Good morning, Uni Watchers, and a Happy Tuesday to one and all. Hope everyone had a great (or at least good) Monday.
UW pal/contributor/author Leo Strawn, Jr. joins us again today, with more looks at basketball uniforms from yore. If you missed Part 1, click here Part 2, click here, or Part 3, click here.
Enjoy!
And now, here’s Leo with…
Hoops, Volume 4
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
It’s time to look at the ABA!
The ABA had some great logos during its tenure. Carolina Cougars, Oakland Oaks, San Diego Conquistadors and Spirits of St. Louis are my favorites. Honorable mentions for the classic Spurs and Nuggets logos, as well as the Memphis Tams and infamous Baltimore Claws.
In my opinion, the league logo was…well, let’s say…less than great.
A few weeks ago, I promised more photos of the legendary Connie Hawkins. Well, here you go, first versus the Oaks.
This one is against the New Orleans Buccaneers.
Though maintaining his innocence, he was expelled from Iowa as part of an alleged point-shaving scandal and essentially blackballed by the NCAA, NAIA and NBA. His first pro opportunity came with Saperstein’s ABL, where he won MVP honors in the league’s only full season at age 19. After the ABL folded, he played for the Globetrotters. The ABA gave him the opportunity he needed to get back into a pro league and he took full advantage of it as he led the league in scoring, helped the Pipers become the first ABA champions and was awarded regular season and ABA playoff MVP honors.
Two full seasons, two different leagues, two regular season MVP awards. As I said regarding Dr. J and the Hawks last edition, imagine what might have been. The NBA finally settled a lawsuit and allowed Hawkins to join the Suns in 1969, at the age of 27.
Hawkins wasn’t the only early ABA star that shined. After sitting out a season to get out from under his contract with the NBA Warriors, legend Rick Barry began his ABA career across the bay with the Oaks, who then moved to Washington and became the Capitals in 1969.
The following season, the Caps moved south and became the Virginia Squires in 1970. Barry was featured on the cover of SI in this rare photo of him in a Squires uniform. He swore he would never play for Virginia and was subsequently traded to the Nets without ever playing a game for the Squires.
Denver began its existence as a proposed franchise in KC, then were named the Larks before the franchise was sold to Bill Ringsby, who called them the Rockets. They changed their name to the Nuggets (after an NBL/NBA franchise) in 1974 as talks of a merger continued to avoid any issues with the NBA Houston Rockets.
Regarding the Denver Rockets, here’s another HOFer that you may not be aware played in the ABA for a season. Spencer Haywood made a name for himself in the NBA with the Sonics after winning ABA Rookie of the Year, MVP and All Star Game MVP honors, as well as leading the league in scoring and rebounding, all in the 1969-70 season with Denver, while helping them to their first playoff series win, 4 games to 3, over Rick Barry’s Capitals.
One more for this edition. Does anyone recall the Nets looking like the Knicks clad in red or the Colonels wearing green? Combine those and you have this beautiful color-on-color game from the 1969-70 season.
Until next time…keep in mind these four simple words:
The. New. York. Nets.
Cheers!
Thanks, Leo! Great stuff as always — can’t wait for Part 5 (and the Nets!!!).
Readers? What say you?
GTGFTS: Aug 15, 1972, The Muni in Kansas City. Royals 7 NYY 6. Lou Pinella walks it off with an RBI single in the 9th. Also, 1972 was the Royals last season at the Muni. They’d move to now Kauffman Stadium the next season.
That Hamm’s sign!!!
Leo you have resparked my interest in the ABA. As a teen growing up in the ’70’s, the alternative leagues-ABA, WFL, and WHL, always brought a different vibe. Anti-establishment and innovative always seemed to go hand in hand with these new leagues. I wasn’t fortunate to live in an area that had an ABA team, but I followed Utah because of Moses Malone. Here was a high schooler playing professional basketball. It was an amazing time! Thanks Leo!
Thanks, Rick. I think just about every sports fan growing up in our era loved the ABA, WHA and WFL and Gary Davidson was a household name for those us who did. Those leagues screamed, “Check us out, we’re cool, man”!!
Cheers!
I am currently reading ‘loose balls’ by terry pluto, so this was really cool. thank you
I am embarrassed to say I have still never read that book or the baseball classic from my youth, Ball Four. Might have to pick up a copy of each to sit down with.
Cheers!
I haven’t read “Loose Balls” either. I think I bought a copy for my brother. I should have gotten two.
I never saw that Nets uni before! Then again I didn’t see a lot of ABA. My brother was more into the Knicks and Cavs, and my sister was a Celtics fan. Dad wasn’t a basketball fan so there was only so much we could watch.
I’m with you, Leo. The league logo didn’t do it for me. Not a big fan of cramming a rectangular set of letters into a round hole.
Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to those four simple words of yours.
it is worth the read tons of interesting facts like Isaac Hayes being owner of Memphis Sounds with goal of intertwining of stax records. TAMS promoting to multiple state markets, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1million dollar mistake, and idea of creating a los angeles team of ucla alumni for Bill Walton. Awesome read
Thanks, Jimmer!
Compared to all of the flashy looks that defined the ABA, that was a pretty ordinary logo.
Jeeze, how many people were at that Nets vs. Colonels game? A couple hundred?
Considering that the Island Garden sat only 5200…link
The uniform that Rick Barry wore on the cover of Sports Illustrated was created for that photo shoot only. That uniform was never worn by the Virginia Squires.
