1914 NYSL Season
8 teams competed during the regular season
Utica Indians finished in 1st place to claim the championship
League President
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New York State Basketball League (NYSL)
1913-14 NYSL Season Overview
In the New York State Basketball League, the always-powerful Troy Trojans engaged in a season-long struggle with a surprising Utica club, which had performed without distinction in two previous seasons. Utica’s success this season was engineered by the “heavenly twins”, Barney Sedran, the 5’3″ former City College of New York star, and his 5’7” running mate Marty Friedman. At center, Swede Grimstead used his height to advantage to control jump balls and capture rebounds, while veteran Kid Franckle helped out with the rebounding and provided extra scoring punch. Utica, displaying an accurate short passing game and excellent team speed, raced off to a big early season lead, at one point winning seventeen straight games.
Troy got off to a slow start, and then reeled off eighteen straight victories to close out the season. They came up one game short and had to settle for second place by a single game behind Utica. Coach Lew Wachter had the same strong combination as last year, featuring Ed Wachter, Chief Muller, Jack Inglis, and defensive ace Andy Suils. Lou Sugarman, the league’s leading scorer, propelled the Cohoes club to a third place finish. The sole interest in the remaining teams was the outstanding play of a group of new young players, Frank Bruggy at Gloversville, Garry Schmeelk at Paterson, and the best of the bunch, 18-year-old phenomenon Johnny Beckman at Kingston.
Because Jasper’s key players, Bill Kummer and Dutch Wohlfarth, could not play, the EBL champions declined to participate in a post-season tournament with the NYSL champion Utica team.
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