The 1946–47 Rochester Royals season was the franchise's second season in the National Basketball League (NBL). This also was the NBL's first official season where they actually implemented a drafting system similar to what the future rivaling Basketball Association of America (and later merging partner to become the National Basketball Association) had for the eventual NBA draft system a year later following the conclusion of their inaugural league season for the purpose of controlled player salaries and limiting the idea of outbidding other players outside of their own 12-player teams at hand (with the NBL having a budget of $6,000 this season), as well as implementing key players to signing binding contracts as soon as they could and the NBL looking to have full-time referees on display., pp. 158–159 The Royals finished this season with the best record in the NBL at 31–13, as well as beat the Syracuse Nationals 3–1 in the Eastern Division opening (quarterfinal) round and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons 2–1 in the Eastern Division semifinal round. However, despite their best efforts, they could not repeat as champions of the NBL this season due to opposing center George Mikan proving to be too much for the Royals to overcome in a championship series, which resulted in Rochester losing the NBL championship 3–1 to the Chicago American Gears, who would end up leaving the NBL at the end of this season to start a new league that ultimately proved to be short-lived in its own nature, the Professional Basketball League of America. One reason for the Chicago American Gears ultimately defecting from the NBL was due to their league commissioner at the time, Ward Lambert, considering the American Gears to only be the champions of the NBL Playoffs that season instead of the overall champions of the league since he inexplicably considered the Royals (who held the best overall record this season) to be the official league champions this season,, pp. 174–175 with Lambert staying under that position for one more season before resigning under league pressure for Doxie Moore during its final season of existence.
Draft picks Entering this season, the National Basketball League would utilize their own draft system that would be considered similar to what the NFL has done for the NFL draft. As such, the 1946 NBL draft would be considered the first ever professional basketball draft ever done, even before the 1947 BAA draft that was done by the soon to be rivaling Basketball Association of America. Because of that fact, the Rochester Royals would participate in the inaugural 1946 NBL draft, which had occurred sometime during the 1946–47 season's offseason period before that season officially began for the NBL. However, as of 2026, no records of what the Royals' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up, with any information on who those selections might have been for Rochester being lost to time in the process.
Roster
Note: Jim Cominsky, Jack Garfinkel, Arnie Johnson, and Jim Quinlan were not a part of the playoff roster this season for one reason or another.
Season standings NBL Schedule Not to be confused with exhibition or other non-NBL scheduled games that did not count towards Rochester's official NBL record for this season. An official database created by John Grasso detailing every NBL match possible (outside of two matches that the Kankakee Gallagher Trojans won over the Dayton Metropolitans in 1938) would be released in 2026 showcasing every team's official schedules throughout their time spent in the NBL. As such, these are the official results recorded for the Rochester Royals during their second season in the NBL. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 11 @ Youngstown 69–43 1–0 2 November 16 Syracuse 41–35 2–0 3 November 23 Youngstown 57–45 3–0 4 November 26 Buffalo 78–57 4–0 5 November 30 Chicago 64–65 4–1 6 December 3 @ Indianapolis 58–59 4–2 7 December 5 @ Buffalo 54–44 5–2 8 December 7 Toledo 60–44 6–2 9 December 8 @ Toledo 67–63 7–2 10 December 10 @ Detroit 65–54 8–2 11 December 14 Sheboygan 53–51 9–2 12 December 17 Fort Wayne 55–51 10–2 13 December 19 @ Sheboygan 59–52 11–2 14 December 20 @ Chicago 48–59 11–3 15 December 21 @ Oshkosh 58–63 11–4 16 December 28 Indianapolis 57–48 12–4 17 December 29 @ Fort Wayne 67–65 (OT) 13–4 18 December 30 @ Anderson 67–62 14–4 19 January 4 Detroit 72–54 15–4 20 January 11 Anderson 75–69 (OT) 16–4 21 January 14 Oshkosh 73–58 17–4 22 January 18 Youngstown 67–53 18–4 23 January 23 @ Syracuse 60–53 19–4 24 