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Spirits of St. LouisYears of existence: 1974-75 through 1975-76
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The Spirits of St. Louis might well have been named the "Free Spirits" of St. Louis -- this was a unique, unpredictable team blessed with a wealth of young talent. The Spirits were born in the summer of 1974 after the owners of the Carolina Cougars sold the franchise to several New York businessmen.
The new owners promptly moved the team to St. Louis. The new logo (pictured above) was clever, and the Spirits' uniforms were classy. The Spirits played their home games in the 18,000 seat St. Louis Arena (also known as the "Checkerdome"). Their rookie radio announcer on KMOX 1120 AM was Bob Costas (current NBC sports anchor).
The Spirits kept only a few former Cougars (including talented veterans Joe Caldwell and Steve "Snapper" Jones). In reality, the Spirits were no different than an expansion team. Fortunately, though, the Spirits had a knack for signing and keeping promising young players.
Out of Providence College, precocious rookie Marvin Barnes (below, #24) had a huge (if not tumultuous) year for the Spirits in 1974-75, averaging double figures in scoring (24.0 ppg) and rebounding (15.6 rpg). A month into the season, after teasing Spirits fans with his spectacular play, Barnes suddenly left the team. His location was a complete mystery, and the Spirits were forced to play on without him. After a few days in the dark, the Spirits front office finally learned that Barnes was in Dayton, Ohio (at a pool tournament!) with his agent. Marvin was unhappy with his contract and had bolted the team in order to get his point across. Fortunately for all parties involved, Spirits management persuaded Marvin to return to St. Louis and rejoin the team.
 Sound Clip -- December 1974: Marvin returns to the Spirits and endures endless questions about billiards.
Early in Barnes' rookie year with St. Louis, he bolted the Spirits for parts unknown and attempted to renegotiate his contract. Eventually, he was found (along with his agent) in a smoky pool hall in Dayton, Ohio. Streaming RealAudio File -- 28.8 Modem & RealPlayer G2 required (free download here) Clip courtesy of Van Vance and used with permission. |
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While Barnes continued his torrid play upon his return (going for over 50 points in several games, and playing in the 1975 ABA All-Star Game in San Antonio), the incident spelled the end of Joe Caldwell's tenure with the Cougars/Spirits franchise. It was thought by the Spirits front office that Caldwell had encouraged Barnes to walk out on the team. Caldwell was suspended for what the team described as "failure to conduct himself in a manner consistent with his contractual obligation to the Spirits," and never played another game for St. Louis.
Another high-impact Spirits rookie was Maurice Lucas from Marquette. Lucas surprised everyone with his tenacity on the boards, and a deadly mid-range jump shot. Other 1974-75 Spirits were Gus Gerard (a third rookie), Fly Williams (a fourth rookie), Goo Kennedy (a former Dallas Chaparral), Don Adams (a former Detroit Piston, acquired at mid-season), Freddie Lewis (a veteran guard acquired from the Memphis Sounds), Mike Barr (a former Virginia Squire) and Steve "Snapper" Jones (an ex-Cougar holdout and a badly-needed stabling influence for the team). The coach of the Spirits in their first year was Bob MacKinnon.
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| The 1974-75 Spirits of St. Louis were anything but predictable.
Marvin Barnes (above left) overcame his early-season disappearance, missed practices, a fast food diet and numerous late-night parties to average 24.0 ppg, grab 1,202 rebounds, and win the 1974-75 ABA Rookie of the Year award. Early in the season, the Spirits solved their problems at the point guard position by trading center Tom Owens to the Memphis Sounds for Freddie Lewis (above middle, # 1). Lewis regained his all-pro form in St. Louis. Along with Barnes, he represented the Spirits at the 1975 ABA All-Star game in San Antonio (winning the game's MVP Award with a 26 point performance). You never knew what rookie guard Fly Williams (right, #35) would do on the court. A fan favorite, Fly averaged 9.4 points and 2.0 assists per game for St. Louis. Some nights Fly was hot, and some nights he was most certainly not. On the other hand, Maurice Lucas (above right) turned in a strong and consistent rookie year, averaging 10 rebounds per game, and 13.2 points per game. Out of all the talented Spirit players, Lucas had the most productive and long-lasting NBA career, finally retiring after the 1987-88 season. |
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The Spirits played poorly most of their first season, winning only 32 games. Attendance was sparse. But by the time the playoffs rolled around, the talented Spirits rookies (Barnes, Lucas and Gerard) had learned to play with the steady Spirits veterans (Lewis, Jones and Barr). In the first round of the 1975 ABA Playoffs, the lowly Spirits shocked the defending ABA Champion New York Nets four games to one. It was one of the most astounding upsets in the history of professional basketball, considering the following facts: (1) the Nets had finished 26 games ahead of the Spirits in the regular season; (2) the Nets had won all eleven regular season games against the Spirits; and (3) the Nets had Julius Erving.
