New Orleans Buccaneers
Encyclopedia
New Orleans Buccaneers was a charter member of the American Basketball Association
. After three seasons in New Orleans, Louisiana
the franchise moved to Memphis, Tennessee
where it became the Pros
, Tams
and Sounds
for four years before an abortive move
to Baltimore
in 1975.
The group obtained their franchise for $1,000 as opposed to the $30,000 fronted by most other original teams. Charles G. Smither, one of the seven owners, served as team president; another of the investors, Maurice M. Stern, was operations manager. The team was named the New Orleans Buccaneers and former Mississippi State University
head coach Babe McCarthy
was signed as its first coach. Among the team's first players were Doug Moe
, Larry Brown
, Gerald Govan
, Jimmy Jones
and Red Robbins
.
Fieldhouse
during their first season and averaged 2,337 fans per game there. Doug Moe, Red Robbins, Larry Brown and Jimmy Jones played in the ABA All Star game and Babe McCarthy coaches the West team in the game. Larry Brown was the Most Valuable Player of the inaugural ABA All Star game and led the ABA in assists that season en route to being named Second Team All ABA. Doug Moe was named First Team All ABA and Jimmy Jones made the ABA All Rookie Team. The Buccaneers recruited Jackie Moreland
, originally from Minden, Louisiana
, who had played for the Detroit Pistons
from 1960-1965.
The Buccaneers finished the season in first place in the Western Division with 48 wins and 30 losses, putting them two games ahead of the Dallas Chaparrals
and three games ahead of the Denver Rockets. The Buccaneers then defeated the Denver Rockets 3 games to 2 in the Western Division semifinals
and then defeated the Dallas Chaparrals 4 games to 1 to win the Western Division championship
. The Buccaneers then advanced to the first ever ABA Championship series, facing the Pittsburgh Pipers. The Buccaneers and Pipers split the first six games but the Pipers won the decisive seventh game 122-113 to win the 1968 ABA championship
.
in exchange for Steve Jones
, Barry Liebowitz and Ron Franz
. New Orleans' Red Robbins
and Steve Jones played in the ABA All Star Game. The Buccaneers finished the season with a record of 46 wins and 32 losses which put them in second place in the Western Division, 14 games behind the Oakland Oaks who had posted a remarkable 60-18 (.769) record. The Buccaneers drew an average of 2,834 fans per home game.
The Buccaneers met the Dallas Chaparrals
in the Western Division semifinals and prevailed in a close series, 4 games to 3. Advancing to the Western Division finals, the Buccaneers fell to the Oakland Oaks 4 games to none.
The Bucs finished at .500 with 42 wins and 42 losses. This placed the team in fifth (last) place in that season's highly competitive Western Division, keeping the Buccaneers out of the playoffs. (In the Eastern Division that season that record would have tied them for third place and put them in the playoffs.) For the season, New Orleans averaged 2,599 fans per home game.
in the draft and rechristened itself the Louisiana Buccaneers, planning to play its home games throughout the state during the 1970-1971 season including in New Orleans, Shreveport, Lafayette
, Monroe
and Baton Rouge. Like most ABA teams, the Bucs were never on strong financial ground, and the move to the smaller Tulane Gym combined with the marked dropoff in their play caused revenue to dry up. It was hoped that becoming a "regional" franchise would provide more capital.
However, on August 21, 1970 the franchise was purchased by a new owner and ten days later it was moved to Memphis, Tennessee
and renamed the Memphis Pros
.
On December 10, 2008, in a game against the Charlotte Bobcats
, the Buccaneers were for the first time "revived" by the New Orleans Hornets, the city's current NBA
franchise, who played the game in 1967-68 styled Bucs throwback jerseys. The team's cheerleading squad was also dressed in Bucs throwback outfits, Bucs video highlights were played throughout the game, and many of the team's past players and coaches were honored at halftime. The Hornets would win the game 105-89. The Hornets wore their Buccaneers throwback jerseys once again in a road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers
on January 16, 2009, with Cleveland coming out on top 92-78.
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
. After three seasons in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
the franchise moved to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
where it became the Pros
Memphis Pros
Memphis Pros were an American Basketball Association team during the 1970-1971 and 1971-1972 seasons.-Origins:The New Orleans Buccaneers were a charter member of the ABA and played for three seasons, 1967-1970, winning the Western Division championship in 1969...
