The 1938–39 Oshkosh All-Stars season was the All-Stars' second professional year in the United States' National Basketball League (NBL), which was also the second year the league existed. However, if one were to include the independent seasons they played starting all the way back in 1929 before beginning to join the NBL in 1937 as the last inaugural NBL team to enter the new league, this would officially be their ninth season of play instead. The All-Stars played their home games at the South Park School Gymnasium in the South Park Middle School within the Oshkosh Area School District.
This season would see them begin a special rivalry with another team in the state of Wisconsin, as the nearby Sheboygan Red Skins would join the NBL on December 31, 1938 under team owner Lon Darling's approval to help field a more evened up eight teams for the NBL's season (with most of the teams that had played matches against Sheboygan beforehand retroactively having their matches count as scheduled NBL games, with last-minute adjustments also being made for every NBL team's schedules going forward as well). Their rivalry with each other would continue to last for ten more seasons after this season concluded. During this period of time, Oshkosh would see themselves slip up a bit more when compared to what they had done from their previous season in the NBL. However, despite playing in less overall games this season when compared to their previous season (Oshkosh would finish their season with a 31–15 record before beginning playoff competition, with a majority of their defeats coming from NBL scheduled matches, p. 63), they would still finish the season with a very good 17–11 record, which would not only be the best record in the Western Division, but also allowed them to automatically qualify for the NBL's championship series match-up against the Akron Firestone Non-Skids (which essentially was the 1939 NBL Playoffs this time around). Despite putting up a very good fight throughout the championship series, Oshkosh would ultimately lose the championship 3–2 to the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, who had only lost 3 total games that season in the NBL before entering the championship series. For the second straight season, Leroy Edwards would be named the NBL's MVP, with it also being the second of six seasons (five straight in a row) where he would be named a member of the All-NBL First Team and the second of many seasons (outside of some exhibition games in their previous two seasons as a barnstorming franchise) where Leroy Edwards would play with the Oshkosh All-Stars in the NBL.
In addition to the NBL Playoffs (which was just the championship series this season), the Oshkosh All-Stars would also compete in the 1939 World Professional Basketball Tournament, which was a new tournament set up as a way to officially determine who would be the best professional basketball team in the U.S.A. throughout this early period of time. Due to the awkward formatting of the tournament with 13 teams competing (which included the Sheboygan Red Skins as competition), after Oshkosh had won their first round match-up against the Clarksburg Oil team, they would be awarded a quarterfinal bye (which was the only time a team was given a bye in the quarterfinal round through the tournament's entire history). Following that weird moment, the All-Stars would be given their first playoff-style match-up against the Sheboygan Red Skins in what could be considered the "Battle for Wisconsin", in which Oshkosh would demolish Sheboygan in a 40–23 victory for a chance to potentially win the inaugural tournament's championship. Unfortunately for Oshkosh, they would meet up against the determined powerhouse known as the New York Renaissance (an all-black team that was 109–7 up until the championship match-up) that wanted to break the season's tiebreaker against them, which they did by winning the championship match 34–25, which crowned the Renaissance as the inaugural WPBT champions.
Roster
Regular season Season standings
NBL Schedule Reference:
November 26, 1938 @ Oshkosh, WI: Pittsburgh Pirates 33, Oshkosh All-Stars 55 December 3, 1938: Warren Penns 38, Oshkosh All-Stars 37 (OT @ Oshkosh, WI) December 10, 1938 @ Oshkosh, WI: Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 30, Oshkosh All-Stars 26 December 23, 1938 @ Oshkosh, WI: Pittsburgh Pirates 29, Oshkosh All-Stars 36 December 29, 1938 @ Oshkosh, WI: Indianapolis Kautskys 51, Oshkosh All-Stars 46 January 7, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Hammond Ciesar All-Americans 28, Oshkosh All-Stars 53 January 9, 1939 @ Milwaukee, WI: Sheboygan Red Skins 33, Oshkosh All-Stars 36 January 14, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Akron Firestone Non-Skids 46, Oshkosh All-Stars 44 January 15, 1939 @ Hammond, IN: Oshkosh All-Stars 64, Hammond Ciesar All-Americans 40 January 18, 1939 @ Sheboygan, WI: Oshkosh All-Stars 44, Sheboygan Red Skins 40 January 22, 1939 @ Akron, OH: Oshkosh All-Stars 41, Akron Firestone Non-Skids 46 January 23, 1939 @ Indianapolis, IN: Oshkosh All-Stars 24, Indianapolis Kautskys 25 January 24, 1939 @ Akron, OH: Oshkosh All-Stars 34, Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 22 January 25, 1939 @ Pittsburgh, PA: Oshkosh All-Stars 36, Pittsburgh Pirates 