The 1945–46 Baltimore Bullets season was the second season played by the original Baltimore Bullets (who are not related to the NBA team that's currently known as the Washington Wizards) when they were in the original American Basketball League, which was in its nineteenth season of existence when combining the six seasons of its original run with the thirteen seasons in its more recent run at this point in time after their hiatus in relation to the Great Depression. Despite having a poor start to their second season of play (months after World War II came to a close), the Bullets would make some key trades during the season to help improve their record for a tied 21–13 first place finish with the defending ABL champion Philadelphia Sphas. Following a tiebreaker first place match that the Bullets would win over the Sphas, Baltimore would sweep the New York Gothams in the semifinal round before defeating the Sphas once again (this time in the championship round) to win their first (and to the ABL's own history, only) championship while playing in the ABL.
Season overview After almost winning the ABL championship over the Philadelphia Sphas, they sought to improve their roster while having Red Rosan remain as their full-time head coach this time around to improve their chances at winning it all in their second season of existence. However, after they had started the season out with a poor 2–4 start to the season, a trade with the Trenton Tigers where they acquired Ace Abbott (born Ace Goldsmith) from the Tigers helped improve their chances. The Bullets ended up making another critical trade with the Tigers, this time involving future NBA talent Art Spector being traded for another future NBA talent (one that would remain with the Bullets once they made their jump to that league, technically speaking) in Mike Bloom. That trade would help get them a late season push to tie their record with the Philadelphia Sphas with a 21–13 record by finishing the season with a 15–5 record under Abbott, Bloom, and Stanley Stutz's combined leadership. When the Bullets ended up beating the Sphas 63–61 to be crowned the divisional winners of the ABL, they soon faced off against the New York Gothams in the semifinal round and winning, 2–0, in what later turned out to be their last season under that New York name (they would later become the Brooklyn Gothams for the rest of their existence) before having a rematch with the Sphas in the championship round. This time around, however, Philadelphia would win the first game of the championship series before Baltimore ended up winning the rest of the games from the series in order to be crowned champions for the first time in their team history with a 3–1 series victory over the Sphas.
In addition to playing in the ABL, the Bullets were also involved in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament as the sole representative from the ABL's side of things that competed against teams who were either independently ran or were representing the longtime rivaling National Basketball League by comparison. For the Bullets, they competed against some very tough competition throughout the tournament by first competing against the runner-ups of the 1945 World Professional Basketball Tournament in the Dayton Mickeys (who rebranded themselves from the Acmes team name they used that previous year), the Anderson Chiefs (who later became the Anderson Duffey Packers of the NBL and then the Anderson Packers in the NBA and the short-lived National Professional Basketball League), the two-time defending NBL and WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (who later became the Fort Wayne Pistons (now Detroit Pistons) due to the Basketball Association of America (later National Basketball Association) not allowing brand names to be a part of team names), and the NBL's Chicago American Gears throughout the event. However, while Baltimore ended up winning some very close matches over their first two opponents thanks in part due to some last-minute temporary roster pick-ups just for this tournament (including a pick-up from the ABL semifinal opponent they had beaten earlier on before the WPBT began, the New York Gothams), they could not complete the upset victory over the Zollner Pistons (thus eventually resulting in Fort Wayne getting a three-peat in the WPBT) and were later overwhelmed by young star center George Mikan from the American Gears when Chicago swept Baltimore in the third place consolation prize round 2–0 in their first ever appearance in that event. Despite it ending pretty badly for the Bullets, they would end up being one of the better performances from an ABL team to ever occur throughout the WPBT's history there.
Roster Due to information on American Basketball League players being generally hard to find, there are bound to be more gaps and/or inaccuracies found in certain areas on the team's roster spots than usual.
Their official roster for the championship winning 1946 ABL Playoffs would involve Ace Abbott (born Ace Goldsmith), Jake Ahearn, Hook Anderson, Al Benson, Mike Bloom, Moe Dubilier, Johnny Norlander, Jackie Peters, and Stanley Stutz (playing under his birth name of Stanley Modzelewski). Then, in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament, three players that previously weren't on the regular roster before that point in time in Charlie Hoefer, Sidney Hertzberg, and Irv Rothenberg (all three of whom would later end up playing for the league that would later become the NBA) would end up playing for the Bullets' roster during that particular World Professional Basketball Tournament (replacing Ace Abbott, Al Benson, and Johnny Norlander only for that event), with Hertzberg's inclusion being especially notable since he was previously playing with their semifinal opponents in the New York Gothams before the WPBT even began for the 1946 year.
