basketball League would utilize their own draft system that would be considered similar to what the NFL has done for the NFL draft. As such, the 1946 NBL draft would be considered the first ever professional basketball draft ever done, even before the 1947 BAA draft that was done by the soon to be rivaling Basketball Association of America. Because of that fact, the Youngstown Bears would participate in the inaugural 1946 NBL draft, which had occurred sometime during the 1946–47 season's offseason period before that season officially began for the NBL. However, as of 2026, no records of what the Bears' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up, with any information on who those selections might have been for Youngstown likely being lost to time in the process. Roster Please note that due to the way records for professional basketball leagues like the NBL and the ABL were recorded at the time, some information on both teams and players may be harder to list out than usual here. 1946–47 Youngstown Bears #ADD8E6 #000000 #ADD8E6 #000000 John Bosak G 6 3 185 Farrell HS (PA) 1922–09–09 Irv Brenner F/C 6 4 200 Duquesne 1913–05–31 Charlie Butler basketball G/F 6 2 165 Notre Dame 1920–08–15 Bill Farrow F/C 6 4 200 Kentucky State 1918–06–15 Paul Herman basketball G 6 1 175 Tennessee 1921–07–05 Charlie Joachim G/F 6 2 184 Mount Union 1920–07–21 Bob Kramer basketball G/F 6 3 185 Hammond Tech HS (IN) 1922–04–23 Bernie Mehen F/C 6 4 185 Tennessee 1918–09–19 Red Mihalik G 6 0 180 Ford City HS (PA) 1916–09–22 Jack Mills basketball F/C 6 4 210 Mount Union 1918–05–08 Ed Moeller G 6 0 175 Ohio State 1919–01–08 Bill Sattler C 6 8 195 Ohio State 1916–08–09 Wilbur Schu G/F 6 3 190 Kentucky 1922–12–18 Frank Shannon basketball G 5 11 180 Wittenberg 1917–11–25 Emil Sotnyk G/F 5 11 170 Virginia Military Institute 1921–08–21 Milt Ticco G/F 6 3 190 Kentucky 1922–09–22 Frank Shannon https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/teams/YNB/1947.html YOUNGSTOWN BEARS https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/youngstown-bears-2 Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 12 January 2026Peach Basket Society: 1946-47 Youngstown Bears (NBL) https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2016/03/1946-47-youngstown-bears-nbl.html Peach Basket Society 12 January 2026 5 March 20161946-47 Youngstown Bears Statistics https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/stats/t-YOU/y-1946 statscrew.com 12 January 2026 Regular season Season standings NBL Schedule Not to be confused with exhibition or other non-NBL scheduled games that did not count towards Youngstown'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 Youngstown Bears during their second and final season in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 11 Rochester 43–69 0–1 2 November 14 @ Syracuse 64–67 0–2 3 November 17 @ Fort Wayne 53–61 0–3 4 November 18 @ Anderson 58–66 0–4 5 November 19 @ Indianapolis 64–71 0–5 6 November 22 Detroit 62–54 1–5 7 November 23 @ Rochester 45–57 1–6 8 November 27 Toledo 53–69 1–7 9 December 2 Syracuse 36–47 1–8 10 December 3 @ Detroit 54–57 1–9 11 December 6 Buffalo 50–41 2–9 12 December 10 Chicago 60–72 2–10 13 December 21 Indianapolis 66–64 (OT) 3–10 14 December 23 Sheboygan 67–48 4–10 15 December 25 @ Detroit 75–74 (OT)[73–74 (OT)†] 5–10[4–11†] 16 December 26 Syracuse 58–53 6–10[5–11†] 17 December 30 Fort Wayne 54–57 6–11[5–12†] 18 January 2 Oshkosh 54–48 (OT) 7–11[6–12†] 19 January 5 @ Chicago 45–55 7–12[6–13†] 20 January 7 @ Tri-Cities 49–41 8–12 21 January 8 @ Toledo 62–73 8–13 22 January 9 Indianapolis 50–54 8–14 23 January 11 @ Oshkosh 55–62 8–15 24 January 12 @ Sheboygan 26–56 8–16 25 January 13 Anderson 56–63 8–17 — January 16 @ Buffalo CancelledBuffalo Bisons https://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/AtlantaHawks/History/Buffalo/index.html nbahoopsonline.com 26 January 18 @ Rochester 53–67 8–18 27 January 23 Toledo 51–45 9–18 28 January 26 @ Fort Wayne 40–68 9–19 29 January 27 Rochester 61–68 (OT) 9–20 30 January 30 Tri-Cities 43–56 9–21 31 February 3 Detroit 62–52 10–21 32 February 6 Anderson 78–59 11–21 33 February 10 Chicago 52–64 11–22 34 February 13 Oshkosh 50–54 11–23 35 February 17 Fort Wayne 72–63 12–23 36 February 19 @ Toledo 54–67 12–24 37 February 20 @ Syracuse 44–80 12–25 38 February 27 @ Tri-Cities 39–47 12–26 39 March 1 @ Oshkosh 55–71 12–27 40 March 2 N Chicago 52–65 12–28 41 March 3 @ Anderson 47–63 12–29 42 March 4 @ Indianapolis 48–71 12–30 43 March 6 @ Sheboygan 49–59 12–31 — March 10 @ Buffalo Cancelled 44 March 11 Sheboygan 44–45 12–32 † – Game was originally recorded as a 74–73 overtime victory for the Detroit Gems, but a faulty time clock in the overtime period near the end of the game when Youngstown looked to make an extra, final shot in their game caused the Bears to protest the initial results to NBL Commissioner Ward Lambert. While the game was still recorded as a Gems victory and a Bears defeat for at least one more scheduled NBL game the Gems played in and four more NBL games that Youngstown themselves played, the results of the December 25, 1946 game ended with the commissioner accepting Youngstown's grievances and led to the Bears getting a 75–74 overtime victory that day instead.Detroit Gems https://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/LosAngelesLakers/History/DetroitGems/index.html nbahoopsonline.com References Category:Youngstown Bears Youngstown Youngstown Youngstown