You can’t fully understand this card without reading… This link about the 1948 Bowman set as a whole.
The tenth card in the 1948 Bowman set, the Bob Davies card, may not be as well known as the George Mikan, but it still deserves much respect. Davies basically invented the behind-the-back dribble! The move made the newspaper the next day!
Rookie Card? It often gets complicated when deciding whether to refer to a 1948 Bowman card as a rookie or not. Technically, these are first appearances on a basketball card of basically all of these players, so there’s the easy way out. Some cards, like the preceding #9 Andy Phillip, mark the players first year playing professional basketball. Others, like this #10 Bob Davies, mark a player’s first year with the BAA. But Davies was already a well-established champion. In fact, notice the “NBL Champs” printed on his shorts on the front of the card! When the card was printed, he had already led the Rochester Royals to two championships (1945-46 and 1946-47). And then, he would go on to lead the Rochester Royals to an NBA championship in 1951!
NBL, BAA, NBA? This card has an important place in history that would lead to the Sacramento Kings. As you already know from reading about the 1948 Bowman Set, the set features BAA players…so what’s the deal with the NBL championships referenced in this card? The card marks the debut of the Rochester Royals in the BAA. Follow this… The Rochester Royals moved from the NBL to the BAA, these leagues later merge into the NBA, the team moves to Cincinnati in 1957 (Cincinnati Royals), then moves to Kansas City Missouri in 1972 playing some of its games in Omaha (Kansas City-Omaha Kings), team gives up on Omaha three years later in 1975 (Kansas City Kings), and finally, the team moves to Sacramento in 1985 (Sacramento Kings). A chain of events that all started with the move mentioned in this card, the NBL to BAA switch.
Another interesting piece of trivia is found on the back of the card where we see that Davies was commuting to coach at Seton Hall while playing basketball professionally! See the sentence on the back beginning, “Last year he coached…” Believe it or not, he is not the only player in this set to simultaneously coach and play. Howard Dallmar on card #14 did the same. We can also go back to the 1933 Goudey Sport Kings set where we find the basketball player Ed Wachter, another player/coach.
In Short: This card is more than a common in the set. What collector doesn’t want the inventor of the behind-the-back dribble in their collection!
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