Regular season ABL Season Standings Pos. Team Wins Losses Win % T–1 Baltimore Bullets - z 21 13 .618 Philadelphia Sphas - x 21 13 .618 3 New York Gothams - x 18 16 .529 4 Wilmington Bombers - x 15 19 .441 5 Trenton Tigers 14 20 .412 6 Paterson Crescents 13 21 .382
Exhibition Game(s) During the season, the Bullets would have at least one game scheduled for the season that was an exhibition game instead of a regular season game (potentially more than that if one were to include their participation in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament there). This game would be held on November 25, 1945 against the rivaling National Basketball League's two-time defending champions in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, with Fort Wayne blowing out Baltimore in a 77–47 beatdown back when the Bullets started out the season in a major losing streak that would last for four games (actually five games including this game).
ABL Schedule Please note that as of 2026, while the schedule for this season involving the Baltimore Bullets has been found, as has been most of the scores showcased, the schedule that's been found for the Bullets this season within the ABL does not currently contain certain specifics like whether a certain opponent was being played in a road match or was played at home for Baltimore, as well as some of the scores for the later games near the end of the regular season not being recorded properly and any of these final scores had any overtime periods involved or not.https://www.ebay.com/itm/358433056234 # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 11 Trenton 36–40 0–1 2 November 18 New York 44–54 0–2 3 November 23 Wilmington 45–55 0–3 4 November 30 Wilmington 56–54 0–4 5 December 1 Paterson 54–49 1–4 6 December 2 New York 48–45 2–4 7 December 7 Philadelphia 72–62 3–4 8 December 8 @ Philadelphia 66–62 4–4 9 December 14 Trenton 42–48 4–5 10 December 16 Trenton 46–48 4–6 11 December 21 Paterson 57–51 5–6 12 December 28 New York 55–54 6–6 13 December 30 Wilmington 39–44 6–7 14 January 4 Wilmington 75–61 7–7 15 January 5 Paterson 69–66 8–7 16 January 6 New York 63–72 8–8 17 January 11 Philadelphia 67–61 9–8 18 January 12 @ Philadelphia 61–56 9–9 19 January 18 Trenton 79–56 10–9 20 January 20 Trenton 45–63 10–10 21 January 25 Paterson 71–57 11–10 22 January 27 Wilmington 51–48 12–10 23 February 1 Philadelphia 65–56 13–10 24 February 2 @ Philadelphia 57–55 14–10 25 February 8 Wilmington Unknown Unknown 26 February 9 Paterson Unknown Unknown 27 February 15 New York Unknown Unknown 28 February 17 New York Unknown Unknown 29 February 22 Paterson Unknown Unknown 30 February 23 Philadelphia 47–68 Unknown 31 March 1 Trenton Unknown Unknown 32 March 3 Wilmington Unknown Unknown 33 March 8 Wilmington Unknown Unknown 34 March 13 Philadelphia 46–70 21–13 35 (T) March 16 @ Philadelphia 63–61 22–13 If/When official scores get found for the rest of this season alongside which games were home games and which games were road games, the rest of the schedule will be updated as intended.
ABL Playoffs ABL First Place Tiebreaker Tiebreaker Game: March 16, 1946: @ Philadelphia – Baltimore Bullets defeat Philadelphia Sphas 63–61 for first-place finish.
ABL Semifinals (1) Baltimore Bullets vs. (3) New York Gothams: Baltimore wins series 2–0 Game 1: March 17, 1946(?) @ New York: Baltimore 70, New York 59 Game 2: March 23, 1946(?) @ Baltimore: Baltimore 81, New York 74
ABL Championship Round (1) Baltimore Bullets vs. (2) Philadelphia Sphas: Baltimore wins series 3–1 Game 1: March 30, 1946 @ Philadelphia: Philadelphia 63, Baltimore 48 Game 2: March 31, 1946 @ Baltimore: Baltimore 65, Philadelphia 48 Game 3: April 13, 1946 @ Philadelphia: Baltimore 68, Philadelphia 45 Game 4: April 14, 1946 @ Baltimore: Baltimore 54, Philadelphia 39
Baltimore also played a match at Schenectady, New York on April 11, 1946 in-between Games 2 and 3 due to them playing a national professional invitational tournament there, with that game being considered a consolation prize round there. The game in question would end up going into overtime, but it ended with the Baltimore Bullets winning 61–58 over the Philadelphia Sphas in an unrelated tournament match that went to overtime., p. 417
Awards and honors Stanley Stutz was considered the leading scorer of the entire ABL for the 1945–46 season. (In actuality, Art Hillhouse of the Philadelphia Sphas would claim that honor.)
World Professional Basketball Tournament