Fort Wayne Swapped Pelkington for Mogus
Fort Wayne sent longtime Piston Jake Pelkington to the Baltimore Bullets for Leo Mogus around the end of November 1948. The legacy TradeVerdicts intake uses November 30, but the standard Basketball-Reference team transaction logs do not list the exchange, so that exact day should be treated as approximate rather than presented as fully settled. The historical book The Zollner Piston Story explicitly says Pelkington, a six-year Fort Wayne fixture, was traded to Baltimore for Mogus.
Pelkington Became a Baltimore Scoring Leader
Pelkington became a major contributor immediately. After averaging 8.9 points in 14 Fort Wayne games, he played 40 games for Baltimore at 11.8 points and 2.5 assists per game. Basketball-Reference credits his only BAA season with 8.1 win shares across both clubs, and his Baltimore playoff production rose to 17.7 points per game in three games against New York. The Bullets finished 29-31 and reached the Eastern Division semifinals.
Mogus Helped Fort Wayne for a Shorter Stretch
Mogus gave the Pistons useful offense but for a shorter window. He played 20 games for Fort Wayne, averaged 8.7 points and 1.4 assists, and generated 1.7 win shares in that stint. He was still capable of larger scoring nights, including leading Fort Wayne with 22 points against New York in December, but he did not remain with the club. On February 3, 1949, Fort Wayne traded Mogus and cash to the Indianapolis Jets for Charlie Black.
Playoff Production Pushes Baltimore Ahead
The gap comes from both usage and duration. Pelkington gave Baltimore 40 regular-season games at 11.8 points per game and then became one of the Bullets' leading scorers in the playoffs. Mogus gave Fort Wayne 20 games at 8.7 points before being included in another trade. Fort Wayne was not left empty-handed; Mogus was a legitimate rotation scorer and still had transaction value in February. Baltimore simply extracted more immediate on-court production from the exchanged player and kept him through the postseason.
Final Verdict
Bullets Win — Baltimore A, Fort Wayne B. Fort Wayne exchanged veteran center-forward Jake Pelkington for Baltimore forward-center Leo Mogus around the end of November 1948. The legacy intake records November 30, while the standard Basketball-Reference team transaction pages omit this exchange; a contemporary-history account of the Zollner Pistons explicitly records Pelkington being traded to Baltimore for Mogus, and the season splits corroborate the move. Pelkington then averaged 11.8 points in 40 Baltimore games and 17.7 points in three playoff games.