December 31, 1962: The Failure of the American Basketball League

December 31, 1962: The American Basketball League folds, early in its 2nd season.

Since the Basketball Association of America took on some teams of the National Basketball League in 1949, and took on the name of the National Basketball Association, the NBA had been the only major league in the sport. But when Abe Saperstein, founder and owner of the all-black Harlem Globetrotters, was denied a Los Angeles-based expansion team, and Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short was allowed to move his team to Los Angeles for the 1960-61 season, Saperstein acted.

Saperstein contacted George Steinbrenner, the Cleveland shipbuilding executive who owned the Cleveland Pipers, champions of the Amateur Athletic Union, and Paul Cohen, who owned the Tuck Tapers of the National Alliance of Basketball Leagues, and they formed the ABL.

Saperstein hired Bill Sharman, a former star for USC and the Boston Celtics, to coach the Los Angeles Jets. Their star player would be Los Angeles native George Yardley, who had starred with the Fort Wayne and Detroit Pistons.

Steinbrenner, only 31 years old when the league began play for the 1961-62 season, was already a man of big ideas and big ambition. He hired John McLendon, formerly the coach at historically-black Tennessee State University, as his head coach. If the ABL was to be considered a "major league," then this made him the 1st black head coach or manager in major league sports. (Unless one wanted to count the NFL in its very 1st season, which was a little premature, and Fritz Pollard coached the 1920 Akron Pros.)

Just as he would later be the 1st team owner in Major League Baseball to embrace free agency, Steinbrenner made a big splash with his 1st big signing for the Pipers: Jerry Lucas, who had led Ohio State to 3 straight NCAA Finals, including the 1960 National Championship. Because he was still in college, Lucas couldn't play for the Pipers in 1961-62. For legal reasons, he wouldn't be able to play in 1962-63, either. But Steinbrenner figured, with Lucas on his team from 1963-64 onward, he could rule the ABL.

The original 8 teams were the Jets, the Pipers, the Washington Tapers, the Pittsburgh Rens (short for "Renaissance"), the Chicago Majors, the Kansas City Steers, the San Francisco Saints, and the Hawaii Chiefs.

Among the players who had already been NBA stars were Yardley in Los Angeles, Connie Dierking in Cleveland, Gene Conley in Washington, and Ken Sears in San Francisco. Bill Spivey had starred at the University of Kentucky, but was caught up in the 1951 college basketball point-shaving scandal. Although acquitted, he was still banned from the NBA, and had played on semipro teams ever since, finishing his career with the Jets.

Among the players who would eventually become NBA stars were Lucas, Dick Barnett and Larry Siegfried in Cleveland; and Connie Hawkins in Pittsburgh. Hawkins had been a star on the playgrounds of New York City and at the University of Iowa, but had been banned from the NBA for his connection to a gambler. He would star in the American Basketball Association, before his NBA ban was finally lifted.

The Pipers won the 1962 ABL title, beating the Steers, 3 games to 2. George Steinbrenner had his 1st sports championship. Cleveland would not win another title in pro basketball for 54 years.

Various moves, in both leagues, doomed the ABL. Saperstein's founding franchise, the Los Angeles Jets, folded before the 1st season even ended. The Philadelphia Warriors moved to San Francisco, so the Saints moved across the Bay, taking on the name of a defunct minor-league baseball team, the Oakland Oaks. The Tapers moved to Philadelphia, to fill this void. Traveling to Hawaii was cost-prohibitive for most teams, so the Chiefs took the Jets' place in the L.A. market, becoming the Long Beach Chiefs.

But even as a 6-team league, the ABL couldn't compete. The Chiefs still had to compete for attention with the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Lakers won. The Oaks still had to compete for attention with the San Francisco Warriors, and the Warriors won.

And the Majors had to compete for attention with the NBA's Chicago Zephyrs, and both ended losing: The Majors folded, and the Zephyrs moved for the 1963-64 season, becoming the Baltimore Bullets. They became the Washington Bullets in 1973, and the Washington Wizards in 1997.

Finally, a rumor spread that the NBA's Syracuse Nationals were going to move to Philadelphia for the 1963-64 season. The rumor was true: They became the Philadelphia 76ers. So the Tapers were doomed.

And so, with no team in the New York market, and their teams in the other big markets failing, the ABL folded on New Year's Eve 1962. The Kansas City Steers were in 1st place at the time, and were declared league Champions. Kansas City has never won another pro basketball title.

After the folding, it came out that Steinbrenner had a secret deal with NBA Commissioner Maurice Podoloff: The Cleveland Pipers would merge with the Kansas City Steers and join the NBA, with Lucas staying in Ohio, in Cleveland, and boosting the NBA's attendance. A schedule was printed for the 1963–64 NBA season with the Pipers playing the New York Knicks in the 1rst game.

The gambit worked, but the ABL sued to block the move, and as a result, Steinbrenner had a team, but no league to put it in. Instead of returning to the ABL, Steinbrenner folded the team. This was the 1st move of his as a sports team owner that backfired. It wouldn't be the last.

The ABL did have a legacy, though. It was the 1st basketball league to have a three-point field goal. The ABA would use it for its entire existence, 1967 to 1976, and the NBA adopted it in 1979. It also had a 30-second shot clock, compared to the NBA's 24-second clock; and a free throw lane of 18 feet, compared to the 12 feet then used in the NBA.

Jerry Lucas would stay in Ohio, but with the Cincinnati Royals, where he would play alongside fellow future Hall-of-Famers Oscar Robertson and Jack Twyman. Dick Barnett would help the New York Knicks win the 1970 and 1973 NBA Championships. In 1973, those Knicks would also have Lucas, and beat a Lakers team coached by Bill Sharman, which won the title the year before. Connie Hawkins would lead the Pittsburgh Pipers to the 1st ABA title in 1968, then star in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns and the Lakers.

Saperstein, Sharman, Lucas and Hawkins would all be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame -- albeit, in each case, for reasons other than what they did in the ABL.

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December 31, 1962 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. No NBA games were scheduled. The NFL Championship Game was played the day before, and the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants, 16-7 at Yankee Stadium. There was 1 NHL game played: The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 1-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

There was also a college football bowl game played: West Texas State beat Ohio University, 15-14 in the Sun Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in El Paso, Texas.