, Tams
Memphis Tams
The Memphis Tams were an American Basketball Association team during the 1972-1973 and 1973-1974 seasons. The team had previously been the New Orleans Buccaneers for three seasons before moving to Memphis, Tennessee where it became the Memphis Pros from 1970 through 1972. The team later became...
and Sounds
Memphis Sounds
Memphis Sounds was the final name of a franchise in the American Basketball Association. The team had begun as the New Orleans Buccaneers, and after three seasons in New Orleans, Louisiana moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where it had occasionally played some home games in the past to reasonable crowds...
for four years before an abortive move
Baltimore Claws
The Baltimore Claws was an American basketball team which was supposed to appear in the 1975-76 season in the American Basketball Association. The team collapsed before the season started, playing only three exhibition games in its brief history.-Background:...
to Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
in 1975.
Origins
With the founding of the ABA on February 2, 1967 a charter franchise was awarded to a group of seven investors, including Morton Downey, Jr.Morton Downey, Jr.
Morton Downey, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show....
The group obtained their franchise for $1,000 as opposed to the $30,000 fronted by most other original teams. Charles G. Smither, one of the seven owners, served as team president; another of the investors, Maurice M. Stern, was operations manager. The team was named the New Orleans Buccaneers and former Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University
The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science commonly known as Mississippi State University is a land-grant university located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States, partially in the town of Starkville and partially in an unincorporated area...
head coach Babe McCarthy
Babe McCarthy
James Harrison "Babe" McCarthy , sometimes called "Ol' Magnolia Mouth" or just "Magnolia Mouth", was an American professional and collegiate basketball coach. McCarthy was originally from Baldwyn, Mississippi...
was signed as its first coach. Among the team's first players were Doug Moe
Doug Moe
Douglas Edwin Moe is an American professional basketball coach. He is most closely associated with the Denver Nuggets franchise....
, Larry Brown
Larry Brown (basketball)
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" Brown is an American basketball coach and former player. He most recently served as head coach of the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Bobcats....
, Gerald Govan
Gerald Govan
Gerald Govan is a retired American professional basketball player.Govan played high school basketball at Henry Snyder High School in Jersey City.A 6'10" forward/center from St...
, Jimmy Jones
Jimmy Jones (basketball)
James "Jimmy" Jones is an American former professional basketball player who was a six-time All-Star in the American Basketball Association .A 6'4" guard/forward, Jones attended Grambling State University....
and Red Robbins
Red Robbins
Austin "Red" Robbins was an American basketball player....
.
1967-1968 season
The Buccaneers played their home games at the Loyola UniversityLoyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
Fieldhouse
Loyola Field House
Loyola Field House was an indoor arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosted the ABA's New Orleans Buccaneers, and the NBA's New Orleans Jazz. The arena held 6,500 people....
during their first season and averaged 2,337 fans per game there. Doug Moe, Red Robbins, Larry Brown and Jimmy Jones played in the ABA All Star game and Babe McCarthy coaches the West team in the game. Larry Brown was the Most Valuable Player of the inaugural ABA All Star game and led the ABA in assists that season en route to being named Second Team All ABA. Doug Moe was named First Team All ABA and Jimmy Jones made the ABA All Rookie Team. The Buccaneers recruited Jackie Moreland
Jackie Moreland
Jack Wade "Jackie" Moreland was an American basketball player for the Detroit Pistons and the former New Orleans Buccaneers.-Early Life & High School:...
, originally from Minden, Louisiana
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
, who had played for the Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
from 1960-1965.
The Buccaneers finished the season in first place in the Western Division with 48 wins and 30 losses, putting them two games ahead of the Dallas Chaparrals
Dallas Chaparrals
The Dallas Chaparrals were a charter member of the American Basketball Association, later becoming the San Antonio Spurs and joining the NBA.The team suffered from poor attendance and general disinterest in Dallas...
and three games ahead of the Denver Rockets. The Buccaneers then defeated the Denver Rockets 3 games to 2 in the Western Division semifinals
1968 ABA Playoffs
The 1968 ABA Playoffs was the postseason tournament following the American Basketball Association's inaugural 1967-1968 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh Pipers defeating the Western Division champion New Orleans Buccaneers, four games to three in the...
and then defeated the Dallas Chaparrals 4 games to 1 to win the Western Division championship
1968 ABA Playoffs
The 1968 ABA Playoffs was the postseason tournament following the American Basketball Association's inaugural 1967-1968 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh Pipers defeating the Western Division champion New Orleans Buccaneers, four games to three in the...
