1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season
NBL professional basketball team season
The 1946–47 season was the only season under the Buffalo Bisons name, as well as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks' inaugural season in the National Basketball League (NBL). The inaugural season of the franchise was also the NBL's first official season where they actually implemented a drafting system similar to what the future rivaling Basketball Association of America (and later merging partner to become the National Basketball Association) had for the eventual NBA draft system a year later following the conclusion of their inaugural league season for the purpose of controlled player salaries and limiting the idea of outbidding other players outside of their own 12-player teams at hand (with the NBL having a budget of $6,000 this season), as well as implementing key players to signing binding contracts as soon as they could and the NBL looking to have full-time referees on display. The team originally began play as the Buffalo Bisons, based in Buffalo, New York, but moved during the middle of the season (after only 13 games played in 1946) to Moline, Illinois on Christmas Day, becoming the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (though the Blackhawks name wouldn't be considered official for them until January 1, 1947 due to their new "Name That Team" contest being multiple weeks long). Due to the sudden nature of their move from Buffalo to Moline, the Blackhawks (now known as the Atlanta Hawks) inherited the original 5–8 record of the Bisons, as well as their brief history of existence there.
In addition to debuting in the 1946–47 NBL season, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks also participated in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, which was an annual event that saw both independent teams and professional teams (primarily from the National Basketball League, but also includes a team from both the rivaling American Basketball League and the short-lived Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League. Despite them not being a playoff team when they entered this event, the Blackhawks would get their first win of the event by beating the ABL's champion team (and future Basketball Association of America/National Basketball Association team that they would meet from 1949 until 1954, with later years being met under the Milwaukee Hawks name instead of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks name) known as the Baltimore Bullets before losing in the semifinal round to the team that eventually would win the entire 1947 tournament in question, the Indianapolis Kautskys (a team who had earned a bye this year alongside the three-time defending champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons despite never actually winning a game in the WPBT before this year's event with the Blackhawks being their first ever victory there and despite not having the best record in their division that year, nor not even holding the actual MVP of the entire tournament in the process of it all). Despite the early exit from the event, Billy Hassett was named a member of the All-Tournament Second Team there.
Draft picks
Entering this season, the National Basketball League would utilize their own draft system that would be considered similar to what the NFL has done for the NFL draft. As such, the 1946 NBL draft would be considered the first ever professional basketball draft ever done, even before the 1947 BAA draft that was done by the soon to be rivaling Basketball Association of America. Because of that fact, the Buffalo Bisons (as they were known to be called at that point in time) would participate in the inaugural 1946 NBL draft, which had occurred sometime during the 1946–47 season's offseason period before that season officially began for the NBL. However, as of 2026, no records of what the Bisons' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up (assuming Buffalo would have even be ready for entry by the time the 1946 NBL draft began), with any information on who those selections might have been for the Bisons (especially since the Buffalo Bisons later turned into the Tri-Cities Blackhawks franchise would be considered an expansion franchise for the NBL this season) most likely being lost to time in the process.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season” as nBL professional basketball team season. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as nBL professional basketball team season. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106706748. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1947, 1949 and 1954.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season primary sources, 1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season archive and Tri-Cities research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1946–47 Tri-Cities Blackhawks season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.