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We had pro basketball here once...the Carolina Cougars of the ABA League. They played in Dorton Arena as well.
Pretty fascinating history of that club. They stared out as a charter member of the ABA as the Houston Mavericks who were then purchased by NC Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner who owned the club for a year. They were considered a 'regional' club, based out of Greensboro, but played at the Charlotte Coliseum, Dorton, Reynolds and the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum.
Gardner sold the club to Tedd Munchak who held it for four years and sold the club to a NY business consortium that moved the club to St. Louis. It was one of two clubs that did not merge with the NBA, but prior to dissolving the club a deal was made that the St. Louis group received a cut of other ABA teams TV revenues in perpetuity that was worth over $300M for some 40 years. In 2014 the NBA reached an agreement with the NY group to forfeit future payments for a one-time $500M payment, making the total deal value over $800M.
The biggest legacy of the club was to open up professional basketball to the southeast because the NBA at the time had no interest in having teams south of Washington DC because of fan interest was fixed on college hoops.
Personally, I kind of wish the ABA was still around, if for no other reason than that crazy looking ball. Wild times.
Pretty fascinating history of that club. They stared out as a charter member of the ABA as the Houston Mavericks who were then purchased by NC Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner who owned the club for a year. They were considered a 'regional' club, based out of Greensboro, but played at the Charlotte Coliseum, Dorton, Reynolds and the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum.
Gardner sold the club to Tedd Munchak who held it for four years and sold the club to a NY business consortium that moved the club to St. Louis. It was one of two clubs that did not merge with the NBA, but prior to dissolving the club a deal was made that the St. Louis group received a cut of other ABA teams TV revenues in perpetuity that was worth over $300M for some 40 years. In 2014 the NBA reached an agreement with the NY group to forfeit future payments for a one-time $500M payment, making the total deal value over $800M.
The biggest legacy of the club was to open up professional basketball to the southeast because the NBA at the time had no interest in having teams south of Washington DC because of fan interest was fixed on college hoops.
Personally, I kind of wish the ABA was still around, if for no other reason than that crazy looking ball. Wild times.
Those red, white and blue balls did take some getting used too
Do you mind asking your parents if they remember a gentleman by the name of Harry Hilliard being on the Jim Thornton show. He was a my great uncle? Thank you.
Do you mind asking your parents if they remember a gentleman by the name of Harry Hilliard being on the Jim Thornton show. He was a my great uncle? Thank you.
I'm sure my dad would know of him but he no longer lives. My brother and I would stay up with my dad and watch The Jim Thornton Show when we were kids. He would occasionally let us get a little swig of Budweiser
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