What's New
January 16, 2012: If you didn't know it before, you're about to see more ABA jerseys on TV than you ever saw before.
To celebrate the ABA's 35th anniversary, nine current NBA teams will wear ABA throwback jerseys during the next several months. Of course, the Nuggets, Spurs, Pacers and Nets have their own ABA throwbacks. However, five other NBA teams have "adopted" geographic ABA counterparts. Many of you thought you would never see those ugly Memphis Tams yellow/green "mismatched" jerseys again. Well, prepare to travel back to 1973 - the Memphis Grizzlies will wear those exact uniforms during the next several weeks. You'll also get to see the long-forgotten uniforms of the 1970-71 Floridians (worn by the Miami Heat), the1969-70 Los Angeles Stars (worn by the LA Clippers), the 1969-70 Carolina Cougars (worn by the Charlotte Bobcats), and the 1967-68 Minnesota Muskies (worn by the Minnesota Timberwolves).
Click here for a complete guide to the new ABA throwback uniforms, including the dates when they'll be used.
December 21, 2011: Information on Lloyd "Pinky" Gardner's new ABA book at right. A great read and highly-recommended.
September 6, 2011: Fan memories, fan memories, and more fan memories.
Over the past several years, so many of you have written in with your own ABA team memories. They were appreciated, each and every one. But they piled up in the web page "inbox" in the face of a constantly busy schedule. Now they are finally being sorted, spell-checked, and put onto the web page. Just about every team now has a new set of fan memories, with more to come. Some are detailed, some are touching, some are funny.
My new favorite is the "confession" from Bruce McLeod on the Denver Nuggets Fan Memories page. I also like the brief story and official Spurs letter shared by Adam Montalvo, found on the San Antonio Spurs Fan Memories page. Finally, check out the story of the last ABA regular season game played at the Salt Palace, as told by David Rohlfing on the Utah Stars Fan Memories page (hint - the Utah Stars were not involved).
June 19, 2011: Added another ultra-rare warmup jacket to the site: a 1967-68 Anaheim Amigos home warmup.
April 4, 2011: Congratulations to Artis Gilmore. Today, the A-Train was announced as one of the 2011 inductees to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. It was a long and sometimes frustrating wait, but worth it.
The Hall of Fame has a new voting committee for the ABA and Early African-American Pioneers of the Game. This committee paved the way for Artis' long-awaited induction, which will take place August 11-13, 2011. Here's hoping that the committee will add other deserving ABA players in coming years, like Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, Louie Dampier, and others.
For now - high fives, Artis!
January 9, 2011: Added more uniforms to the site: a 1971-72 Pittsburgh Condors road jersey, a 1969-70 Indiana Pacers road jersey (Bob Netolicky), a 1970-71 Utah Stars jersey (Willie Wise), a 1974-75 Virginia Squires home jersey (Willie Wise), a 1974-75 San Antonio Spurs jersey (James Silas), a 1974-75 Spirits of St. Louis jersey (Fly Williams), and a 1975-76 ABA All-Star Game jersey (Julius Erving). Thanks to Grey Flannel Auctions, James Tucker, and Bob Lieb.
November 4, 2010: Maurice Lucas passed away this past Sunday, October 31 after a long and difficult battle with bladder cancer. "Luke" was the ultimate "enforcer" on the court, and a kind, friendly person off the court. Any fan of the ABA during its last two years will always remember his emergence with the Spirits of St. Louis, and then the Kentucky Colonels. And, after the merger, no ABA fan was surprised to see him play 12 more years in the NBA, helping just about every one of his teams to the playoffs. We will all miss you Luke.
Lloyd "Pinky" Gardner was the longtime medical trainer for the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. In 1976, when the ABA finally gave up the ghost, Pinky saved a variety of Colonels uniforms, photos and historical items from the trash. He also happened to save some unforgettable memories of the team and the league itself.
If you're interested in the history of the Kentucky Colonels and the ABA, you must check out the book Pinky has written along with co-author Gary P. West. This book was no small effort to complete - it has 352 pages of interviews, memories, and photos, mostly centering around the Colonels franchise. You'll get inside first-hand information about Louie Dampier, Ziggy, Penny Ann Early, John Tong, Mike Storen, Darel Carrier, Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore, Hubie Brown, and just about every other personality connected with the team from 1967 to 1976. Pinky's year-to-year memories are especially interesting. They demonstrate all the highs and lows of working for a pro basketball team in a struggling league. Overall, the book provides hours of fascinating material for any fan of the Colonels or the ABA. If you want to buy a copy of the book, just e-mail Pinky for purchasing information. Let him know you learned about the book from Remember the ABA. He'll be glad to sell you an autographed copy.
