1941–42 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season

1941–42 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season
Head coach	Carl Bennett
Results
Record	15–9 (.625)
Place	Division: 2 (tied with Akron Goodyear Wingfoots)
Playoff finish	Lost to Oshkosh All-Stars, 2-1 in NBL Championship
Stats at Basketball Reference

The 1941–42 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season was the inaugural season of the franchise in the National Basketball League after spending their first four years as an independent works team under the Zollner Piston Company founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana owned by Fred Zollner, the owner of that company and the team in question. Fort Wayne was led by guard Bobby McDermott, who would go on to become one of the best shooters in NBL history, as well as that league's all-time leader in points scored with 3,583 points scored in 287 total NBL games played in an era without three-point shooting created. The Zollner Pistons finished the season with a record of 15 wins and 9 losses, which earned them a tie for the #2 seed in their inaugural NBL season with the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots for the 1942 NBL Playoffs. In the first round, the Zollner Pistons defeated the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots 2–1 before losing to the Oshkosh All-Stars 2–1 in the NBL Championship series for Fort Wayne's debut professional season.

Roster

Rank	Player	Position
1	Robert McDermott	G
2	Herm Schaefer	G-F
3	Curly Armstrong	G-F
4	Blackie Towery	F-C
5	Elmer Gainer	F-C
6	Jack Keller	F-G
7	Kenneth Oberbruner	F-G
8	Paul Birch	F-G
9	Dale Hamilton	G-F
10	Don Beery	G
11	James Hilgemann	G

League standings

Pos.	League Standings	Wins	Losses	Win %
1	Oshkosh All-Stars	20	4	.833
T–2	Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons	15	9	.625
	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	15	9	.625
4	Indianapolis Kautskys	12	11	.522
5	Sheboygan Red Skins	10	14	.417
6	Chicago Bruins	8	15	.348
7	Toledo Jim White Chevrolets	3	21	.125

World Professional Basketball Tournament

For the second straight year in a row and their first ever year while being a representative of the NBL (they previously entered the 1941 event as an independent works team that had the players representing the local Zollner Piston Company establishment that was focused on machinery earning their spot in that event by beating the Fort Wayne Harvesters (the original Fort Wayne, Indiana representatives for the WPBT before the Zollner Pistons entered the picture) in a previous match in order to participate in the event, but got eliminated in the first round by the NBL champion Oshkosh All-Stars), the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would participate in the annual World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, which the 1942 event was held on March 8–12, 1942 and featured 16 teams that were mostly independently ran alongside every NBL team outside of the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots due to World War II. In the first round, the Zollner Pistons saw themselves go up against the Aberdeen Army Ordnance Training Camp team (sometimes shortened up to the Aberdeen Army Center), which was an independent team based in Aberdeen, Maryland and composed of players that were training at the Aberdeen Proving Ground during World War II, with future American Basketball League and Basketball Association of America/National Basketball Association and All-Tournament Team player Moe Becker being their leading player throughout the event. Despite the Zollner Pistons appearing to have more experience at hand due to them competing in the NBL Finals against the Oshkosh All-Stars (who would ultimately win the WPBT this year as well), they would end up being both out-poised and outplayed by the Aberdeen Army Ordnance Training Camp team, as Aberdeen ended up stunning Fort Wayne right out of the tournament with a 56–42 victory in Aberdeen's favor. The Aberdeen Army Ordnance Training Camp team would end up losing their following match to the former NBL turned independent barnstorming team known as the Detroit Eagles, who were last year's WPBT champions and reached the championship round once again despite being independent this time around, but ultimately lost to the Oshkosh All-Stars, who got their revenge for last year's defeat in the WPBT.

Game Played

• Lost first round (42–56) to the Aberdeen Army Ordnance Training Camp