Recap
In the summer of 1935, the Midwest Basketball Conference was formed with Paul Sheeks, recreational director of the Firestone Tire Company, supplying the impetus. Dr. H.C. Carlson, basketball coach at the University of Pittsburgh was named commissioner. The league was organized informally, with individual teams arranging the own schedules. While it nominally operated as an amateur organization, it was in fact a professional league. The conference was a marriage of industrial teams such as the Akron’s Firestone Tire Co. and Indianapolis’ U.S. Tire Co., with long established professional clubs in cities such as Buffalo, Chicago and Detroit. Many college All-Americans dotted the rosters of the Midwest Conference teams, including Leroy Edwards of Kentucky, Claire Cribbs of Pittsburgh, Johnny Wooden of Purdue, and Bill Hosket of Ohio State.
I sincerely appreciate the research work, and the information being shared. It is important and interesting history.