During the 1968-69 season, the Minnesota Pipers used Connie Hawkins as a "human billboard." The back of Hawkins' warmup jacket looked like a giant resume--it was plastered with Hawkins' 1967-68 post-season awards and a giant red, white and blue ABA basketball. Needless to say, Hawkins' teammates gave him a hard time about the jacket. Hawkins finally became so exasperated that he purposely "lost" the jacket during a road trip to Dallas.

(photos courtesy of Dick Engelberg)

The odyssey of the Orbiter Trophy was indeed a strange one. This bizarre trophy was commissioned in 1973 to be "presented annually to the winner of the American Basketball Association regular season series between the Denver Rockets and Utah Stars by Frontier Airlines." The bottom of the trophy was adorned with a crouching basketball player, surrounded by four wooden columns. At the top of these columns, a platform held numerous miniature rockets and stars, crafted in metal. A large red, white and blue basketball towered over these ornaments. Finally, a freshly painted Frontier Airlines model jet stood precariously on top of the ABA ball.

During the 1973-74 season, Joe Mullaney's Utah Stars beat Alex Hannum's Denver Rockets 8 out of 11 times, so the trophy traveled to the Salt Palace (above). Of course, the ABA never stayed the same from year to year, and for the next season both teams had new coaches (and Denver had a new nickname!). During the 1974-75 season, Larry Brown's Nuggets beat Bucky Buckwalter's Stars 9 out of 11 times during the regular season, and Nuggets GM Carl Scheer accepted the trophy in Denver's Auditorium Arena (below left). Naturally the metal rockets were replaced with metal Nuggets logos before the presentation.

Neither team won the trophy during the 1975-76 season, because Tom Nissalke's Stars folded only 16 games into the campaign. So where did the Orbiter Trophy end up? It's a mystery. (photos used with permission)

Because the ABA recognized the three-point shot, many ABA games had fantastic finishes. However, none was more improbable than the one that occurred in Denver on the night of January 8, 1975. For former Nugget Claude Terry, it was the most memorable game of his career. In 1991, he described it this way to Donna Carter of the Denver Post:

"I'll never forget it. We were down 128-125 against the San Antonio Spurs. Ralph Simpson had taken a shot with about 11 seconds to go and the ball tipped off the rim and was going out of bounds. Simpson saved it back to me, and I shot a three-pointer with about 3 seconds to go, and hit it. Back then, the clock stopped in the last minute. Swen Nater of the Spurs thought time was out, and the game was tied and going into overtime. He flipped the ball back in bounds right to Bobby Jones and Bobby just kind of threw it in quickly. We scored five points in three seconds to win."

Jones' layup touched off a wild on-court celebration for the Nuggets. In the photo above, coach Larry Brown hugs Jones (at left), while Terry (middle) still cannot believe the incredible ending. In the photo below, Denver assistant coach Doug Moe celebrates along with Jones, Ralph Simpson, and Fatty Taylor. (photos courtesy of Dave Gonyea)