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February 2, 1967, the birth of a franchise. It wasn't glamorous by
the standards of today, with the large groups of investors, the anticipation
by an entire city and a franchise fee in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
No, on this date, the ABA awarded the group of John Klug, James Peters, Gary Davidson and August Spaeth a franchise in Dallas for the sum of $30,000. However, the Chaparrals, as they were called, never even saw a game under this original ownership, as they were sold later in 1967 to another group which included Robert S. Folsom Jr, James L. Embrey, David Bruton Jr, Joseph W. Geary, Graham R.E. Koch and Lawrence S. Pollock Jr.
The Chaparrals never really became a power in the ABA. With one of the wealthiest ownerships in the league, estimates placed their combined net worth at somewhere around $750,000,000, they never used the money on their team.
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| The Dallas Chaparrals Logo. |
However, the team did manage to be mildly successful even without breaking the bank on player salaries.
In 1967-68, their inaugural season, the team finished with a record of 46-32, finishing with the fourth best record in the league and second best in the Western Conference and made it past the Houston Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs before being defeated easily 4 games to 1 in the Western Conference Finals by the New Orleans Buccaneers.
The team's success in early years is mostly attributed to Cliff Hagan, who acted as player coach. Hagan was a former NBA All-Star with the St. Louis Hawks who had retired until Dallas convinced him to make a comeback. As player-coach, he implemented a physical style that worked well in the early years of the ABA, and was also still very effective as a player, averaging 18.2 points per game in the first season.
The second season in Dallas was a bit of a disappointment after the first. The team's record suffered a drop to 41-37, finishing just fourth in the Western Conference. With the drop in record came a drop in attendance. The average attendance for Chaps games went from 3265 per contest in '67-'68 down to 2861 per game in 1968-69.
John Beasley was the best player on the team that year, being named MVP of the All-Star Game and carrying much of the scoring load.
Seven foot center John Smith was brought in from Southern Colorado, the rookie was expected to help the offense greatly, and although he helped the team's rebounding, he struggled with his scoring touch for most of the season.
Although they improved their record the next season, nearly matching the 46 wins of the first year with a record of 45-39, this third season was written off as a disappointment.
In January of 1970, the team fired Hagan as coach, many of the players had developed a dislike of him because of his boisterous yelling style as a coach, and management felt that the players needed more encouragement rather than screaming.
Vice President and General Manager Max Williams added coach to his list of duties, and the play of the team improved, averaging around 128 points per game the rest of the way. They managed to finish a respective second place in the ABA Western Conference, but were upset in the first round by the underdog Los Angeles Stars.
With the start of the fourth season came an attempt at a bit of a new era for the franchise. The teams ownership had decided they wanted to expand the fan base beyond just the Dallas area and to include all of Texas by regionalizing the team. The team's named was changed to the Texas Chaparrals, and instead of playing all of their games in Dallas, as before, they played some home games in Lubbock and Fort Worth.
The fan base in Dallas was about the same as in years past, however, the games played in the other two cities were complete attendance disasters, with the low point coming in Fort Worth for a game against the Pittsburgh Condors, in which only 200 fans showed up. The final five games in Fort Worth were then relocated back to Dallas.
The team also struggled on the court, with their record dropping to a measly 30-54 and a fourth place finish in the Western Conference. Earning them the right to be swept in the first round of the playoffs by Utah.
The next season, 1971-72, team ownership decided to abandon the entire attempt at regionlizing the team, changing the name back to the Dallas Chaparrals.
Another change in the team was at head coach. The team hired Tom Nissalke, who had previously been an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA.
Nissalke did a wonderful job with the team, improving them to a respectable 42-42 record and third place in the Western Conference. Nissalke also earned the ABA Coach of the year Honors for his efforts in turning the team around, but the team was again swept four games to none in the first round of the playoffs by Utah.
For reasons unknown, Nissalke elected to resign as the head coach at the end of the 1972-73 season, and he wound up coaching the Seattle Supersonics in the NBA.
Nissalke was replaced with Babe McCarthy. McCarthy proceeded to pilot the team to the worst record in the franchise's history, at 28-56. They finished fifth place in the Western Conference, behind even the expansion San Diego Conquistadors, and failed to make the playoffs for the first time in team history.
One of the few bright spots in this season was the signing of James Silas, who won ABA rookie of the year honors to start off his career as a Chap and then as a Spur.
The birth of the team in San Antonio took place in the 1973-74 season. The ownership in Dallas reached an intriguing agreement with Professional Sports Inc., which included John Schaefer, Angelo Drossos, Art Burdick, and B.J. "Red" McCombs.
As part of this agreement, Professional Sports Inc. would lease the team for three years with the option to buy. If at the end of three years, they were unhappy with the team in San Antonio, the franchise would return back to it's original ownership and move back to Dallas.
The original name of the relocated franchise was the San Antonio Gunslingers, but was changed prior to the season to the Spurs.
The 1973-74 season, the teams first in San Antonio, was surprisingly successful. Tom Nissalke returned to coach the team, taking over for the fired Babe McCarthy. Their home opener was against the San Diego Conquistadors, and although they lost, over 6000 fans turned out to watch the game in HemisFair Arena, which was nearly 3 times the average announced attendance figures of the year before in Dallas.
Once again led by Nissalke, the Spurs returned to the playoffs, finishing with a record of 45-39, and a third place finish in the Western Conference.
This season also saw the beginning of an era in San Antonio, as the Iceman cometh. In January of 1974, the owner of the Virginia ABA franchise was in desperate need of money, and Spurs treasurer Angelo Drossos offered him a deal. The Spurs would loan the Virginia franchise $225,000, with George Gervin coming to San Antonio as collateral, and if the Squires failed to repay the loan by February, the Spurs would keep Gervin.
The Virginia franchise, strapped for cash, accepted the deal, and failed to pay back the loan. Commissioner Storen tried to rescind the deal, but it was upheld in District Court by Judge Adrian Spears.
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| Donnie Freeman was voted one of the top 30 All-Time ABA Players. |
Nissalke was fired 27 games into the season. The Spurs had a respectable 17-10 record at the time of his firing, but team owners wanted to have an up-tempo team in San Antonio, not a slow down offense like Nissalke was running.
They elected to fire Nissalke and bring in a coach that would run a style more to their liking. Bob Bass was their man for the job, saying, among other things, "...you've got to let them play some schoolyard basketball.".
Playing their new fast-breaking style, the Spurs got back on track and flourished, especially players like Gervin and Silas, who loved the up-tempo game.
They surged to a 51-33 final record, good enough for second place in the Western Conference, but were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs, 4 games to 2.
The 1975-76 season, which would be the last for the ABA, started with the Spurs team getting a major overhaul. First was a trade with the New York Nets. As part of this trade, San Antonio sent Rich Jones, Chuck Terry, Bobby Warren, and Kim Hughes to New York in return for Billy Paultz, Larry Kenon, and Mike Gale. Secondly, they signed Allen Bristow, a 6-7 forward who had played previously with the Sixers of the NBA.
These moves allowed Gervin to move from forward to his more natural guard position. Among other things that happened during the season, the Spurs snapped a 26 game home winning streak by the Denver Nuggets, which made two years in a row they had broken a 26 game Denver home streak.
The Spurs finished that year with a record of 50-34, earning a third place finish in the Western Conference. However, with Silas injured, they were eliminated once again in the first round of the playoffs, this time by the Nets, 4 games to 3.
Article by Michael Bonner