Most
of you ABA and Denver Nuggets fans know that
David Thompson's autobiography "Skywalker" was
published in 2004. It's a great read.
However, many of you may not be aware of
the amazing
David Thompson documentary film ("Skywalker - The David Thompson
Story"). The film was produced by Rick Clemens at TriMotion
Films. It aired on the College Sports Television
cable network earlier this year, but is now
available on both DVD and VHS. If
you are an ABA fan, or just a Denver Nuggets
fan, you should see this documentary. There
lots of ABA photos (some from Remember the
ABA). There are a few ABA video clips. You
will also see numerous
post-merger photos and video clips of D.T. (with the Nuggets) slamming
dunks home over helpless opponents. They
really searched the archives for these -
many of the photos have never been published
before. And, most of the video clips have
not been seen since they originally aired
the 1970's.
Larry Berman was the official photographer for the New York Nets during their later ABA years (1974-1976). His Erving and other Nets photos (several of which are used on this web site) are absolutely spectacular. If you're looking for an 8x10 print of Dr. J, or various other ABA stars (including Moses Malone, George McGinnis and Artis Gilmore), check out Larry's Erving/ABA photo galleries at www.bermansports.com. Larry has some special price rates available for Remember the ABA visitors.
I've uploaded a few ABA game action screensavers (Dampier/Erving, McGinnis, Issel/Beaty) and four Remember the ABA promotional posters (Big Hair, Pittsburgh Condors, John Brisker, and Only in the ABA) to the ABA Discussion Group page. The promo posters were recently created by the Cramer-Krasselt ad agency on a pro bono basis (thanks to David Yang and Michael Herlehy).
In 2000, Remember the ABA was nominated for a "Webby" Award in the category of best sports web site. Four other sites were nominated in the same category: espn.com, foxsports.com, quokka.com, and sportsjones.com (pretty stiff competition). Thank you to all of you who have helped to place this site in such elite company (you know who you are!).
The famous slam dunk contest held at halftime of the 1976 ABA All-Star Game was one of those serendipitous decisions that was typical of the ABA, a maverick league that seldom planned anything too far in advance. It was an act born of desperation, but desperate times demand desperate measures. And the ABA was in decidedly desperate times. Read all about the dunk contest in Michael Murphy's comprehensive article about the ABA: "The ABA Way"
In honor of San Antonio's 1999 appearance in
the NBA Finals, the CNN/SI web site posted a color
photo essay on the red, white and blue league. Each
of the photos (11 of them) appeared in Sports
Illustrated from 1970 to 1976. Check out Artis Gilmore dunking in
the Pittsburgh Civic Arena against John Brisker and the Condors.
January 16, 2012: If you didn't know it before, you're about to see more ABA jerseys on TV than you ever saw before.
To celebrate the ABA's 35th anniversary, nine current NBA teams will wear ABA throwback jerseys during the next several months. Of course, the Nuggets, Spurs, Pacers and Nets have their own ABA throwbacks. However, five other NBA teams have "adopted" geographic ABA counterparts. Many of you thought you would never see those ugly Memphis Tams yellow/green "mismatched" jerseys again. Well, prepare to travel back to 1973 - the Memphis Grizzlies will wear those exact uniforms during the next several weeks. You'll also get to see the long-forgotten uniforms of the 1970-71 Floridians (worn by the Miami Heat), the1969-70 Los Angeles Stars (worn by the LA Clippers), the 1969-70 Carolina Cougars (worn by the Charlotte Bobcats), and the 1967-68 Minnesota Muskies (worn by the Minnesota Timberwolves).
Click here for a complete guide to the new ABA throwback uniforms, including the dates when they'll be used.
December 21, 2011: Information on Lloyd "Pinky" Gardner's new ABA book at right. A great read and highly-recommended.
September 6, 2011: Fan memories, fan memories, and more fan memories.
Over the past several years, so many of you have written in with your own ABA team memories. They were appreciated, each and every one. But they piled up in the web page "inbox" in the face of a constantly busy schedule. Now they are finally being sorted, spell-checked, and put onto the web page. Just about every team now has a new set of fan memories, with more to come. Some are detailed, some are touching, some are funny.
My new favorite is the "confession" from Bruce McLeod on the Denver Nuggets Fan Memories page. I also like the brief story and official Spurs letter shared by Adam Montalvo, found on the San Antonio Spurs Fan Memories page. Finally, check out the story of the last ABA regular season game played at the Salt Palace, as told by David Rohlfing on the Utah Stars Fan Memories page (hint - the Utah Stars were not involved).
June 19, 2011: Added another ultra-rare warmup jacket to the site: a 1967-68 Anaheim Amigos home warmup.
April 4, 2011: Congratulations to Artis Gilmore. Today, the A-Train was announced as one of the 2011 inductees to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. It was a long and sometimes frustrating wait, but worth it.
The Hall of Fame has a new voting committee for the ABA and Early African-American Pioneers of the Game. This committee paved the way for Artis' long-awaited induction, which will take place August 11-13, 2011. Here's hoping that the committee will add other deserving ABA players in coming years, like Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, Louie Dampier, and others.
For now - high fives, Artis!
|
January 9, 2011: Added more uniforms to the site: a 1971-72 Pittsburgh Condors road jersey, a 1969-70 Indiana Pacers road jersey (Bob Netolicky), a 1970-71 Utah Stars jersey (Willie Wise), a 1974-75 Virginia Squires home jersey (Willie Wise), a 1974-75 San Antonio Spurs jersey (James Silas), a 1974-75 Spirits of St. Louis jersey (Fly Williams), and a 1975-76 ABA All-Star Game jersey (Julius Erving). Thanks to Grey Flannel Auctions, James Tucker, and Bob Lieb.
|
November 4, 2010: Maurice Lucas passed away this past Sunday, October 31 after a long and difficult battle with bladder cancer. "Luke" was the ultimate "enforcer" on the court, and a kind, friendly person off the court. Any fan of the ABA during its last two years will always remember his emergence with the Spirits of St. Louis, and then the Kentucky Colonels. And, after the merger, no ABA fan was surprised to see him play 12 more years in the NBA, helping just about every one of his teams to the playoffs. We will all miss you Luke.
Lloyd "Pinky" Gardner was the longtime medical trainer for the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. In 1976, when the ABA finally gave up the ghost, Pinky saved a variety of Colonels uniforms, photos and historical items from the trash. He also happened to save some unforgettable memories of the team and the league itself.
If you're interested in the history of the Kentucky Colonels and the ABA, you must check out the book Pinky has written along with co-author Gary P. West. This book was no small effort to complete - it has 352 pages of interviews, memories, and photos, mostly centering around the Colonels franchise. You'll get inside first-hand information about Louie Dampier, Ziggy, Penny Ann Early, John Tong, Mike Storen, Darel Carrier, Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore, Hubie Brown, and just about every other personality connected with the team from 1967 to 1976. Pinky's year-to-year memories are especially interesting. They demonstrate all the highs and lows of working for a pro basketball team in a struggling league. Overall, the book provides hours of fascinating material for any fan of the Colonels or the ABA. If you want to buy a copy of the book, just e-mail Pinky for purchasing information. Let him know you learned about the book from Remember the ABA. He'll be glad to sell you an autographed copy.
Most of you ABA and Denver Nuggets fans know that David Thompson's autobiography "Skywalker" was published in 2004. It's a great read. However, many of you may not be aware of the amazing David Thompson documentary film ("Skywalker - The David Thompson Story"). The film was produced by Rick Clemens at TriMotion Films. It aired on the College Sports Television cable network earlier this year, but is now available on both DVD and VHS. If you are an ABA fan, or just a Denver Nuggets fan, you should see this documentary. There lots of ABA photos (some from Remember the ABA). There are a few ABA video clips. You will also see numerous post-merger photos and video clips of D.T. (with the Nuggets) slamming dunks home over helpless opponents. They really searched the archives for these - many of the photos have never been published before. And, most of the video clips have not been seen since they originally aired the 1970's.
Larry Berman was the official photographer for the New York Nets during their later ABA years (1974-1976). His Erving and other Nets photos (several of which are used on this web site) are absolutely spectacular. If you're looking for an 8x10 print of Dr. J, or various other ABA stars (including Moses Malone, George McGinnis and Artis Gilmore), check out Larry's Erving/ABA photo galleries at www.bermansports.com. Larry has some special price rates available for Remember the ABA visitors.
