Indianapolis Jets

Franchise history

In 1931, Frank Kautsky, an Indianapolis grocer, formed a professional basketball team and named it the Indianapolis Kautskys. They were initially known as the Indianapolis Kautsky A.C.'s during their first independent season of existence, as Kautsky had operated both a basketball club and a baseball club under that banner during that period of time. Their first game was on November 24, 1931, which they won 37–18 against the Kokomo 66ers in Kokomo, Indiana. Their first home game would be on December 11, where they'd win 31–17 over the Fort Wayne Firemen. After playing in the National Professional Basketball League (NPBL) in 1932–33 and the Midwest Basketball Conference (MBC) in the 1935–36 and 1936–37) seasons, the Kautskys became one of the original members of the newly formed National Basketball League (NBL) in 1937.

The franchise's best season was in 1946–47; led by Arnie Risen, they set the franchise mark for most wins (27) and won the World Professional Basketball Tournament.

With the Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, and Fort Wayne Pistons, the team moved to the Basketball Association of America (BAA) for the 1948–49 season. At that time the team's name was changed to the Indianapolis Jets because the BAA prevented its teams from having commercial sponsors, similar to how the Fort Wayne Pistons removed the Zollner sponsor from their original name.

Following the 1948–49 season, the Jets folded alongside the Providence Steamrollers on August 3, 1949. This coincided with the BAA and the NBL merging to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). For the 1949–50 season, a new Indianapolis franchise, the Indianapolis Olympians, was created.

Season-by-season records

|- !colspan="6"|Indianapolis Kautskys (NPBL) |- |1932–33 ||7||4||0.636||Did not qualify|| |- !colspan="6"|Indianapolis Kautskys (MBC) |- |1935–36 ||9||3||0.750||Round Robin Tourney|| |- |1936–37 ||2||5||0.286||Did not qualify || |- !colspan="6"|Indianapolis Kautskys (NBL) |- |1937–38 ||4||9||0.308||Did not qualify || |- |1938–39 ||13||13||0.500||Did not qualify || |- |1939–40 ||9||19||0.321||Did not qualify|| |- |1941–42 ||12||11||0.522||0–2 || |- |1945–46 ||10||22||0.312||Did not qualify|| |- |1946–47 ||27||17||0.614||2–3|| |- |1947–48 ||24||35||0.407||1–3|| |- !colspan="6"|Indianapolis Jets (BAA) |- |1948–49 ||18||42||0.300||Did not qualify|| |-

Players

• Ernie Andres
• George Chestnut
• Norman Cottom
• Gene Cramer
• Gus Doerner
• Glynn Downey
• Hal Gensichen
• George Glamack
• Bruce Hale
• Bob Kessler
• Branch McCracken
• Charles "Stretch" Murphy
• William Perigo
• Cy Proffitt
• Arnie Risen
• Herm Schaefer
• Jim Springer
• Dave Strack
• Earl Thomas
• John Wooden
• Jewell Young
• Ash Resnick

Basketball Hall of Famers

References

References

1. https://www.apbr.org/nbaroots.html
2. [https://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/Xdefunct/IndianapolisJets/index.html Indianapolis Kautskys/Indianapolis Jets History]
3. "National Basketball League 1932-33".
4. "Midwest Basketball Conference [1935-36 to 1936-37]".
5. Biesel, David B.. (1991). "Can You Name that Team?: A Guide to Professional Baseball, Football, Soccer, Hockey, and Basketball Teams and Leagues". Scarecrow Press.
6. With the team's inclusion into the BAA, they effectively replaced the already defunct [[BAA Indianapolis]] franchise that was originally planned for the league, but never played a single game there.https://www.apbr.org/baaminutes.html
7. (21 January 2022). "How the NBA's 75th anniversary sweeps away its early history". [[The Washington Post]].