The 1947–48 Indianapolis Kautskys season was the seventh and final year that the Kautskys franchise would not only utilize that name for their team, but also played in the United States' National Basketball League (NBL), which was also the eleventh year the league existed. However, if you include their previous three seasons where they played in predecessor leagues of sorts in the National Professional Basketball League and the Midwest Basketball Conference, as well as the independent seasons they had in their history (including the three years they appeared in the World Professional Basketball Tournament where they played as the Indianapolis Pure Oils and Indianapolis Oilers during the World War II era), this would actually be their thirteenth (or sixteenth) and final season of play as the Kautskys within the wild history of the NBL before defecting to the rivaling Basketball Association of America in the hopes of acquiring extra money in order to help make sure their franchise survived their operations of planning in the long-term since Frank Kautsky's grocery store business was starting to not be strong enough to keep up with the demands of the higher operating wages that were in mind within the NBL. Unfortunately, the franchise's move from the NBL to the BAA would not be enough for them once this season concluded for them, as they would only end up surviving for one final season in the BAA before folding operations in relation to a future merger between the NBL and the BAA that officially became the National Basketball Association. This ultimately made the Indianapolis franchise the only franchise from the original NBL to BAA jump in 1948 (which also included the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, Rochester Royals, and new NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers) to not survive into the present-day era for the NBA (though two other teams that tried to defect from the NBL to the BAA during this same period of time in the Toledo Jeeps and Oshkosh All-Stars would also fold operations themselves in 1948 and 1949 respectively). Eleven teams competed in the NBL in the 1947–48 season, six in the Eastern Division and five in the Western Division (including the Indianapolis Kautskys), after the previous NBL champions of the season, the Chicago American Gears, ended up defecting from the NBL themselves in order to create a very ambitious, yet short-lived rivaling basketball league of their own called the Professional Basketball League of America.

The Kautskys entered this season by looking to improve upon their best performance yet in the NBL (which included a surprise championship victory at the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament over the Toledo Jeeps after previously never winning a single match there) by hiring former Detroit Falcons head coach Glenn M. Curtis (who left the team after the Falcons had essentially folded operations in their only season of play in the newly-rivaling Basketball Association of America) as the new head coach to start out the season. However, once the Kautskys started out the season with a below-average 6–10 record, Curtis was let go from his position (and subsequently retired from coaching altogether) and was replaced by Leo Klier as an interim player-coach for three games of theirs (winning two out of three games for the Kautskys) before Bruce Hale took over as the permanent player-coach of the team for the rest of their season. Despite Hale being the team's permanent player-coach for the rest of the season, the team would have a worse overall performance under him than from Glenn M. Curtis in terms of records produced, with Hale putting up a 16–24 performance for Indianapolis for the rest of the way for their final NBL season (with a controversial late-season trade of Arnie Risen going to the Rochester Royals occurring due to them thinking they weren't going to make it to the NBL Playoffs this season and needing extra money for this season). Even so, despite ending the season with a losing record of 24–35 (with a cancelled home game against the Toledo Jeeps being missed out on), the Kautskys would still win just enough games to advance to the NBL Playoffs for the last time in their history (with them barely beating out the Sheboygan Red Skins for the final playoff spot this season), with Indianapolis losing to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (now Atlanta Hawks) 3–1 in the opening round of the playoffs. Once the NBL's season officially ended, the Kautskys would join the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons as the first two teams to defect from the NBL to the rivaling BAA (albeit with team name changes in mind for them both due to their sponsorship brandings on their team names (the BAA did not allow for sponsorships on team names, similar to what would later go down for its successor league in the NBA)), which later caused the new NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers and runner-up Rochester Royals to reconsider on staying with the NBL to end up joining those two teams on their defection into the BAA. (The Oshkosh All-Stars and Toledo Jeeps also wanted to join in on the defection from the NBL to the BAA, but ultimately were declined their entries for reasons that aren't considered known to the general public (though they might relate to certain rules regarding their home venues that both teams didn't utilize properly on their ends at the time like court/venue size and flooring regulations at hand).) With those four teams leaving the NBL for the BAA alongside both the aforementioned Toledo Jeeps and the Flint/Midland Dow A.C.'s folding operations after the conclusion of this season, this ultimately left the NBL with only five teams remaining from this season (the Anderson Duffey Packers, Oshkosh All-Stars, Sheboygan Red Skins, Syracuse Nationals, and Tri-Cities Blackhawks) when the NBL later entered what was essentially their final season of existence., pp. 201–202

Draft picks The Indianapolis Kautskys would participate in the 1947 NBL draft, which occurred right after the 1947 BAA draft due to a joint agreement the National Basketball League and the rivaling Basketball Association of America had with each other during the offseason period. However, as of 2026, no records of what the Kautskys' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up, with any information on who those selections might have been being lost to time in the process.

