1914 EBL Season
6 teams competed during the regular season
Jasper Jewels defeated Camden Alphas for the championship
League President
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Eastern Basketball League (EBL)
1913-14 EBL Season Overview
The interest in the Eastern Basketball League within the city was intense, not at all like the ambivalent relationship Philadelphia had with the National Basketball League a decade earlier. During the new season the EBL celebrated its return to prominence with a terrific battle for the championship that saw three teams finish in a tie for first place, with a fourth just a single game back. Fan interest mushroomed, with halls bursting to capacity. As many as 3,500 fans attended some late season games.
With three weeks left in the forty-game EBL schedule, four teams were tightly bunched at the top of the standings behind defending champion Reading Bears. The Bears, after an awful start, had righted themselves and seemed on the verge of their second consecutive title. Jasper was mired in fourth place with just three games left in the season when they caught fire. They performed the seemingly impossible feat of defeating Reading, Camden, and Trenton on the road in consecutive games to finish in a three-way tie for first with Camden and Trenton. Jasper’s remarkable late season surge came as a complete surprise after the Jewels had treaded water through all of the previous season and most of the current campaign. The miracle finish was largely the accomplishment of just two men, Dutch Wohlfarth, who played tough defense and controlled the offense, and center Bill Kummer, who led the Jewels in scoring and was accomplished at retrieving errant shots under the basket.
Led by diminutive star, Jackie Adams, Camden was the EBL’s highest scoring team and its most popular gate attraction. The addition of Roy Steele, an excellent defender from Gloversville of the New York State League, helped mask the team’s problems on defense. Trenton competed with essentially the same team as last season, with Harry Hough and Jimmy Kane doing most of the scoring. The team was virtually unbeatable on its home court, but lost a chance to take first place outright because of a mystifying inability to regularly defeat the last-place Greystock club.
Reading, the defending champions, got off to a very poor start due to injuries to key players. The defense continued to pound opponents into submission, but offensively the club sputtered. Andy Sears and Bushel Beggs eventually got the club rolling, but the early season problems were fatal to Reading’s hopes to repeat as champion. They finished in fourth place, just a single game back of the leaders. The veteran De Neri squad, that had battled Reading for the title the previous season, also was badly off form. They performed in uncharacteristically erratic fashion and landed in fifth place. Greystock took a firm grip on last place the first week of the season and never let go. The Jaspers completed their fairy tale season by winning three of four playoff games to prevail over Camden and Trenton in round robin series to decide the EBL championship.
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