San Diego Conquistadors
| San Diego Conquistadors | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Conference | none |
| Division | Western Division |
| Founded | 1972 |
| History | San Diego Conquistadors 1972-1975 |
| Arena | Peterson (San Diego State) Gymnasium 1972-1973 Golden Hall 1973-1974 San Diego Sports Arena 1974-1975 San Diego Sports Arena |
| City | San Diego, California |
| Team colors | Yellow & Red |
| Owner(s) | Leonard Bloom (The Q's) (1972-1975) Frank Goldberg |
| Head coach | K.C. Jones (1972-1973) Wilt Chamberlain (1973-1974) Alex Groza Beryl Shipley (1974-1975) Bill Musselman |
| Championships | None |
| Division titles | None |
The San Diego Conquistadors, nicknamed the "Q's", were an American Basketball Association team based in San Diego, California. They were the only expansion team in the history of the ABA. The team played from 1972 to 1975. They were replaced in the ABA by the San Diego Sails.
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[edit] History
[edit] San Diego Conquistadors -- The Q's
The franchise was founded by Leonard Bloom. But a feud between Bloom and Peter Graham, proprietor of the city-owned, the 14,400 seat San Diego Sports Arena, led Graham to lock the newborn team out of the facility for two years. By the time the conflict was resolved in the fall of 1974, it was too late for a weakened franchise that had been forced to play, in the interim, at such bandboxes as Peterson Gym (3,200 seats) and Golden Hall, a mere ballroom.
After reaching the 1973 ABA Playoffs in their inaugural season, the Q's seemingly pulled off a coup by paying Hall of Fame center Wilt Chamberlain to a $600,000 contract. The Q's intended for Chamberlain to serve as player-coach. But the Los Angeles Lakers sued to block their former star from playing for his new team. There was nothing that said Chamberlain couldn't stay on as coach, however. He was reduced to an indifferent, 7-foot-1-inch sideshow who once skipped a game in favor of an autograph session for his recently published autobiography. (His fill-in, on that and other occasions, was Stan Albeck, who later skippered the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets of the NBA.) Nonetheless, the team again reached the postseason, bowing out in the first round, for the second year in a row, in the 1974 ABA Playoffs.
The season, however, was overshadowed by the arena situation. Frustrated with his inability to get a lease for the Sports Arena, Bloom announced plans for a 20,000-seat arena in Chula Vista. However, a referendum on the arena, held just after the season started, failed by only 294 votes. League officials then ordered Bloom to take preliminary steps toward moving to Los Angeles, in hopes of returning to a market abandoned by the Utah Stars four years earlier.
For their third and final season in 1974-75, the Q's finally gained access to the San Diego Sports Arena. But without Chamberlain as a gate attraction, the team was roundly ignored by San Diegans, and placed last in the Western Division, missing the 1975 ABA Playoffs.
[edit] Replacement
Bloom turned the team over to the league before the end of the season. In the summer of 1975, the league sold the Q's to Frank Goldberg, a former co-owner of the successful Denver Nuggets franchise. Goldberg reconfigured the team as the San Diego Sails for 1975-1976. Goldberg hired former University of Minnesota coach Bill Musselman and, with a completely different roster, color scheme, set of uniforms and just about everything else, sought to repeat Denver's turnaround, in 1974-75, from mediocrity to championship contender.
[edit] External links
[edit] External sources
- San Diego Conquistadors page at RememberTheABA.com
- Peter Carry, The Qs Have Quite A Few Of The As, Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1972
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