Carolina Cougars
The Carolina Cougars were a basketball franchise of the American Basketball Association, which existed from 1969 to 1974. Originally, the Cougars were under the name Houston Mavericks, a founding member of the ABA in 1967. The Mavericks covered the end of 1969 after two unsuccessful seasons in Houston to North Carolina. The colors of the Cougars were green, blue and white.
History
The history of the Carolina Cougars began when the team was moved from Houston in 1969 to North Carolina. During the 1970 North Carolina had no major metropolis to establish a professional team, so decided the owner, the home games in Charlotte at the Charlotte Coliseum, Greensboro, Greensboro Coliseum, Raleigh in the Dorton Arena and the Reynolds Coliseum and in Winston -Salem in Winston -Salem Memorial Coliseum discharge as a regional team.
In the early days the Carolina Cougars were not particularly successful on the court. They finished the season 1969/70 with 42 victories and defeats in 1970 /71 with a 34:50 victories and 1971/72 with 35:49 win. Only 1969/70 reached the Cougars to the playoffs, but lost in the first round against the much stronger Indiana Pacers. Still, the Cougars particularly in Greensboro had a decent fan attendances.
1972/73 hired the Carolina Cougers the former ABA player Larry Brown and Doug Moe as a coach. The team this season was enough talented and involved the player Billy Cunningham Joe Caldwell and Mack Calvin. All three played in the All Star Game this season, Cunningham was named MVP. Carolina reached 57:27 victories, what was the best value of all the teams in this season. In the first round of the playoffs, the Cougars defeated the New York Nets 4-1, but lost in the Division Finals almost 3:4 against the Kentucky Colonels.
1973/74 proved to be the last season for the Carolina Cougars in North Carolina. Despite injuries and internal problems, they finished the season with 47:37 victories, but were swept in the first round of the Kentucky Colonels of the playoffs. The end of 1974 attracted the Carolina Cougars to Missouri and became the Spirits of St. Louis until the unification of ABA and NBA in June 1976. The Spirits of St. Louis were one of only two teams of the ABA who survived to the end, but were not included in the NBA; the other was the Kentucky Colonels. ( The Virginia Squires dissolved after the end of the regular season but before the leagues association for financial reasons. ) At the time of unification planned the owner of the Spirits to move with the team to Salt Lake City, Utah, to continue playing there as Utah Rockies.
The Cougars were a total of moderately successful and had more fans than many other clubs in the ABA; but even these factors were not enough to prevent the relocation of the Cougars. The regional approach may also have been a factor; more persons Loose Balls by Terry Pluto came in the book to speak, said that the travel costs incurred by the regional approach, have contributed to the failure of the Cougars.
The professional basketball returned to North Carolina in 1988 back when the Charlotte Hornets were included in the NBA, but this play since 2002 in New Orleans. Two years later played the Charlotte Bobcats their first season in the NBA.