[1] The Red Man Tobacco team originally played in the Westminster Gym and featured a number of Toledo's former high school and college stars, such as Rollie Boldt, as well as professional players like Chase Clements.
[4][5] During its semipro years, the Toledo Red Man Tobaccos opponents included teams from the American Basketball League (the Chicago Bruins, Cleveland Rosenblums, New York Celtics, Rochester Centrals, and Fort Wayne Hoosiers), barnstorming clubs (Jim Thorpe's World Famous Indians and Olson's Terrible Swedes), independent outfits (Flint Buick Flyers, Rochester Olds Motors, and Canton Orphans), and industrial teams (Akron Goodyear Wingfoots, Fort Wayne General Electrics, Auburn Automobile, Michigan Central Railroad, Robert Lee Shops, and Detroit Tool Shop).
The NPBL, which also included teams from Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Dayton, Columbus, Canton, and Cincinnati, was headed by Red Man manager Ed Cannon.
[23] That December, Cannon, unhappy with the team's play, released all of the Red Man players except for Davey Banks and signed five members of the recently folded Cleveland Rosenblums (Dutch Dehnert, Joe Lapchick, Pete Barry, Lou Spindell, and Charley Shudtz).
[27] Cannon replaced them with Frank Shimek, Rusty Saunders, Carl Husta, and Shang Chadwick – the latter three coming from the reigning ABL champion Fort Wayne Hoosiers.
[32] The Crimson Coach Tobaccos consisted of Fred Jacobs, Abe Yourist, Arnie Straka, Ollie Wiza, Hank Hubbard, Jim Barnham, and captain Pip Koehler and finished the year with an 8–4 record.