The Spirits clinched the series with the Nets in memorable fashion. With the Spirits leading the series 3 games to 1, Game 5 was played at Nassau Coliseum in New York. Late in the fourth quarter, it appeared as if the Nets would certainly win and force a Game 6 back in St. Louis. With only 20 seconds left, the Nets were ahead by one point and also had possession of the ball. The Nets had to throw the ball in from midcourt. The inbounds pass went to Erving, who came under intense defensive pressure from Don Adams. Amazingly, Erving dribbled the ball off his leg and into the back court. The referees immediately called a backcourt violation, and gave the ball to the Spirits. Down by one point, the Spirits inbounded the ball to Freddie Lewis. Lewis dribbled to the top of the key and, with only three seconds left, swished a jumper to win the game (and the series) for St. Louis.
In the second round of the 1975 Playoffs, the Spirits faced Hubie Brown's powerful Kentucky Colonels. While the Spirits had finished 26 games behind the Colonels in the regular season, the Spirits had gained momentum and confidence from their shocking upset of the Nets. If St. Louis could beat the Nets, then why not the Colonels as well?
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Kentucky had the ball and a chance to go ahead. But with twenty seconds left, Ted McClain missed a wide open jumper, and Don Adams grabbed the rebound for St. Louis. Leading by one point, and with the 30-second shot clock turned off, all the Spirits had to do was run out the clock or wait for an intentional foul. Incredibly, though, Louie Dampier stole the ball from Steve Jones and banked a quick jumper to steal the victory for Kentucky.
St. Louis played well the rest of the series, but an ankle injury to Freddie Lewis severely hindered the Spirits' chances. The Colonels prevailed four games to one and advanced to the ABA Finals.
The Spirits' second season was a disappointment considering their 1975 Playoff success. New players included Don Chaney (lured away from the Boston Celtics), and rookie M.L. Carr (a future player and coach with the Boston Celtics). Also, after the Utah Stars folded in December 1975, the Spirits obtained all-stars Moses Malone and Ron Boone, plus Steve Green and Randy Denton. In the middle of this last season, the Spirits traded Maurice Lucas to Kentucky for center Caldwell Jones. In short, the Spirits' roster was stocked with players who would go on to have significant and productive careers in the NBA.
But even with all of the obvious talent, St. Louis struggled through the 1975-76 season. Barnes was forced to miss several games because he was involved in litigation. A former Providence College teammate sued Barnes and claimed that Marvin had struck him in the head with a tire iron. Malone came to the Spirits in December with a broken foot and with a demand to renegotiate his contract. He eventually played for St. Louis, but not until halfway through the season. The Spirits missed Lucas and Gus Gerard (sold to the Nuggets in December to make room for the Utah players).
Amidst all of this tumult, attendance plummeted. For games against lesser teams like Virginia, it was not uncommon to see only 400 to 500 fans in the cavernous St. Louis Arena. In 1976, attendance hovered around 800 to 1,000 fans per game even for teams like Kentucky (defending ABA Champions), New York (with Dr. J) and Denver (with rookie sensation David Thompson).
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| The 1975-76 season brought a lot of change and instability to the Spirits franchise.
Don Chaney (above right, #12) came on board for the 1975-76 season from the Boston Celtics, but only played in 48 games. After having played the previous seven seasons with the disciplined and methodical Celtics, Chaney found the Spirits' style of play frustrating and incomprehensible. Future Hall-of-Famer Moses Malone (right, #13) came to St. Louis from the defunct Utah Stars. Malone showed glimmers of dominance, but missed 41 games due to a broken foot. Ron Boone (above left, #1, floating in the air with Julius Erving) also came to the Spirits from Utah. Boone didn't disappoint. He provided his usual dunks, hustle, and double-figure scoring. Along with Barnes, Boone represented the Spirits at the 1976 All-Star Game in Denver (scoring 10 points in 16 minutes). Another of the few bright spots was rookie guard/forward M.L. Carr (above middle, # 30). After being one of the last cuts in the 1973 Kentucky Colonels training camp, Carr stuck with the Spirits and made his presence known. Carr was named to the ABA All-Rookie team. In the 1980's Carr became known to a wider national audience as a member of several Boston Celtics championship teams. |
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Late during the 1975-76 season, the Spirits made a run at Indiana for the last spot in the ABA Playoffs. But the Spirits finished with only 35 wins, 4 games behind the playoff-bound Pacers.
