1948-49: The Mikan Era Dawns

In 1948, the sports world saw a number of important passages. Babe Ruth, who at the time held the Major League Baseball record for most home runs in a season, died at the age of 53; Joe Fulks, "the Babe Ruth of Basketball," and his Philadelphia Warriors began what would become a precipitous decline after appearing in the previous two Basketball Association of America (BAA) championship series; and four new teams, including George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers, jumped from the National Basketball League (NBL) to the BAA.

Setting the Stage

Babe Ruth's death marked the final passage of an American legend, but 1948 also brought us new faces destined to eventually make their mark, including Al Gore, Dave Cowens, and Samuel L. Jackson.

1948 also brought us many who were destined to become musical legends, including Rick James, Steven Tyler, Stevie Nicks, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ted Nugent. All the while, Nat King Cole's Nature Boy (Woo!) and Pee Wee Hunt's Twelfth Street Rag were topping the charts. It's hard to imagine Joe Fulks or George Mikan turning up the volume on the locker room record player and listening to this to get pumped before the game.

As discussed in a previous post, the Baltimore Bullets won the BAA championship in April 1948 and spent the summer parading The Basketball Champs Belt (TBCB) around Baltimore Harbor until the next season began in November. However, before this next season began, four teams left the rival NBL to join the BAA: the Fort Wayne Pistons, Indianapolis Jets, Minneapolis Lakers, and Rochester Royals. While the Jets folded after one season in the BAA, three of these four franchises are still members of the current NBA. One of these teams, the well-traveled Rochester Royals (currently the Sacramento Kings), has existed in four different cities and might be preparing to move once again.

The Regular Season

The 1948-49 season fittingly began with the Baltimore Bullets losing the belt to the Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers were already George Mikan's team, but in the first game of the season Herm Schaefer led the way with 23 points to win player of the game honors. The Lakers then lost the belt to the Washington Capitals, who defended the belt for 12 consecutive nights, which was at the time a TBCB record. Kleggie Hermsen and Bones McKinney led the way during the Capitols' streak, winning player of the game honors during 11 of the 13 total games. After changing hands twice, the belt landed in the hands of Joe Fulks' Philadelphia Warriors, who raised the belt for 5 consecutive nights before losing it to Butch Van Brenda Kolff's New York Knicks. The Knicks quickly lost the belt to the Chicago Stags, led by Max Zaslofsky, who raised the belt for 4 straight nights before losing it to the Rochester Royals on January 9.

The evening before the Stags lost the belt the to the Royals, the Stags defeated the Royals in the first game of a two game series and a Mikan would make his first appearance as a TBCB player of the game. However, since the Lakers were not in town, it was George's little brother Ed Mikan who took player of the game honors by leading the Stags with 21 points. Ed spent his college and professional career in the shadow of his big brother, but his family can at least take heart in knowing that Ed was the first Mikan brother to win a TBCB player of the game award. (Odd note: Ed Mikan's obituary in the Chicago Tribune, seems to indicate that Ed played only one season of professional basketball. However, his basketball-reference.com page shows that he actually had a much longer career, spanning from 1948-1954.) George Mikan's time would finally come when the Lakers won the belt about one month later.

After taking the belt from the Stags, the Rochester Royals began the first of two long belt defense streaks as they raised the belt 9 more nights until losing it to the lowly Providence Steam Rollers. The Stags then took the belt again in a rematch and held it for two nights before losing to the St. Louis Bombers. The Bombers were quickly followed by the Knicks, the Lakers, and again the Stags. On February 12, the Royals regained the belt and held it until March 12. In total, between January 9 and March 12, the Royals raised the belt on 22 of 29 possible occasions. Joe Fulks also had his famous 63 point game against the Indianapolis Jets during this time. While Fulks didn't accomplish this feat during a battle for the belt, his record is clearly worth mentioning as it stood unbroken for 10 years.

Downtown Rochester in the late 1930's

Public Domain

via Wikimedia Commons

As the regular season concluded, the Celtics took the belt from the Royals on March 15 before losing it to the Stags the following night. The Stags then defended the belt twice before the close of the regular season.

Regular Season Awards

In contrast to the relative parity observed during the previous season, the 1948-49 regular season was dominated by the Rochester Royals, who raised the belt on 22 of 59 possible nights to finish the season as our TBCB Team of the Year. Of the Royals 45 regular season wins, almost half of them involved winning or defending the belt. Their closest competitors were the Washington Capitols and the Chicago Stags, who raised the belt on 13 and 10 total nights, respectively. Due primarily to his role in the Royals' belt defense streaks, Bob Davies was our 1947-48 TBCB Player of the Year, with 9 player of the game awards. Following Davies was Arnie Risen (Royals) with 8, Bones McKinney (Capitols) and Max Zaslofsky (Stags) with 6, and Joe Fulks (Warriors) and Kleggie Hermsen (Capitols) with 5 player of the game awards.

The BAA all First Team and Second Team performers were Bob Davies, Joe Fulks, George Mikan, Jim Pollard, and Max Zaslofsky (First Team); and Bob Feerick, John Logan, Bones McKinney, Arnie Risen, and Kenny Sailors (Second Team). Seven of these ten players won at least one TBCB player of the game award, with Pollard (Lakers), Logan (Bombers), and Sailors (Steam Rollers) as the only players who did not raise the belt as players of the game. At least in the cases of Logan and Sailors, playing on better teams would have likely improved their standings in our rankings.

The Playoffs

As mentioned above, the Chicago Stags finished the regular season with the belt. Unfortunately for the Stags, their first playoff opponent was the Minneapolis Lakers, who were preparing to cruise through the playoffs. The Lakers dispatched the Stags 2 games to none and then defeated the Rochester Royals 2 games to none before facing the Washington Capitols in the finals. The Lakers almost achieved a playoff sweep, as they defeated the Capitols in their first three games; however the Capitols came back to win the next two games and make the series interesting before the Lakers finished the series in game 6. In total, the Lakers raised the belt on 8 of 10 possible nights during the playoffs.

George Mikan dominated the playoffs and was named the TBCB player of the game in 7 of the 8 Laker victories. Since there were very few basketball players with his freaky size and abilities (recall that the NBA created goaltending, widened the lane, and instituted the shot clock all due to Mikan), he must have been quite an intimidating presence to anyone assigned the task of guarding or scoring against him. We'll see much more or Mr. Mikan as our tour of Champs Belt history continues.

Coming soon, we follow the passage of time as we spotlight the BAA/NBL merger and the formal creation of the National Basketball Association.

T.S. Eliot

Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

“Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi

in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:Σιβυλλα

τι θελεις; respondebat illa:αποθανειν θελω.”
Epigraph to the The Waste Land

Sources: Previous blog posts; TBCB analysis of basketball-reference.com; wikipedia; wikimedia commons; and youtube.