The Dayton Rens, formerly the New York Renaissance, or Rens, moved to Dayton, Ohio in the middle of the NBL season to replace the Detroit Vagabond Kings, who went out of existence on December 17, 1948. While not all that successful in their one year in the NBL, the Rens had been a widely successful and popular barnstorming team during the 1920s and 1930s. The Rens had traveled across the Northeast and Midwest of the United States, attracting crowds as large as 15,000 to watch their games. As such, the NBL invited the Rens in hopes of bolstering a league that was slowly fading away faced with direct competition from the newly formed Basketball Association of America (BAA).
The Rens disbanded in 1949 after completing the 1948/49 season of the racially integrated National Basketball League as the Dayton Rens based in Dayton, Ohio. That was also the final season for the NBL, which merged with the all-white Basketball Association of America to form the also (initially) all-white National Basketball Association.
Due to dismal performance, the Metropolitans disbanded at the end of the 1937-38 season.
The Vagabond Kings only played half a season in the NBL before dropping out and being replaced by the Dayton Rens, but they did not totally disband and were playing barnstorming games well into the 1950s. The Vagabond Kings were owned by Dearborn, Michigan, entrepreneur C. King Boring who had previously owned the Detroit Gems. Boring sold the Gems in 1946 to Minneapolis business men Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen, who relocated the team to Minneapolis and renamed it the Lakers. Boring would use the money he made from that sell to fund the Vagabond Kings.
detroit local team that was founded in 1900s to join the other teams from the midwest.
When the NBL and BAA agreed to merge, two NBL franchises disappeared - Oshkosh and Hammond. Hammond tried unsuccessfully to raise the financial backing to join the NBA. The Oshkosh franchise was awarded to Milwaukee, but the team only lasted a month before being revoked by the league.
Hammond folded after the 1948-49 NBL season and had their players assigned to the Waterloo franchise as part of the NBL/BAA merger on 3Aug49
The Kankakee Gallagher Trojans began as one of the original NBL teams in 1937 but lasted only one season before disbanding. The Trojans are unique for being the only team to never have a player from another team play for them, and to never have any of their players ever play in any other professional basketball league. Even for the early days of basketball this is an oddity, as even leagues who lasted only a few weeks had players play on other teams and leagues.
Toledo disbanded during the season after losing their first 4 games.
what a year. the competitiveness of the ABL really brought the NBA out of its duldrums.