46 January 26, 1939 @ Warren, PA: Oshkosh All-Stars 39, Warren Penns 43 February 2, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 34, Oshkosh All-Stars 36 February 4, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Indianapolis Kautskys 45, Oshkosh All-Stars 57 February 13, 1939 @ Indianapolis, IN: Oshkosh All-Stars 47, Indianapolis Kautskys 25 February 15, 1939 @ Sheboygan, WI: Oshkosh All-Stars 28, Sheboygan Red Skins 25 February 18, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Hammond Ciesar All-Americans 36, Oshkosh All-Stars 42 February 23, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Sheboygan Red Skins 36, Oshkosh All-Stars 49 February 26, 1939 @ Hammond, IN: Oshkosh All-Stars 23, Hammond Ciesar All-Americans 28 February 27, 1939 @ Akron, OH: Oshkosh All-Stars 51, Akron Firestone Non-Skids 57 February 28, 1939: Oshkosh All-Stars 28, Cleveland White Horses 30 (2OT @ Cleveland, OH) March 1, 1939 @ Pittsburgh, PA: Oshkosh All-Stars 43, Pittsburgh Pirates 40 March 2, 1939 @ Akron, OH: Oshkosh All-Stars 34, Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 22 March 4, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Akron Firestone Non-Skids 42, Oshkosh All-Stars 49 March 11, 1939 @ Oshkosh, WI: Cleveland White Horses 39, Oshkosh All-Stars 43
NBL Playoffs The NBL Playoffs for this season would only contain a best of five championship series with the two best teams in each division competing against each other for the NBL Championship this season. This means that it would be the 17–11 Oshkosh All-Stars in the Western Division going up against the 24–3 Akron Firestone Non-Skids in the Eastern Division as the sole playoff series for the NBL this season.
NBL Championship (1W) Oshkosh All-Stars vs. (1E) Akron Firestone Non-Skids: Akron wins series 3–2 Game 1: March 14, 1939 @ Akron: Akron 50, Oshkosh 38 Game 2: March 15, 1939 @ Akron: Oshkosh 38, Akron 36 Game 3: March 17, 1939 @ Oshkosh: Akron 40, Oshkosh 29 Game 4: March 18, 1939 @ Oshkosh: Oshkosh 49, Akron 37 Game 5: March 20, 1939 @ Oshkosh: Akron 37, Oshkosh 30
Awards and honors NBL scoring leader – Leroy Edwards NBL Most Valuable Player – Leroy Edwards All-NBL First Team – Leroy Edwards NBL All-Time Team – Leroy Edwards
World Professional Basketball Tournament For the first time ever, the World Professional Basketball Tournament, an annual basketball tournament held in Chicago, would begin operations in what would be an annual event for a decade-long process (lasting nearly as long as the rest of the NBL's lifespan). With the first ever tournament held for this event, the only NBL teams participating in this event would be the Oshkosh All-Stars and in-state rivaling Sheboygan Red Skins (the only new NBL team of the season) for the inaugural 1939 event that was held on March 26–28, 1939 and was mostly held by independently ran teams alongside the Troy Celtics of the rivaling American Basketball League. (Originally, the Philadelphia Sphas team that was also from the rivaling American Basketball League were intended to also join the WPBT as the other ABL team participating in the event, but due to them being too injured to participate, they were replaced with the Illinois Grads team involving college graduate students that played basketball in nearby Champagne, Illinois., p. 65) Due to the odd number of teams participating in this event this year (eleven total teams, likely due to the ABL's Philadelphia Sphas being replaced with the Illinois Grads), the WPBT were forced to implement a unique system of sorts where three teams were given a bye in the first round and one team was given a bye in the quarterfinal round only. Because the first round byes were given to the Chicago Harmons (who were actually the former ABL team and future NBL team known as the Chicago Bruins under a different name for this event), the ABL's Troy Celtics, and the Hall of Fame worthy all-black New York Renaissance, the All-Stars were forced to play their first match of the event under the opening round against the Clarksburg Oil team (which are sometimes referred to as the Clarksburg Oilers instead) that was held in Clarksburg, West Virginia. In the first round, Oshkosh would barely skirt by against Clarksburg with a 40–33 victory in the All-Stars' favor, with their inspiration for the victory coming from seeing four former Oshkosh players (Branch McCracken, Harold E. Foster, Charlie "Feed" Murphy, and Bill Mangan) cheering them on alongside Leroy Edwards' college head coach, Adolph Rupp. When they entered the quarterfinal round, however, it was revealed that the Oshkosh All-Stars themselves were given a quarterfinal round bye, making them the only team to qualify for the semifinal round by default in the WPBT's entire history. After resting up for the semifinal round matchup, Oshkosh would go up against their in-state rivals (and the only other NBL team competing in the event this time around) in the Sheboygan Red Skins. In what would become the first of many playoff match-ups between Oshkosh and Sheboygan (either in the NBL Playoffs or the WPBT's history), Frank Linskey would lead Oshkosh with a game-high 12 points to blowout Sheboygan through a 40–23 blowout victory to allow the All-Stars the chance to win the inaugural WPBT championship while also representing the NBL., p. 66