January 25 Toledo 86–88 (OT) 19–5 25 January 27 @ Youngstown 68–61 (OT) 20–5 26 February 2 Indianapolis 74–66 21–5 27 February 5 @ Toledo 69–50 22–5 28 February 6 @ Detroit 71–53 23–5 29 February 8 Fort Wayne 67–72 23–6 30 February 10 @ Anderson 54–60 23–7 31 February 11 @ Indianapolis 50–47 24–7 32 February 12 @ Fort Wayne 60–64 24–8 33 February 15 Detroit 93–56 25–8 34 February 17 @ Buffalo/Tri-Cities‡ 50–60 25–9 35 February 19 @ Oshkosh 53–60 25–10 36 February 20 @ Sheboygan 49–52 25–11 37 February 21 @ Chicago 56–57 25–12 38 February 23 Tri-Cities 41–48 25–13 39† February 25 Chicago 41–39 (2OT; Protested) 26–13† 39/40 March 1 Syracuse 63–54 26–13(27–13†) 40/41 March 4 Sheboygan 65–55 27–13(28–13†) 41/42 March 8 Anderson 64–59 28–13(29–13†) 42/43 March 10 @ Syracuse 60–54 29–13(30–13†) 43/44 March 11 Oshkosh 76–68 30–13(31–13†) 44* March 13 Chicago 75–55 31–13* ‡ – The February 17, 1947 road game the Rochester Royals had originally scheduled against the second version of the Buffalo Bisons in the NBL before they moved to Moline, Illinois and rebranded themselves as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks was one of two games that had originally been scheduled for the Buffalo Bisons that were still kept intact as a home match for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks on the same scheduled night of play (with the other match in question that kept the same home match in question being on February 20, 1947 against the Toledo Jeeps). † – The original match played on February 25, 1947 was later considered to be a no contest match due to the way the second overtime that was played was implementing a sudden-death overtime rule without prior warning or agreement at hand. The official results would later be held on March 13, 1947, which was done in a blowout 75–55 victory that didn't require any overtimes for Rochester to defeat Chicago that night., p. 93 * – Would be the official final game played and record for the Rochester Royals this season in terms of the NBL schedule they played.
Eastern Division
NBL Playoffs NBL Eastern Division Opening Round (1E) Rochester Royals vs. (3/4E) Syracuse Nationals: Rochester wins series 3–1 Game 1: March 18, 1947 @ Rochester: Rochester 66, Syracuse 64(OT) Game 2: March 19, 1947 @ Syracuse: Syracuse 64, Rochester 61 Game 3: March 21, 1947 @ Rochester: Rochester 54, Syracuse 48 Game 4: March 22, 1947 @ Syracuse: Rochester 62, Syracuse 57
NBL Eastern Division Semifinals (1E) Rochester Royals vs. (2E) Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons: Rochester wins series 2–1 Game 1: March 29, 1947 @ Rochester: Rochester 58, Fort Wayne 49 Game 2: March 30, 1947 @ Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne 56, Rochester 49 Game 3: April 1, 1947 @ Rochester: Rochester 76, Fort Wayne 47
NBL Championship (1E) Rochester Royals vs. (3/4W) Chicago American Gears: Chicago wins series 3–1 Game 1: April 3, 1947 @ Rochester: Rochester 71, Chicago 65 Game 2: April 5, 1947 @ Rochester: Chicago 67, Rochester 63 Game 3: April 7, 1947 @ Chicago: Chicago 78, Rochester 70 Game 4: April 9, 1947 @ Chicago: Chicago 79, Rochester 68
Team statistics Regular season Rank Player Position Games played Field goalsFree throws madeFree throws attemptedPoints per game1 Al Cervi G-F 44 5.24.05.414.42 Red Holzman G 445.21.73.212.03 Bob Davies G-F 325.24.15.214.44 George GlamackC-F 443.22.03.18.5 5 Andrew Levane F-G 39 3.41.32.28.16 Arnie Johnson F-C 32 2.12.13.16.47 William King C-F 41 1.31.52.44.08 Al Negratti F-C 330.50.40.71.39 Bill Coven F-C 130.80.30.61.810 Jack Garfinkel G 10 0.50.30.61.311 Leon Gauchat G 6 0.20.30.30.712 Jim Cominsky G 5 0.40.00.00.813 Jim Quinlan F 30.00.30.70.314 Frank Beaty F 6 0.00.20.70.2
NBL Playoffs Rank Player Position Games played Field goalsFree throws madeFree throws attemptedPoints per game1 Bob Davies G-F 11 4.9 3.9 5.7 13.72 Al Cervi G-F 11 4.5 4.5 6.2 13.53 Red Holzman G 11 3.8 2.0 2.6 9.64 George Glamack C-F 10 3.5 2.8 3.3 9.85 Andrew Levane F-G 11 3.4 1.6 2.5 8.46 William King C-F 11 2.7 2.8 3.9 8.37 Al Negratti F-C 11 0.3 0.4 0.6 0.98 Frank Beaty F 2 0.5 0.0 1.0 1.09 Leon Gauchat G 2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.010 Bill Coven F-C 5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.01946-47 Rochester Royals Stats | Basketball-Reference.com
Awards and Honors NBL MVP – Bob Davies1946-47 NBL Season Summary | Basketball-Reference.com All-NBL First Team – Al Cervi and Bob Davies All-NBL Second Team – Red Holzman All-Time NBL Team – Al Cervi, Bob Davies, and George Glamack
References