December 30, 1967: The Forum Opens In Inglewood

December 30, 1967: The Forum opens, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. It becomes, and remains, the most famous indoor sports venue in the Western United States.

It was designed by architect Charles Luckman, and built on the site of a golf course, at Manchester Boulevard and Prairie Avenue, across Kelso Street from the Hollywood Park racetrack, 11 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.

It was built because Jack Kent Cooke, the Canadian media mogul who owned the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, wanted to bring the NHL to Los Angeles. He had been told that there were more than 300,000 former Canadians living within a three-hour drive of Los Angeles. The Lakers had arrived in 1960, and had played at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, next-door to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, whose Commission owned both buildings.

Dan Reeves, owner of the Rams, who played in the Coliseum, also owned the Western Hockey League's Los Angeles Blades, who played in the Sports Arena. The Coliseum Commission wanted to own L.A.'s NHL team, and told Cooke that, if he won the bid, his team wouldn't be allowed to play in the Sports Arena.

(This Dan Reeves was no relation to the man of the same name, then a running back for the Dallas Cowboys, who later became a successful NFL coach.)

So Cooke built The Forum, with $16 million his own money (about $140 million in 2022 dollars), and won the bid. The Kings debuted on October 14, at the Long Beach Convention Center, beating another expansion team, the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2. The Kings played 11 home games at the Sports Arena, and 6 at Long Beach, before The Forum opened on December 30, with a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, a fellow expansion team. The Lakers played their 1st Forum game the next day, December 31, beating the San Diego Rockets, 147-118. (The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971.)

The Lakers did very well at The Forum. The Kings did not, and their attendance reflected this. About those 300,000 people, Cooke remarked, "Now I know why they left Canada: They hate hockey!" In 1979, Cooke sold the Forum, the Kings, and the Lakers to Dr. Jerry Buss (his doctorate was in chemistry) for a then-record $67.5 million (equivalent to $272 million in 2022). Half of the payment was in cash, and half was in real estate, with part of Buss's payment including the Chrysler Building in New York.

The Forum hosted 14 NBA Finals: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1991, with the Lakers winning in 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988; but only 1 Stanley Cup Finals, in 1993, with the Kings losing it. It never hosted an NCAA Final Four (the Sports Arena did so in 1968 and 1972), but it hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1972 and 1983, the NHL All-Star Game in 1981, and the Olympic basketball games in 1984.

In addition to the Lakers and Kings, it hosted the Los Angeles Strings of World Team Tennis from 1975 to 1978, the indoor-season games of the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League in the 1979-80 season, and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA from 1997 to 2000.

For sponsorship purposes, The Forum was known as the Great Western Forum from 1988 to 2003, The Forum presented by Chase from 2014 to 2022, and now as the Kia Forum.

In 1999, the Lakers, the Kings, the Sparks, and the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers all moved into the Staples Center, now named the Crypto.com Arena, in downtown Los Angeles. The last Kings game at The Forum was on April 18, 1999, a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. The last Lakers game was on May 23, 1999, a 118-107 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Both teams played preseason exhibitions there before moving downtown.

Faithful Central Bible Church, with a congregation of over 12,000, purchased The Forum at the end of 2000, and began holding church services there on Sunday mornings. Unlike Houston's Lakewood Church, whose pastor, Dr. Joel Osteen, converted the Rockets' former arena, The Summit, into their church, Faithful Central representatives said that they never intended to convert the arena for religious purposes. In 2009, the church discontinued their regular use of the Forum for services.

The Forum was used for the 2002 film Like Mike and the 2009 film Hannah Montana: The Movie. In 2009, Michael Jackson rehearsed at The Forum for his upcoming concert tour, but died while those rehearsals were in progress.

In 2012, the Madison Square Garden Corporation bought The Forum, and renovated it until 2014. It began hosting award shows: The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2015, '16 and '18; the American Country Countdown Awards in 2016; the Teen Choice Awards in 2016 and '18; the MTV Video Music Awards in 2017; and the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2016, '17 and '18.

In 2020, SoFi Stadium was built on the site of the demolished Hollywood Park; and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer bought The Forum, planning to built a new arena for his team nearby, the Intuit Dome. The Forum will remain standing through at least 2028, when Los Angeles hosts the Olympics again: The Forum is slated to host gymnastics.

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December 30, 1967 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Two college football bowl games were played that day: Penn State and Florida State played to a tie, 17-17, at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Floirda; and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), playing on its home field, beat Mississippi (Ole Miss), 14-7 in the Sun Bowl.

The next day, New Year's Eve, the pro football leagues' Championship Games were held. In the AFL, the Oakland Raiders beat the Houston Oilers, 40-7 at the Oakland Coliseum. And in a game so cold it became known as the Ice Bowl, the Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The day after that, New Year's Day 1968, the major college bowls were played. Number 1 University of Southern California (USC) beat Indiana, 14-3 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and clinched the National Championship. Number 3 Oklahoma beat Number 2 Tennessee, 26-24 in the Orange Bowl in Miami. Louisiana State University (LSU) beat Number 6 Wyoming, 20-13 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. And Texas A&M beat Number 8 Alabama, 20-16 in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

There were 2 NBA games played on December 30, 1967. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Detroit Pistons, 122-107 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Wilt Chamberlain scored 30 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks, 106-104 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Jerry West scored 34 points.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association, which was in its 1st season:

* The New Jersey Americans (who became the New York Nets the next season) beat the Oakland Oaks, 123-117 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Indiana Pacers beat their rivals, the Kentucky Colonels, 124-80 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Indiana Fairgrounds Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

* The Minnesota Muskies beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 104-92 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Denver Rockets beat the Houston Mavericks, 96-80 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver.

And the entire newly-expanded NHL was in action. In addition to the Kings and the Flyers:

* The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Oakland Seals, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 8-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the Boston Bruins, 5-4 at the Met Center in Bloomington. Yes, it hosted an NHL game and an ABA game on the same day.

And in English soccer, a London derby was held at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London. Arsenal and Chelsea played to a 1-1 draw.