Interestingly, if the ABA had lived one more season, plans were in place to move the Spirits to Salt Lake City, where they would have become the "Utah Rockies." Instead, the Spirits died during the June 1976 merger negotiations with the NBA.
After it became apparent that the NBA would only allow four ABA teams to join the NBA, St. Louis owners Ozzie and Dan Silna reached a famous agreement with the other remaining ABA owners. In return for folding their team, the Spirits' owners obtained the right to 1/7 of any future television money received by the surviving ABA teams (Denver, Indiana, New York and San Antonio) -- in perpetuity. In the late 1970's, the NBA's contract with CBS was modest in scope. But as the NBA's popularity exploded in the 1980's and 1990's, the league's television rights were sold to CBS (and then NBC), plus the TNT and TBS cable networks, for hundreds of millions of dollars. Over the past 25 years, the Silnas have collected approximately $100 million from the NBA, despite the fact that the Spirits never played an NBA game. The Silnas continue to receive checks from the NBA on a yearly basis, representing a 4/7 share of the television money that would normally go to any NBA franchise.
MEMORIES OF TOM MARCUS: "I have fond memories of watching the Spirits play the San Diego Conquistadors on Easter Sunday, 1975. There must have been no more than 100 people at the Arena (the "Checkerdome," as I think it was called then). For whatever reason, the crowd was announced as several thousand. Those of us in the stands got a good laugh out of it. I recall that I sneaked into the owners' box for that game. Harry Weltman was nowhere within a thousand miles.
I looked at the Spirits history page on the web site. As long as we're talking about great nicknames, how about "Goo" Kennedy? And Marvin's preferred nickname was "News" Barnes, not "Bad News" Barnes, and definitely not "Movin' Marvin." He was an incredible talent, Marvin was, but most of the world never saw it. Despite his problems, I truly believe that Marvin had a good heart.
And I think there's a very significant (well, perhaps to three people in the world) factual error in your description of the Spirits' loss in Game 1 of the 1975 Eastern Division Finals . You correctly recount the Spirits' incredible upset of the Nets in the previous series, including Freddie Lewis' top of the key jumper with 3 seconds remaining in Game 5 (after pushing off Brian Taylor, not unlike Michael Jordan pushing off Utah's Bryon Russell before his "final" shot several years ago). But the Spirit who gave away Game 1 of the Kentucky series was not Don Adams, as recounted on the website. It was Steve "Snapper" Jones. Louie Dampier stole the ball from Jones and won the game for the Colonels. [Ed. note - this has been corrected in the history text above]. Other than the outright theft of the 1985 World Series by umpire Don Denkinger, this was one of the lowest moments in St. Louis postseason sports history. We know where Steve Jones is these days; no idea what happened to Don Adams, who was a very bright fellow (graduate of Northwestern)."
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| The 1974-75 Spirits of St. Louis had a couple of "characters" on the team, like Marvin Barnes and Fly Williams. Both of these players disdained the conventional, and requested "special" uniforms to reflect their personalities (above).
(Barnes uniform courtesy of Rich Russek, Williams uniform courtesy of Michael Murphy) |
FROM THE FEBRUARY 1975 ABA FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER (by Scott Haebich): "St. Louis held a 'Beat the Nets' night on February 6, in the hopes of ending a six game losing streak to the defending ABA Champion Nets. Some 2,500 clickers were handed out to fans, the Nets were forced to run under a ladder in order to get from the locker room to the court, and Julius Erving was hanged in effigy. Marvin Barnes, the Spirits' rookie All Star, even wrote the following poems just for the occasion:
Gather up close and hear what I say,
On Feb. 6 we'll be ready to play.
The New York Nets are going to be here,
And we need ALL our fans to come out and cheer,
Because the Nets are rough when they come to play,
With Kenon and Paultz and the bad Dr. J.,
But our time has come and WE ARE READY,
With Fly and Gus and Goo and Freddie.
So gather your money and place your bets,
Because on the night of the 6th,
We're going to beat the Nets.
AND . . .
There once was a doctor named Erving,
Whose slam dunks were especially unnerving,
But when Marvin gets movin',
And the crowd gets to groovin',
For the doctor a hospital bed they'll be reserving.
The final score of the game? NEW YORK 113, ST. LOUIS 92."