Roster

Note: Over half of the team's roster would not play on the team's playoff roster this season, with Ed Bogdanski, Jack Forestieri, Hal Gensichen, Don Grate, Del Loranger, Woody Norris, Roy Pugh, Arnie Risen, Herm Schaefer, and Milt Ticco not being on the team's final playoff roster for one reason or another.

Regular season Season standings

NBL Schedule Not to be confused with exhibition or other non-NBL scheduled games that did not count towards Indianapolis' 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 Indianapolis Kautskys during their seventh and final season in the NBL (third and final season in their second and final return) under that name for the league before moving on into the BAA (which later became the NBA) for their upcoming season of play. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 4 Oshkosh 58–65 0–1 2 November 9 @ Fort Wayne 69–62 1–1 3 November 11 Sheboygan 57–53 2–1 4 November 18 Rochester 53–56 2–2 5 November 20 @ Tri-Cities 54–65 2–3 6 November 22 Tri-Cities 62–48 3–3 7 November 23 @ Minneapolis 56–67 3–4 8 November 25 Toledo 65–55 4–4 9 November 30 @ Fort Wayne 56–67 4–5 10 December 2 Fort Wayne 40–45 4–6 11 December 8 @ Anderson 54–62 4–7 12 December 9 Flint 77–44 5–7 13 December 12 Tri-Cities 53–55 5–8 14 December 16 Syracuse 80–72 6–8 15 December 18 @ Rochester 47–80 6–9 16 December 19 @ Syracuse 37–47 6–10 17 December 20 @ Oshkosh 47–57 6–11 18 December 21 @ Sheboygan 58–51 7–11 19 December 22 @ Toledo 63–57 8–11 20 December 23 Anderson 55–52 9–11 21 December 26 Fort Wayne 60–58 10–11 22 December 27 N Syracuse 53–64 10–12 23 December 28 @ Minneapolis 48–58 10–13 24 December 30 Flint 77–57 11–13 25 January 1 Anderson 66–72 11–14 26 January 6 Toledo 63–56 12–14 27 January 8 @ Toledo 47–62 12–15 28 January 11 @ Sheboygan 46–60 12–16 29 January 13 Minneapolis 45–64 12–17 30 January 14 @ Flint 55–59 12–18 31 January 15 @ Syracuse 51–53 12–19 32 January 17 @ Oshkosh 58–91 12–20 33 January 20 Rochester 56–58 12–21 34 January 22 @ Toledo 53–63 12–22 35 January 24 @ Rochester 58–80 12–23 36 January 25 @ Fort Wayne 56–71 12–24 37 January 27 Oshkosh 69–65 13–24 38 January 28 Flint 76–67 14–24 39 February 1 @ Minneapolis 55–85 14–25 40 February 2 Tri-Cities 77–67 15–25 41 February 5 @ Anderson 54–73 15–26 42 February 8 @ Tri-Cities 68–81 15–27 43 February 10 Fort Wayne 65–73 15–28 44 February 11 N Syracuse 57–53 16–28 45 February 12 N Oshkosh 67–64 17–28 46 February 14 @ Oshkosh 48–70 17–29 47 February 15 @ Sheboygan 58–59 17–30 48 February 17 Minneapolis 58–66 17–31 49 February 22 N Tri-Cities 58–70 17–32 50 February 24 Sheboygan 57–53 18–32 51 February 26 @ Syracuse 60–83 18–33 52 February 29 @ Flint 87–57 19–33 53 March 2 Minneapolis 83–63 20–33 54 March 7 N Rochester 46–61 20–34 55 March 9 Anderson 76–64 21–34 56 March 11 Rochester 74–68 22–34 57 March 16 Sheboygan 73–70 23–34 58 March 17 Anderson 77–79 23–35 59 March 18 N Flint/Midland 73–70 24–35 A 60th game was intended to have been played between the Indianapolis Kautskys and the Toledo Jeeps (presumably having the Kautskys being the home team in that match due to Indianapolis already playing 30 road games this season, p. 423), but that game was ultimately cancelled for them both, meaning the 59th game of the regular season for them both would be their final regular season games in the NBL for each of them, albeit for completely different reasons between them two.

NBL Playoffs NBL Western Division Opening Round (4W) Indianapolis Kautskys vs. (2W) Tri-Cities Blackhawks: Tri-Cities win series 3–1 Game 1: March 23, 1948 @ Indianapolis: Tri-Cities 77, Indianapolis 67 Game 2: March 24, 1948 @ Indianapolis: Indianapolis 89, Tri-Cities 70 Game 3: March 26, 1948 @ Moline, Illinois (Tri-Cities): Tri-Cities 70, Indianapolis 59 Game 4: March 27, 1948 @ Moline, Illinois (Tri-Cities): Tri-Cities 74, Indianapolis 61

Awards and honors NBL All-Time Team – George Glamack and Arnie Risen

World Professional Basketball Tournament