Never noticed the difference in the lettering before. That is definitely a prototype of the road jersey they wore that season. Thanks for that info!
link
Thanks Leo! I came if age as a Denver nuggets fan- David Thompson, Dan Issel, bobby jones, and coached by Larry brown. We went to a few games in the 76 season, but tickets were hard to come by. Dr. J broke my heart, but still is one of my favorite players
One of my most prized possessions as a kid was an authentic ABA game ball. Oh how I wish I still had that.
Of course we played hoops with it all the time on our dirt court. It was amazingly tough.
OMG, the red white and blue ball. My brother had one. Love it. Also, Leo doesn’t like the ABA logo, but I think it’s quite retro-cool.
I had two friends who had ABA balls. If a red, white & blue ball was on the local court, we always preferred to play with that one over the traditional ball.
… and total coolness ensued!
I saw a Knicks vs. Nets exhibition game in 1973 where they gave away cheap, knock-off red, white and blue ABA balls. It was probably the worst, misshapen ball ever manufactured but when I brought it to the school yard, everyone wanted to play with it.
The NBA should have kept the red white & blue ball after the merger. It’s glorious!
For those who are interested, Lana Sports is re-manufacturing the original ABA ball, and it’s quite affordable. The proceeds go to help aging ABA stars who were screwed out of pensions by the NBA (at least, I think they still do). It’s only twice the price of my original ABA ball from when I purchased it the day after the merger and rode home on my bike with it under my arm. I still have that one too, and they are almost indistinguishable from each other. Nice item to have and a good cause.
I always thought that the NBA would have prospered from keeping the rivalry between the leagues at least semi-alive by creating an American Conference which used ABA rules and ball, and a more conservative National Conference with its existing rules. Would have made for some GREAT differences between teams, rosters, strategies and allegiances. And the annual “world series” would have been incredible (“but now the Celtics will have to find a three-point shooter somewhere on their roster, as they move on to Louisville and three games against the powerhouse Colonels. ‘Tell them I still hate that ball’, Celtics Center Dave Cowens defiantly stated…”). Ahh what could have been.
That would have been a great idea. The established leagues always seemed to want to squash the soul out of the competition whenever they absorbed teams from the upstarts, or as they called it, “merged” with them. I blame the NFL.
The NFL is historically responsible for established leagues not treating the upstarts that challenged them with any respect when it came to “mergers”. The ABA and WHA probably wouldn’t have survived for long, but as far as football is concerned, I still think that, a) the AFL could have beaten the NFL into submission or out of existence if not for Lamar Hunt jumping the gun just to be a part of the old boy network, and b) the AFL should have been allowed to stand alone after they did merge (as you suggested for the ABA teams) in their own league/conference, allowing them to expand to 16 teams in the years following in order to create a 32-team “league”. I would rather have seen the AFL expand to 6 more cities than the merged NFL being in charge of expansion. Yeah, what could have been…
Cheers!
First of all, Leo, I really enjoy your stories and archives; my seeds of getting into sports were planted in the early ’70s when my brothers (6 and 3 years older) played basketball in our driveways with goal mounted on our carports and would talk about Dr. J and Kareem, and they’d let me flip through their card collections. So, yeah, really digging your insights, and
To Christopher, what a cool concept that would have been! People who still dream of what could have been.
Anyway, just for the record, when the NHL absorbed the four WHA franchises in 1979, it was officially deemed as an “NHL Expansion.” I recall reading some of the details of said expansion that involved the teams’ getting to protect very few of their best players (I looked it up, two goalies and two skaters) but the Oilers, who got Wayne Gretzky from the Indianapolis Racers after he played in just eight games, were given the chance to protect Gretzky by going to the bottom of the expansion draft. And that was just the beginning of how the Great One helped evolve the NHL by setting on-ice records and being the subject of many business decisions that followed his entry into the big league.
Thanks, Terry. Glad you enjoy these.
Growing up with the AFL, ABA, WHA and seeing how the established leagues treated the upstarts after settling their wars with them, whether they called it “merger” or “expansion” or anything else, just made me sick. Over the years, I’ve quit watching NFL, NBA and NHL. I don’t know if it would have made a difference, but I think if the AFL, ABA and WHA had survived, I might still be watching.
Cheers!
It would have been great, but like MLB with the DH, they would have caved and put the 3 point shot in both leagues before long.
GTGFTU:
1970 Week 6 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore on October 25.
Baltimore Colts 27
Boston Patriots 3
Great article Leo as usual. Never knew several incarnations of Washington Capitals per se, 3 total,one in hockey 2 in basketball. All teams names spelled differently.
Caps, Capitals and Capitols.
Thanks to Leo for the trip down memory lane. My family moved from Cincinnati down to Louisville in the summer of 1967 when I was 5. My dad wasn’t much of a basketball fan at the time, but everyone gets more or less assimilated to the game after a few years in KY (although he did tell me all about Oscar Robertson as I got older). He and I probably started following the Colonels during the 1970/71 season after they drafted Dan Issel and followed them through the end of the league. I still am disappointed that the Chicago Bulls blackballed the Colonels from joining the merger because they still owned the rights to Artis Gilmore; it seems like the Colonels were a bit more financially secure than the Pacers after the 1975/76 season.
I had a VOIT ABA ball in the early 70’s.
But the Blue panels were a much lighter shade, like a sky blue.
It was a pretty good ball, especially for outdoors.