The Jersey Jaguars were an American Basketball Association

American Basketball Association (21st century)

The American Basketball Association, often abbreviated as ABA, is a semi-professional men's basketball league that was founded in 1999. The current ABA has no affiliation with the original American Basketball Association that merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976...

 team in 2004-2005. They were founded by owner/GM/coach Ron Eford, a former 4-year starter at Marquette University and veteran of minor-league basketball in the US and abroad.

A second owner - Graham Sampson - was brought on board to handle the business side of the franchise; however, his decision to pull out less than one week prior to the team's opening game resulted in Eford taking over all ownership duties, and also led to the name change from Jaguars to SkyCats.

The SkyCats/Jaguars were the third ABA team in the state, after the New Jersey Americans of the original league (who would eventually become the New Jersey Nets) and the Jersey Squires of the current incarnation of the ABA (the Squires eventually moved to Philadelphia, then disbanded in 04-05). The SkyCats played their home games at the Bill Bradley Center on the campus of Ramapo College

Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is a public liberal arts and professional studies institution of the New Jersey system of higher education.- Location :...

 in Mahwah

Mahwah, New Jersey

Mahwah is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 25,890. The name Mahwah is derived from the Lenni Lenape word "mawewi" which means "Meeting Place" or "Place Where Paths Meet".The area that is now Mahwah was...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

.

They finished in 5th place in the White Division with a 12-9 record. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Maryland Nighthawks

Maryland Nighthawks

The Washington GreenHawks were a team of the Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League based in Washington, D.C.. As the Maryland Nighthawks they were formerly part of the American Basketball Association and a founding member of the Premier Basketball League , in which they later played as...

, 124-105.

The franchise successfully had 6 of its players - and the person behind its mascot, Shimmy - promoted to more prestigious contracts abroad and in the US.

The team did not return for the 2005-2006 season. Ron Eford went on to play a portion of the 05-06 season with the Albany Patroons of the CBA, then returned to the ABA bench as GM/coach of the fledgling Brooklyn Wonders in 06-07.