Thursday, April 15, 2021

Wisconsin State Basketball League (WSBL)

The Wisconsin State Basketball League has another basketball minor league that sprang up out of the post-war boom. Many states and regions were getting into basketball as the sport's popularity was growing.It lasted fur season before disbanding, but the reason I am looking at it is because it was the final league for the one-time major league team, the Oshkosh All-Stars. Oshkosh had been one of the premier teams of the National Basketball League, joining the circuit in 1937 and over their 12 seasons in the NBL would win the NBL title in 1941 and 1942 after three seasons of losing the finals. In 1949, after the All-Stars lost the NBL title to Anderson, the NBL merged with the BAA, and Oshkosh, being a smaller market, was not invited to join the new NBA, and the team looked to join the WSBL. They only played one season in the WSBl, the 1949-50 season, before disbanding for good. 

The WSB footprint is minor, with mainly local players making up the rosters, but since it was the final resting place of on of the earlier successful major league teams, I figured at four seasons, it was worth a look.

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