Pittsburgh Condors
The Pittsburgh Condors were an American basketball franchise from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who played from 1970 to 1972 in the American Basketball Association. Their home games wearing the team from the Civic Arena, which is now known as Mellon Arena.
Background
The Condors began as Pittsburgh Pipers, one of the founding members in 1967, and won the first championship of the league at the end of the 1967 season / 68th They shared the arena with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL. They had ordinary spectators values with 3200 viewers on average for ABA standards.
Nevertheless, the Pipers moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Pipers. The Minnesota Muskies had trouble during the previous season and moved to Miami so to be The Floridians. The branch of the League was in Minneapolis, home of the League CEO George Mikan, so moved to the Pipers, as a local attorney named Bill Erickson bought a majority stake in the team. The Pipers fared no better than the Muskies and so they went after just one season back to Pittsburgh. In his book Loose Balls said the author Terry Pluto that happened probably because the co-owner gift Rubin could not imagine, to go anywhere else.
In the first season after returning to Pittsburgh the team retained his name. Nevertheless, the team was unable to match their previous success. So it was not surprising that the fans stayed away in droves. After the season, bought Haven Industries, the maker of Jack Frost, the team and decided that a name change was appropriate.
1970-1971
A naming competition brought forth the name Pittsburgh Pioneers. The crew of the local Point Park College (now Point Park University), who played in the NAIA, but already used the name and threatened with a lawsuit. In addition, a fan complaining that the winning entry had not complied with the 25 -word limit. To resolve the situation, the owners changed the name to Condor.
Jack McMahon took over the coach position. John Brisker and Mike Lewis played in the All-Star Game. The team finished the season with 36 wins and 48 defeats, which meant fifth place in the Eastern Division and missing the playoffs. There were 2806 spectators per game, although some observers believed that the real average rather was 1100. The audience response was so bad, that the Condors gave away every available seat at a game earlier this season. Only 8074 fans came and 3000 season ticket holders tried not to come. The owner did not believe in this idea and the general manager was fired after the game.
1971-1972
In the next season Haven tried to change the image of the Condors with a new logo and new jerseys for a 4:6 - start fired the general manager Mark Binstein the coach McMahon for unknown reasons and proclaimed himself head coach. The shot backfired; the Condors had 21 wins and 50 defeats for the rest of the season.
Later in the season the average attendance dropped below 1,000 fans. The situation was so bad that you thought the Condors would dissolve before Christmas. But while she managed to survive the year, Haven had seen enough and announced that the Condors would be playing in next season somewhere else. They began to carry their home games at other places, first in other cities in Pennsylvania, at the end of distant places. On 24 March 1972, the Condors the Kentucky Colonels received in Birmingham, Alabama; on March 28, 1972 received the Condors turn the Colonels in their final "home game" in Tucson, Arizona.
John Brisker and George Thompson played in the ABA All Star Game. The Condors were sixth in the Eastern Conference ( 25:59 ) and missed the playoffs. The average attendance was 2215 fans and would be without the games in Birmingham and Tucson have been even lower.
The bottom line
In June 1972, the ABA disbanded the Condors. The squad was distributed by means of a draft. George Thompson went to the Memphis Tams, Mike Lewis to the Carolina Cougars, Skeeter Swift and James Silas to the Dallas Chaparrals and Walt Szczerbiak to the Kentucky Colonels. John Brisker the Seattle SuperSonics joined in the NBA.
Known player
Connie Hawkins, Pro Basketball Hall of Fame