October 25, 1946

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The Warriors announced another player signing today, adding 6’4”, 200-pound forward Howie Dallmar to the roster. One of the top-rated college players in the country over the past few years, the 24-year-old Dallmar led Stanford to the NCAA championship in 1942 before joining the Navy for the latter part of the war. At war’s end, he transferred to Penn for a final season of college ball which brought him within the purview of Peter Tyrrell and Eddie Gottlieb.

Philadelphia Inquirer
San Francisco Examiner

October 22, 1946

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Word was that Warriors coach Eddie Gottlieb was considering the use of two independent platoons when games started next month. After a series of scrimmages he was still trying to decide on a starting lineup, with the current favorite being:

G Angelo Musi
G George Senesky
C Art Hillhouse
F Jerry Fleishman
F Joe Fulks

Philadelphia Inquirer

October 18, 1946

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The BAA announced today they would largely be using collegiate rules with some significant exceptions: games would consist of four 12-minute quarters, unlimited substitution was allowed as was coaching from the bench, and all fouls would result in free throws.

Meanwhile, the Warriors were more than a month into their practice schedule, with the regular season opener coming on November 7 at home against Pittsburgh. No preseason games would be played by any of the league’s clubs.

Philadelphia Inquirer

 

October 8, 1946

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The Warriors announced their home schedule today. The BAA had revised the number of games for each team from 54 to 60, giving the Warriors 30 days at home. All of the games would be played at the Philadelphia Arena, except for a run of four over the New Year holiday as the Arena would be hosting the Ice Follies at that time. Here are the home dates:

November 7 – Pittsburgh
November 14 – Washington
November 19 – St Louis
November 21 – Chicago
November 26 – Boston
November 28 – Detroit

December 3 – Providence
December 5 – New York
December 12 – Washington
December 17 – Detroit
December 19 – Cleveland
December 26 – Pittsburgh (Convention Hall)

January 2 – Providence (Convention Hall)
January 9 – Toronto (Convention Hall)
January 16 – Chicago (Convention Hall)
January 21 – Boston
January 23 – Cleveland
January 30 – New York

February 4 – Providence
February 6 – Toronto
February 11 – St Louis
February 13 – Cleveland
February 20 – Pittsburgh
February 26 – Boston

March 3 – Toronto
March 6 – New York
March 11 – Detroit
March 13 – St Louis
March 20 – Washington
March 27 – Chicago

Philadelphia Inquirer

 

September 30, 1946

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With practice scheduled to start in a week, the Warriors signed two more players, guard Art Campa out of the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (now UTEP) and 6’9” center Bill Landis out of Albright College in Reading.

Campa, who grew up in the El Paso area had starred for the Mexican national team and had also played ball while serving in the US Army during the war. Landis, meanwhile, was the tallest player yet signed by the team.

Philadelphia Inquirer

September 17, 1946

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The Warriors signed former Murray State star forward Joe Fulks today. At 6’5” and 190 pounds the 24-year-old Fulks earned the nickname “Jumping Joe” with the Racers for the deadly jump shot he displayed during his two years on the varsity there. Raised in Birmingham, Kentucky, he transferred to Kuttawa High School for his senior year where he won all-state honors. His junior year at Murray State he took the team to a fourth place finish in the national tournament and won first-team all-tournament honors. Soon after he joined the US Marines and was stationed in San Diego where he starred for the base team. He spent the early part of 1946 playing for the Marines overseas and had planned to return to the Racers for his senior year before Philadelphia GM Peter Tyrrell came calling with his checkbook.

Lexington Leader
Paducah Sun-Democrat
Philadelphia Inquirer

September 5, 1946

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The Warriors signed another pair of players today: 6’2” forward Jerry Fleishman and 6’2” forward Fred Sheffield. Fleishman, 24, was a Brooklyn native who played at Erasmus High in his home borough before heading up to the Bronx to attend college at NYU. He starred for the Violets for a couple of years, making All-Metropolitan New York 2nd team in 1943 before the army signed him up. He played intermittently with the Sphas over the next couple of years under Eddie Gottlieb and would play for him again in the BAA.

Sheffield, 22, was a multi-sport star in Utah from boyhood. Growing up in Kaysville, near Ogden, he excelled at almost everything, but especially basketball and track and field. After attending Davis High in Kaysville he moved to the University of Utah where he made varsity in his freshman year. Later that year, 1943, he won the NCAA championship in the high jump with a leap of 6’8”. In his sophomore season, 1943-44, he led the Utes to the national championship, though an ankle injury early in the contest caused him to miss most of the final against Dartmouth. As a med student, he was eligible for a special deferment from military service, so while he was technically the property of the navy, he was still able to attend college and play basketball at Utah for his final two seasons of eligibility. The Warriors were just one of seven professional teams seeking his services. He said he chose Philadelphia, despite not receiving the best offer from them, because he wanted to attend medical school there.

Brooklyn Eagle
Deseret News
Ogden Standard-Examiner
Philadelphia Inquirer
Salt Lake Telegram
Salt Lake Tribune

August 22, 1946

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The Warriors announced the signing of another local cage star, 6’2”, 180-pound forward George Senesky. Originally from Mahanoy City in the east central part of Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre, he starred for St. Joseph’s, breaking the national major college scoring record in his senior season of 1942-43. After his college career ended he played in a handful of games for the Sphas before Uncle Sam came calling. After his discharge from the army, he rejoined the Sphas briefly before crossing the Pacific to play on an all-star team in Okinawa and the Philippines. His addition meant the Warriors now had six players under contract.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Pottsville Republican and Herald
Scranton Tribune

August 19, 1946

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The executive committee of the Basketball Association of America announced a number of decisions regarding the structure and operation of the league. Two of the 13 teams, Buffalo and Indianapolis, would be inactive for the first season. The remaining 11 would be divided into two divisions with Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, and Washington going into the East and Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and St Louis going into the West. No decision had yet been made about Pittsburgh and Toronto other than that one team would go into each division. A champion would be determined via a Shaughnessy-style playoff, though the specific structure of the playoffs was not announced.

Teams would be permitted to have 20 players on the roster until the season opened, at which time they would have to cut down to 12. A further cutdown, to 10 players, would happen on February 10. Teams would be allowed no more than 10 players in uniform on game day, with a minimum of 8 required.

Each team would play a 54-game schedule: 27 at home and 27 away. Teams would not be permitted to play any exhibitions and the regular season was scheduled to start on November 2.

Philadelphia Inquirer

August 16, 1946

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The ABL’s Philadelphia Sphas announced that Eddie Gottlieb had resigned as the team’s head coach in order to concentrate more fully on his duties with the Warriors. He would remain active with the team long enough to help new coach Harry Litwack put together a roster for the forthcoming season. The story in the Inquirer added that Gottlieb would be assisting Warriors general manager Peter Tyrrell “in all business matters pertaining to the operation of the team.”

Philadelphia Inquirer