MEMORIES OF PETE KESSEL: "A couple of years after Marvin Barnes retired from the NBA he saw me speaking to some players at a Pro-Am summer league game in New York. I was there to recruit players for an Israeli team. He approached me and asked if I was a scout. I said not really, but I was helping a friend get some players for his team in Israel. Marvin then said he would like to play in Israel. I told him that they couldn't afford him. He told me to ask anyway. After telling my Israeli friend who Marvin Barnes was, he told me to offer Marvin $3,000 a month for six months. I was reluctant to convey this figure because I didn't want to embarrass myself or Marvin. After a couple minutes of arguing, I finally made the offer to Marvin. He waited a couple of seconds, lowered his sunglasses and said, "That's how much my phone bill is every month.""
MEMORIES OF KEITH ATKINSON: "I was 13 and 14 years old when the Spirits played in St. Louis. It was very cheap and easy to go to the games. I have several general Spirits memories. I remember the crowds being so small. You could really hear the coaches yelling at the players. I can still hear the Spirits coach hollering at Gus Gerard, "Gus! Gus!" The Spirits had these pretty burnt orange warmup jackets with black and "glittery" silver trim. The silver trim was so silver it almost looked like a light sky blue color on the Spirits' logo. I have several memories of particular games. One game, I saw Marvin Barnes score 50 points against the Memphis Sounds. I believe that was his first 50-point game. Another time, I saw the Spirits play Julius Erving and the New York Nets. In my opinion, the Nets had the nicest red, white and blue road uniforms. There are great photos on the ABA page of the Nets' road jerseys, but live and in person they seemed prettier. At the time, television coverage was very sporadic. So I had heard descriptions of Erving's game. But no words can describe the exhibition Dr. J put on that night. He scored about 37 points in this meaningless game. He had that big afro, plus the beard and goatee, and that menacing "game face" scowl. It seemed that whenever the Spirits would rally to make the score close, the Nets would give the Doctor the ball. He had so many different one-on-one moves, and he could slam the ball in people's faces at will. It was one of those rare times when the home crowd (including me) rooted for an opposing player. Every time Dr. J got the ball and started a move, the crowd would start anticipating. If he made a spectacular slam, you would hear a collective "oooh!" out of the Arena crowd. I had never seen a person fly so high, and seemingly dunk at will against five other so-called "defenders." It is said that you can divide basketball fans into two categories: those who saw Dr. J play in the ABA, and those that did not. People who saw Dr. J in the NBA saw a player bound and gagged by the NBA's structured play and packed-in-the-paint defense (due to the lack of a three-point line). I have some co-workers who are too young to remember the ABA, and they only remember the Dr. J of the Sixers. They are fascinated of my tales of a league with players with names such as Dr. J, the "Ice Man", Mr. K, the "Whopper," "Super John" Williamson, and Marvin "Bad News" Barnes."
MEMORIES OF GEORGE CARDOZA: "The Spirits had problems during the 1975-76 season for several reasons.
First, there were constant personnel shuffles. The Spirits had 2 coaches during the 1975-76 season, Rod Thorn and Joe Mullaney. Mullaney replaced Thorn in mid-season, after management became impatient with Thorn. In December, the Spirits practically gave Gus Gerard away to Denver. Marvin Barnes, Freddie Lewis and Moses Malone all suffered injuries that resulted in numerous missed games.Second, there was basic franchise uncertainty. In November, there were constant rumors that the Spirits would be merging with the Utah Stars. After the Stars folded in early December, there were persistent rumors that the franchise would be moving to Utah (months later, these rumors were confirmed). The franchise was a model of instability during the final season and this affected the team's performance on the court.
Finally, the weaker ABA teams were gone in 1975-76 (except Virginia). Every game was a tough one during that last year as the Spirits had to play the Nuggets, Nets, Spurs, Colonels and Pacers on a regular basis."
Game Action: 3/14/1975 Spirits of St. Louis at New York Nets (33 second streaming RealAudio File--28.8 Modem Required) (call by and copyright Bob Lederer and used with permission) Spirits 1974-76 Home Uniform |
 Spirits 1974-76 Road Uniform |
1974-75 Season
Record: 32-52, Third Place in Eastern Division
1975 Playoff Results:Eastern Division Semifinals vs. New York Nets (58-26)
Spirits won series, 4-1Eastern Division Finals vs. Kentucky Colonels (58-26)
Colonels won series, 4-1
Record: 35-49, Sixth Place
Missed Playoffs
1974-75: Bob MacKinnon