1944–45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season

The 1944–45 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season was the fourth season of the franchise in the National Basketball League. This season was also the first season where the NBL disallowed the goaltending ability for defensive centers due to the rise of taller centers in the sport at hand; in previous seasons, the notion of a goaltending rule wasn't considered necessary since centers weren't seen as very tall players at the time and jumping above the rim was a very rare ability for players back then. The team was led by the star backcourt of two-time league MVP Bobby McDermott and Buddy Jeannette. The season ended with the Pistons winning a league best 25 out of 30 games and McDermott being awarded his third MVP award. As of 2026, this is still the best record in franchise history. The playoffs began with a 2–0 sweep over the Cleveland Allmen Transfers to make the team's fourth straight NBL Championship series. From there, they were met by the Sheboygan Red Skins for the third straight year. The series went to a full five games, with Sheboygan winning the first two, but ended with Fort Wayne defeating Sheboygan to successfully defend their NBL Championship in a reverse sweep. The Pistons would not return to the finals for another decade as the rebranded Fort Wayne Pistons and would not win another championship until the 1989 NBA Finals as the Detroit Pistons. At the end of the season Blackie Towery left the team to join the military for World War II, though he would return to the team one season later following the war's end.

In addition to repeating as champions of the NBL, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons also participated in the World Professional Basketball Tournament for the purposes of repeating as champions of the WPBT as well. Unlike the previous year's event, the Zollner Pistons would compete against another NBL team in the 1945 event with them going up against the Oshkosh All-Stars in the quarterfinal round. After beating Oshkosh in the quarterfinal round, they had a rematch against the independently ran New York Renaissance (this time blowing them out) in the semifinal round before competing in the championship match against the surprise team of the tournament, the also independently ran Dayton Acmes, who were composed of players from the American Basketball League and aforementioned New York Renaissance that were stationed at the Wright Field in Riverside, Ohio. Unlike their previous championship run in the WPBT, Fort Wayne would make easy competition out of their opponents throughout the entire tournament (with their lowest margin of victory being by eleven points against Oshkosh), which led to them being the only professional team to repeat as both NBL & WPBT champions in back-to-back seasons. Not only that, but their repeat WPBT championship success saw them complete their quartet of goals they had throughout the season which saw them wanting to beat the College All-Stars in what was (at the time considered to be) the annual College All-Star clash against a professional basketball squad where no professional team had beaten them yet (which Fort Wayne succeeded in with a 44–38 win over the College All Stars on December 1, 1944), wanting to lead the league for overall records once again, repeat as NBL champions, and repeat as WPBT champions, as well as later beating the NBL's All-Stars 59–47 in an exhibition match two nights after their WPBT championship match as a bonus success goal at hand.