. The Buccaneers then advanced to the first ever ABA Championship series, facing the Pittsburgh Pipers. The Buccaneers and Pipers split the first six games but the Pipers won the decisive seventh game 122-113 to win the 1968 ABA championship
1968 ABA Playoffs
The 1968 ABA Playoffs was the postseason tournament following the American Basketball Association's inaugural 1967-1968 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh Pipers defeating the Western Division champion New Orleans Buccaneers, four games to three in the...
.
1968-1969 season
Prior to the season the Buccaneers traded away Larry Brown and Doug Moe to the Oakland OaksOakland Oaks (ABA)
The Oakland Oaks were a charter member of the original American Basketball Association. Formed in February 1967 as the Oakland Americans, the team changed its name to the Oaks prior to play that fall. Playing in the ABA during the 1967-68 and 1968-69 seasons, the team colors were green and gold.The...
in exchange for Steve Jones
Steve Jones (basketball)
Stephen Howard "Snapper" Jones is one of the most esteemed and watched National Basketball Association television analysts.-Basketball career:...
, Barry Liebowitz and Ron Franz
Ron Franz
Ronald Stephen Franz is an American former professional basketball player.A 6'7" forward, Franz played at the University of Kansas from 1965 to 1967. During the 1966-67 season, he served as team captain under coach Ted Owens.Franz was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 33rd pick of the 1967...
. New Orleans' Red Robbins
Red Robbins
Austin "Red" Robbins was an American basketball player....
and Steve Jones played in the ABA All Star Game. The Buccaneers finished the season with a record of 46 wins and 32 losses which put them in second place in the Western Division, 14 games behind the Oakland Oaks who had posted a remarkable 60-18 (.769) record. The Buccaneers drew an average of 2,834 fans per home game.
The Buccaneers met the Dallas Chaparrals
Dallas Chaparrals
The Dallas Chaparrals were a charter member of the American Basketball Association, later becoming the San Antonio Spurs and joining the NBA.The team suffered from poor attendance and general disinterest in Dallas...
in the Western Division semifinals and prevailed in a close series, 4 games to 3. Advancing to the Western Division finals, the Buccaneers fell to the Oakland Oaks 4 games to none.
1969-1970 season
The Buccaneers moved their home games to Tulane Gym (now known as Fogelman Arena) for the season. Jimmy Jones suffered a knee injury in December that limited his action for the season; he was still selected to play in the ABA All Star game along with teammates Steve Jones and Gerald Govan. Babe McCarthy again coached the West team.The Bucs finished at .500 with 42 wins and 42 losses. This placed the team in fifth (last) place in that season's highly competitive Western Division, keeping the Buccaneers out of the playoffs. (In the Eastern Division that season that record would have tied them for third place and put them in the playoffs.) For the season, New Orleans averaged 2,599 fans per home game.
End of tenure in New Orleans
The team picked up Wendell LadnerWendell Ladner
Wendell Ladner was an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball at The University of Southern Mississippi where he became a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity....
in the draft and rechristened itself the Louisiana Buccaneers, planning to play its home games throughout the state during the 1970-1971 season including in New Orleans, Shreveport, Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
, Monroe
Monroe, Louisiana
Monroe is a city in and the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. A July 1, 2007, United States Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 51,208, but 51,636...
and Baton Rouge. Like most ABA teams, the Bucs were never on strong financial ground, and the move to the smaller Tulane Gym combined with the marked dropoff in their play caused revenue to dry up. It was hoped that becoming a "regional" franchise would provide more capital.
However, on August 21, 1970 the franchise was purchased by a new owner and ten days later it was moved to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
and renamed the Memphis Pros
Memphis Pros
Memphis Pros were an American Basketball Association team during the 1970-1971 and 1971-1972 seasons.-Origins:The New Orleans Buccaneers were a charter member of the ABA and played for three seasons, 1967-1970, winning the Western Division championship in 1969...
.
On December 10, 2008, in a game against the Charlotte Bobcats
Charlotte Bobcats
The Charlotte Bobcats is a professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association. The Bobcats were established in 2004 as an expansion team, two seasons after Charlotte's previous NBA...
, the Buccaneers were for the first time "revived" by the New Orleans Hornets, the city's current NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
franchise, who played the game in 1967-68 styled Bucs throwback jerseys. The team's cheerleading squad was also dressed in Bucs throwback outfits, Bucs video highlights were played throughout the game, and many of the team's past players and coaches were honored at halftime. The Hornets would win the game 105-89. The Hornets wore their Buccaneers throwback jerseys once again in a road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They began playing in the National Basketball Association in 1970 as an expansion team...
on January 16, 2009, with Cleveland coming out on top 92-78.