1944–45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season

Fourth season of the Pistons in the NBL (won NBL championship) March 2026 August 2023 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons Detroit Pistons NBL yes yes 1945 25 5 Eastern 1st Bobby McDermott Fred and Janet Zollner North Side High School Gym, Fort Wayne, Indiana NBL champions (Won 3–2 over Sheboygan Red Skins) FTW The 1944–45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season was the fourth season of the franchise in the National Basketball League. This season was also the first season where the NBL disallowed the goaltending ability for defensive centers due to the rise of taller centers in the sport at hand; in previous seasons, the notion of a goaltending rule wasn't considered necessary since centers weren't seen as very tall players at the time and jumping above the rim was a very rare ability for players back then.Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 131 The team was led by the star backcourt of two-time league MVP Bobby McDermott and Buddy Jeannette. The season ended with the Pistons winning a league best 25 out of 30 games and McDermott being awarded his third MVP award. As of 2026, this is still the best record in franchise history. The playoffs began with a 2–0 sweep over the Cleveland Allmen Transfers to make the team's fourth straight NBL Championship series. From there, they were met by the Sheboygan Red Skins for the third straight year. The series went to a full five games, with Sheboygan winning the first two, but ended with Fort Wayne defeating Sheboygan to successfully defend their NBL Championship in a reverse sweep. The Pistons would not return to the finals for another decade as the rebranded Fort Wayne Pistons and would not win another championship until the 1989 NBA Finals as the Detroit Pistons. At the end of the season Blackie Towery left the team to join the military for World War II, though he would return to the team one season later following the war's end. In addition to repeating as champions of the NBL, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons also participated in the World Professional Basketball Tournament for the purposes of repeating as champions of the WPBT as well. Unlike the previous year's event, the Zollner Pistons would compete against another NBL team in the 1945 event with them going up against the Oshkosh All-Stars in the quarterfinal round. After beating Oshkosh in the quarterfinal round, they had a rematch against the independently ran New York Renaissance (this time blowing them out) in the semifinal round before competing in the championship match against the surprise team of the tournament, the also independently ran Dayton Acmes, who were composed of players from the American Basketball League and aforementioned New York Renaissance that were stationed at the Wright Field in Riverside, Ohio. Unlike their previous championship run in the WPBT, Fort Wayne would make easy competition out of their opponents throughout the entire tournament (with their lowest margin of victory being by eleven points against Oshkosh), which led to them being the only professional team to repeat as both NBL & WPBT champions in back-to-back seasons. Not only that, but their repeat WPBT championship success saw them complete their quartet of goals they had throughout the season which saw them wanting to beat the College All-Stars in what was (at the time considered to be) the annual College All-Star clash against a professional basketball squad where no professional team had beaten them yet (which Fort Wayne succeeded in with a 44–38 win over the College All Stars on December 1, 1944), wanting to lead the league for overall records once again, repeat as NBL champions, and repeat as WPBT champions,Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 132 as well as later beating the NBL's All-Stars 59–47 in an exhibition match two nights after their WPBT championship match as a bonus success goal at hand.Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 141 Roster 1944–45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons #00519a white #eb003c white Paul Birch basketball G 6 1 190 Duquesne 1910-01-04 Jerry Bush F-C 6 3 200 St. John's 1914-09-06 Jim Glass C 6 8 210 Toledo 1919-09-10 Dale Hamilton G-F 6 0 180 Franklin (IN) 1919-08-16 Buddy Jeannette G 5 11 175 Washington & Jefferson 1917-09-15 Bobby McDermott G 5 11 180 Flushing HS (NY) 1914-01-07 Jake Pelkington C-F 6 6 220 Manhattan 1916-01-03 Chick Reiser G-F 5 11 165 NYU 1914-12-17 Ed Sadowski basketball C 6 5 240 Seton Hall 1915-07-11 Charley Shipp G-F 6 1 200 Catholic 1913-12-03 Bob Synnott F-C 6 3 190 Theodore Roosevelt HS (NY) 1912-09-27 Carlisle Towery F-C 6 4 210 Western Kentucky 1920-06-20 Bobby McDermott https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/teams/FWZ/1945.html Note: Dale Hamilton and Carlisle Towery were not a part of the playoff roster this season due to them being enlisted in the U.S. military during this period of time since World War II was still going on by this time.FORT WAYNE PISTONS https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/fort-wayne-pistons-4/ Pro Basketball EncyclopediaPeach Basket Society: 1944-45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (NBL) https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2016/01/1944-45-fort-wayne-zollner-pistons-nbl.html Peach Basket Society 26 March 2026 14 January 20161944-45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons basketball Statistics on StatsCrew.com https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/stats/t-FTW/y-1944 StatsCrew.com 26 March 2026 Regular season 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 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons during their fourth season in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 December 5 Cleveland 51–36 1–0 2 December 7 @ Sheboygan 55–49 2–0 3 December 9 @ Oshkosh 45–49 2–1 4 December 10 @ Cleveland 48–47 (OT) 3–1 5 December 12 Sheboygan 