Before the internet or cable tv came into existence, one of the best ways to get a perspective from outside one's home town was to have a good antenna on your radio, station surf at night,and hope for clear airwaves. No matter what,one had to count upon a certain degree of static as well as stations fading in and out..
From my Hartford Connecticut home,the New York City stations came in the easiest..sometimes with very little static. All news all the time from 1010 WINS was my go to station. Some nights I’d get WTOP in Washington DC which was always fun because I knew that was my grandparent’s favorite station and I’d always feel connected to them by listening. I’d also get WBZ in Boston,but there was something about that Bostonian tone that irritated me,so I seldom tuned in.
I’d do most of my listening while doing homework on our dining room table. One night while station surfing I came across a station that was not from New York or Boston. It was coming in fairly clearly and the broadcast captured my attention immediately. The station was WHAS in Louisville Kentucky and the broadcast was an ABA game between the Kentucky Colonels and the Indiana Pacers. The ABA! ..American Basketball Association.
From its inception in 1967,I had declared myself as a fan of the ABA. Already a budding rebel,I took to the idea of a sports league challenging the existing order. I liked their Red,White and Blue Basketballs,and loved the idea that one got three points for shots made from 25 feet out. There were also Connecticut connections to the league. Growing up,I’d listen to University of Connecticut basketball games and one of its former stars,Wes Bialosuknia had signed with ABA’s Oakland Oaks. Hartford had a minor league basketball team called the Hartford Capitols. I would attend their games.My favorite Capitols player was ‘Spider” Bennett who upon the league’s inception signed with the Houston Mavericks.
There was one problem in following the ABA. They had no TV contract. They only had one player in Rick Barry (who jumped from the NBA) recognizable to the general public.The media regarded the ABA as a minor league thus only seldomly were their boxscores published in the newspaper. It’s first year only its first game highlights were shown on TV and a Life Magazine article on the New Jersey Americans was about as good as the coverage got. To follow the ABA,one had to studiously check the sports section as even daily scores and standings were published sporadically. A subscription the The Sporting News helped,but there was also word of mouth. I knew this league was right for me as one of its early superstars was named Mel Daniels..no relation but having the name was good enough.
The league went through some rough times in the beginning..bounced paychecks,poor attendance,franchises moving from city to city.There were always rumors of its soon demise,but somehow they managed to survive and by the time the 70-71 season rolled around,they had been successful in signing some of college basketball’s better players such as Kentucky’s Dan Issel,North Carolina’s Charlie Scott as well as Spencer Haywood from the University of Detroit. It was in that season where WHAS came across my airwaves.. Once discovered,Kentucky Colonels games became a regular part of my homework routine. The broadcast team was Van Vance and Cawood Ledford. Cawood Ledford would also do University of Kentucky games and from the accent alone,you knew he had to be a born and bred Kentuckian.
I had called myself a New Jersey Americans turned New York Nets fan,but it was hard not to become a fan of the Colonels. They had Issel,sharpshooters in Louie Dampier and Daryl Carrier.Walt Simon had played in Hartford against the Capitols and Spider Bennett,but what I loved most were the characters on the team Cincy Powell,and Jim “Goose” Ligon. The NBA of the late 60’s -early 70’s was a buttoned down league. Great basketball players but little flair. The ABA was different and signed players who for one reason or another banned from the NBA and players who wouldn’t fit into a mold. Cincy Powell liked to talk and wasnt afraid of giving himself credit for being the star of the game those times when he was.Listening to Cincy Powell and Cawood Ledford post game was like a downhome version of Ali and Cosell. Goose Ligon was a forward for the Colonels. A stint in prison kept him out of the NBA. Average scorer,great rebounder,but his greatest role with the Colonels was as an enforcer. His elbows were weapons when rebounding.He wasnt afraid to make hard contact on the floor and would openly dare opposing players to mess with him. Goose Ligon was my favorite and when I found myself playing high school varsity basketball,I patterned much of my game after that of Goose Ligon.
Then there was the experience of finally listening to the ABA on a regular basis. Colonels always did well attendance wise,but games in Pittsburgh one could hear the dribbling on the court and what players and coaches were saying and you knew there were rabid fans in places like Indianapolis and Salt Lake City
The following season,the Colonels signed my favorite college player, Jacksonville University’s Artis Gilmore. That season,the ABA began playing NBA teams during the exhibition season. A game between the Colonels and the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was treated like a championship game by Kentucky’s broadcasters.(Colonels lost and Jabbar outplayed Gilmore)
Over time it seemed like the ABA began to gain more respect. ABA players such as Spencer Haywood were having successful careers in the NBA,and an occasional All Star Game and Championship series would be broadcast on TV. By the time I left Connecticut for Alaska,I didn’t have to tune into WHAS for ABA coverage as WOR in New York began to broadcast Nets games. Of course by then,there was quite the buzz over an old University of Connecticut rival,a player who I thought was going in over his head by leaving the weak Yankee Conference where he played college ball to a league I was convinced was every bit as good as the NBA now. His name? Julius “Dr. J” Erving.
I was living in Alaska when the ABA’s leading franchises left to join the NBA. I hated to see the Kentucky Colonels left out of the merger deal,but in Alaska there was no NBA or ABA Basketball to listen to anyhow..
