The 1946–47 Chicago American Gears season was the Gears' third year in the United States' National Basketball League (NBL), which was also the tenth year the league existed. Twelve teams competed in the NBL in 1946–47, comprising six teams in both the Eastern and Western Divisions.
Chicago played their home games at International Amphitheatre. Despite finishing tied for third place in the Western Division, the American Gears made a surprise playoffs run by winning the first series three games to two (3–2) over the Indianapolis Kautskys, followed by a 2–0 sweep of Oshkosh All-Stars in the semifinals. They then went on to win their first league championship 3–1 over Eastern Division champion Rochester Royals.
Player-coach Bobby McDermott (First Team), George Mikan (First), and Bob Calihan (Second) earned All-NBL honors .
Roster
Note: Bob Cotton, Bill McDonald, Irv Noren, Les Rothman, and Bob Synnott were not on the playoffs roster.
Regular season
Season standings
Playoffs
Opening Round
(2W) Indianapolis Kautskys vs. (3W) Chicago American Gears: Chicago wins series 3–2 Game 1 @ Indianapolis: Chicago 74, Indianapolis 72 Game 2 @ Indianapolis: Chicago 69, Indianapolis 61 Game 3 @ Chicago: Indianapolis 68, Chicago 67 Game 4 @ Chicago: Indianapolis 55, Chicago 54 Game 5 @ Chicago: Chicago 76, Indianapolis 62