New Arena and An NBL Title
In late 1942, the Red Skins left the 1,500-seat Eagle Auditorium at 711 New York Ave., in downtown Sheboygan, and moved into the 3,500-seat Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory five blocks away on Broughton Drive, near Lake Michigan. Commonly called the Armory, it was a WPA project and contained the NBL's largest floor at the time — 90 feet by 50 feet. (The Eagle Auditorium was part of the Playdium building, destroyed by fire in 1977. The Armory still stands and is being considered for redevelopment into an aerospace education center Spaceport Sheboygan).
The Red Skins reached the pinnacle of their sport in 1942–43 under coach Carl Roth, who had been a player for Sheboygan's industrial league powerhouses in the 1930s and played on the first Red Skins team in 1938–39.
A significant reason Sheboygan won the 1943 NBL title was the late-season acquisition of Hall of Fame guard Buddy Jeannette, who joined Sheboygan for the last four regular-season games and the playoffs and commuted from his home in Rochester, N.Y. Jeannette, who was working in a defense plant in Rochester and traveling to Sheboygan and other sites of Red Skins games primarily on weekends, averaged 15.5 points per game, a stout number during the pioneer days when final scores hovered in the 30s and 40s. Other major contributors to Sheboygan's championship team were NBL rookie of the year Ken Buehler, all-league players Ed Dancker and Kenny Suesens and shooting star Rube Lautenschlager.
The team was presented the inaugural Naismith Memorial Trophy during the team banquet at the old Hotel Foeste in downtown Sheboygan.
Read more about this topic: Sheboygan Red Skins
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