47–45 4–1 6 December 15 @ Pittsburgh 53–42 5–1 7 December 17 Pittsburgh 65–33 6–1 8 December 26 Chicago 59–50 7–1 9 January 2 Sheboygan 54–39 8–1 10 January 3 @ Chicago 73–64 9–1 11 January 6 @ Oshkosh 58–45 10–1 12 January 7 @ Sheboygan 55–54 (OT) 11–1 13 January 9 Oshkosh 53–48 (OT) 12–1 14 January 16 Chicago 59–49 13–1 15 January 21 @ Cleveland 73–58 14–1 16 January 23 Cleveland 50–42 15–1 17 January 24 @ Pittsburgh 55–41 16–1 18 January 27 @ Chicago 50–52 16–2 19 January 28 Oshkosh 46–40 17–2 20 January 30 Pittsburgh 63–53 18–2 21 February 4 Chicago 60–49 19–2 22 February 8 @ Cleveland 61–62 19–3 23 February 11 Oshkosh 62–54 20–3 24 February 14 @ Chicago 55–57 20–4 25 February 15 @ Sheboygan 53–70 20–5 26 February 17 @ Oshkosh 55–53 21–5 27 February 18 Sheboygan 64–52 22–5 28 February 24 @ Pittsburgh 55–53 23–5 29 February 25 Pittsburgh 63–62 24–5 30 March 4 Cleveland 68–58 25–5 Eastern Division Western Division NBL Playoffs NBL Eastern Division Playoff (1E) Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons vs. (2E) Cleveland Allmen Transfers: Fort Wayne wins series 2–0 Game 1: March 6, 1945 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 78, Cleveland 50 Game 2: March 8, 1945 @ Cleveland: Fort Wayne 58, Cleveland 51 NBL Championship (1E) Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons vs. (1W) Sheboygan Red Skins: Fort Wayne wins series 3–2 Game 1: March 11, 1945 @ Sheboygan: Sheboygan 65, Fort Wayne 53 Game 2: March 12, 1945 @ Sheboygan: Sheboygan 50, Fort Wayne 47 Game 3: March 15, 1945 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 58, Sheboygan 47 Game 4: March 16, 1945 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 58, Sheboygan 41 Game 5: March 18, 1945 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 59, Sheboygan 49 Awards and honors NBL Coach of the Year – Bobby McDermott NBL Most Valuable Player – Bobby McDermott First Team All-NBL – Bobby McDermott and Buddy Jeannette Second Team All-NBL – Jerry Bush and Jake Pelkington All-Time NBL Team – Bobby McDermott, Buddy Jeannette, Jerry Bush, and Charley Shipp All-Time Stars of Professional Basketball First Team – Bobby McDermott All-Time Stars of Professional Basketball Second Team – Buddy Jeannette and Jerry Bush All-Time Stars of Professional Basketball Honorable Mention Team – Curly Armstrong (not with team this season)Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 137 World Professional Basketball Tournament For the fifth year in a row (fourth in a row while representing the NBL), the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would participate in the annual World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, which the 1945 event was held on March 19–24, 1945 and was mostly held by independently ran teams alongside every NBL team this season outside of the Sheboygan Red Skins due in part to World War II. The Zollner Pistons were given a first round bye alongside the world famous Harlem Globetrotters, with Fort Wayne's bye being due to them holding both the NBL's championship and the WPBT's championship from the previous year, to the point where they were named the favorites to the entire event this time around. The first match the Zollner Pistons competed in was against the Oshkosh All-Stars, the only NBL team that they'd go up against in the 1945 event, which Fort Wayne beat 63–52 in what turned out to be their hardest match of the event. In the semifinal round, the Zollner Pistons had a semifinal rematch against the New York Renaissance, who sought revenge for last year's close defeat to Fort Wayne. Unfortunately for the Renaissance, despite them beating the NBL's Pittsburgh Raiders in the quarterfinal round, the Zollner Pistons would crush the Rens in their semifinal rematch, winning 65–48 for an easy rout into the championship match.Zollners to meet Acmes for Crown https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99146765/ 5 April 2022 The Sheboygan Press 24 March 1945 11 Newspapers.com For the championship match, Fort Wayne saw themselves go up against another surprise team for the final round in the WPBT, this time being the independently ran Dayton Acmes, a team that was composed of servicemen players that were primarily from the American Basketball League and the New York Renaissance that were stationed at the Wright Field in Riverside, Ohio, including future Fort Wayne players Bruce Hale and John Mahnken, who were both named All-Tournament First Team members. Despite their surprising experience, which included them blowing out the NBL's Chicago American Gears in the semifinal round, who themselves upset the world-famous (all-black) Harlem Globetrotters in the quarterfinal round, the Zollner Pistons used their own fast-break pace to crush the Acmes, blowing out the independent/military-based Dayton squad 78–52 to become the only NBL team to repeat as both NBL & WPBT champions during both leagues' existences.World Professional Basketball Tournament - 1944-45 WPBT Tournament Overview https://www.retroseasons.com/leagues/wpbt/1945/overview RetroSeasons 21 March 2023 This time around, Buddy Jeannette, who previously was named the WPBT's MVP in 1941 with the Detroit Eagles, was named the MVP once again for this year while with the Zollner Pistons, with four players (including Buddy) also being named members of the All-Tournament Team.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99148536/ Scores Fort Wayne had a bye in the first round. Won quarterfinal round (63–52) over the Oshkosh All-Stars Won semifinal round (65–48) over the New York Renaissance Won championship round (50–33) over the Dayton Acmes Awards and honors Buddy Jeannette, All-Tournament First Team, MVP Bobby McDermott, All-Tournament First Team Jerry Bush, All-Tournament Second Team Chick Reiser, All-Tournament Second Team References Category:Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons seasons Fort Wayne Category:National Basketball League (United States) championship seasons Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons