Memphis Sounds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memphis Sounds was the name of a franchise in the American Basketball Association. The team had begun as the New Orleans Buccaneers, and after three seasons in New Orleans, Louisiana moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where it had occasionally played some home games in the past to reasonable crowds. The renamed Memphis Pros played their home games at the Mid-South Coliseum, which is adjacent to the Mid-South Fairgrounds and what is now Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.[1]
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[edit] Prior History
The Sounds resulted from a series of events that involved prior ABA teams.
[edit] The Buccaneers 1968-1970
The New Orleans Buccaneers were a charter member of the ABA. The Buccaneers were coached by Babe McCarthy, who was famous for two reasons. One was that he had coached Mississippi State University to a Southeastern Conference championship in an era when that league's basketball was dominated by the University of Kentucky. The other was when the then all-white Mississippi state legislature forbade the team to participate in the racially integrated NCAA Tournament. McCarthy took the team out-of-state in the dead of night and had them participate anyway, which gave him a near-legend status in the eyes of some (and the undying hatred of others).[2]
The team was owned in part by Morton Downey Jr prior to his becoming a famous talk show host.[3] In his autobiography Downey describes an incident in which he was arrested for bringing some of his African American players to a local restaurant, defends himself in court, and is acquitted.
[edit] Memphis Pros 1971-1972
After the 1969-1970 season the Buccaneers franchise was moved to Memphis and became the Memphis Pros.
[edit] Memphis Tams 1972-1975
After two seasons as the Memphis Pros, the team was bought by Charlie O. Finley, who also owned the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball[4] and the NHL's California Golden Seals. The winning entry in a "Rename the Team" contest was the Memphis Tams, perhaps one of the few entries that could be said to have been even less likely than "Pros." Ostensibly the nickname was an acronym for Tennessee - Arkansas - Mississippi, and the logo was a tam o'shanter-style hat in white, green and gold, which were also the new team colors, shared with the Athletics and Golden Seals.
[edit] Memphis Sounds 1974-1975
It soon became apparent that the Tams were not high on the list of Finley's priorities. Amenities like programs began to disappear, and morale suffered as players began to wonder if they would receive paychecks and if they would clear the bank when they did. After two seasons of this, the ABA stepped in and took control of the team. ABA Commissioner Mike Storen resigned his position with the league to take over the operation and run a new team in Memphis.
It might be tempting to think of the Sounds as a continuation of the Memphis Tams, but they were not. The team had all new players, a new name, a completely different color scheme and identity and completely new ownership. Storen lined up several notable local figures as co-owners of the new team including musician Isaac Hayes and Holiday Inn figure Kemmons Wilson. Storen named the new team the Memphis Sounds and developed a new red and white color scheme and logo.
Storen cleared out the former Tams roster and brought in veteran players such as Mel Daniels, Freddie Lewis, Roger Brown, Chuck Williams, Collis Jones, George Carter, Rick Mount and Julius Keye. The only player who had played for the Tams who appeared in uniform for the Sounds was Larry Finch, a local favorite because he had played college basketball at Memphis State University.[5]
The Sounds, coached by Joe Mullaney, finished the 1974-75 season with a record of 27-57, which was good for fourth place in the Eastern Division and a spot in the 1975 ABA Playoffs. Unfortunately for the Sounds, their first round opponent was the Kentucky Colonels, who had won the Eastern Division and defeated the Sounds 4 games to 1 en route to winning the 1975 ABA Championship.[5]
[edit] Aftermath
The Sounds were not financially successful in Memphis, and after the 1974-75 season the ABA franchise was sold to a group of businessmen in Baltimore, Maryland who used it to create a team that was first briefly known as the Baltimore Hustlers and then the Baltimore Claws.
The Baltimore Claws was an American basketball team which was supposed to appear in the 1975-76 season in the American Basketball Association. Immediately after the franchise's move from Memphis to Maryland the franchise was known as the Baltimore Hustlers. The team had serious financial problems and collapsed before the season started, playing only three exhibition games in its brief history.[6]
Not long after the Claws folded, the San Diego Sails and then the Utah Stars folded early in the 1975-76 regular season, abruptly shrinking the league from ten teams to seven. The failure of those franchises was a factor behind the ABA-NBA merger in the summer after the 1975-76 season ended.[7]
When the ABA became defunct and the copyrights on its properties were allowed to lapse, a minor league baseball team in Nashville — the Nashville Sounds — adopted the Memphis Sounds' color scheme and logo. As of the 2007 season, the name is still in use, but the use of the color scheme and styled logo was discontinued after the 1998 season.[1]
In 2001 professional basketball returned to Memphis with the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.
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[edit] External links
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