1975 ABA Champion Kentucky Colonels 30th Anniversary interview - Part 1
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- In May 2005, Steve Higdon brought the KY Colonels 1975 championship team home for a 30th anniversary celebration. They were the honorary grand marshals of the 50th annual KY Derby Festival parade. 400,000 strong celebrated as the KY Colonels finally got their parade! This is a very special production interviewing the Colonels 30 years after their incredible championship season. Its a 30 minute production and this is the first of two parts.
An amazing time and team. It was a total disgrace that the Colonels did not make it to the NBA.
Aba was the greatest basketball league of all time
Man, I wish Kentucky would have a pro team again.
The NBA should have admitted the Kentucky Colonels into the league.
Armory Brunot,Jr. As a Kentucky native, it really pisses me off that we have no pro team from ANY sport.
I remember the ABA days well. I was a SA kid....and would regularly go see my Spurs play at the old Hemisphere Area.....the Iceman George Gervin, Mr K Larry Kenon, Captain Late James Silas, The Big Whopper Billie Paultz, Louie Dampier, Mark Olberding, Mike Gale.....and several more who’s nMes escape me.
Such glorious times in sports.......l
As Dan Issel says in this clip, it is surprising that the Colonels only won one ABA title. I was fortunate enough to see the ‘71-‘72 Kentucky Colonels in action when they visited Moody Coliseum in Dallas. The Chaparrals handed the Colonels one of their 16 losses that night, 100-92. Kentucky was loaded with talent, resulting in 68 wins that year, setting the all-time ABA record for wins. Oddly, the ‘71-‘72 season also resulted in the NBA record for most wins, with the Los Angeles Lakers going 69-13. That record lasted for 24 years. I was shocked when Kentucky fell to the 44-40 New York Nets in the first round of the playoffs. The structure of the ABA playoffs from its beginning in ‘67-‘68 through the ‘71-‘72 season was unusual in that in the first round the first seed in each division played the third seed and the second seed was matched against the fourth seed. Perhaps the Colonels loss to the Nets changed the league’s thoughts on the matter, as in the following year and for the remainder of the ABA’s history, the teams were seeded 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3.
No Colonels in the NBA? Can you say "anti-trust violation," boys and girls? OF COURSE they should have made the cut! Top ten in pro attendance, a major league arena, a strong team and organization...oh, wait-all that's why the NBA did the Colonels in-they wanted all the players and didn't want to compete against a strong new team 2 to 10 times a year, including any playoffs. And half of these games before 18,000 on the road in Freedom Hall!
+King Bee Possibly could've been the best ABA entry into the NBA. Fans were robbed of seeing their excellence. ROBBED!
If you look up the ABA/NBA merger, it was the Chicago Bulls as the lone dissenter's in allowing the Colonels to join the NBA. But they (the NBA) were only going to allow 4 teams to join no matter what.....
This is from wikipedia:
"The NBA's Chicago Bulls desperately wanted Colonels star Artis Gilmore, whose NBA rights the Bulls owned, so the Bulls fought hard to keep the Colonels out of the merger."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Basketball_Association_National_Basketball_Association_merger
I am not aware of that. Still, if that is the case. shame on the Bulls.Makes some sense, though.
I'll tell you this, as a lifelong Indiana Pacers fan, I'm glad and sad all at the same time. As a kid growing up, I can remember that the rivalry our 2 teams had was, and still is, and always will be remembered as one of the best rivalries ever in all of American pro sports history in the 20th century.
But in saying that, we had to pay a very heavy price to join the NBA. It didn't come too cheap, you know? Now, by today's standards $3 mil US isn't a lot of money, but in terms of 1976 dollars it was a lot, plus we had to forfeit all of our TV revenues for the first 3-4 years. Ouch! And that in itself was a fairly steep price for us to have to pay, all on its own...
+CatfishHunter61: Yeah, that's the way I've always understood the tale. The so-called merger was more of a mugging, by the way.
I really liked the ABA. I wish instead of being absorbed into the NBA, I wish the NBA would have been set up like when the AFL and NFL merged resulting in the AFC and NFC. They could have had a "Super Series" like the Super Bowl.
Part 2. I don't think John Y Brown realized what he had by not paying to take the team to the NBA. The 75 team was the best team in pro basketball that year. If the Colonels could have got Dan Issel back from Denver they were an instant chamionship contender. One funny story just a few years ago I was at Southport High School in the Indianapolis area and found the wall of fame.
Best pro basketball team -- ABA or NBA -- ever? The 1975 Colonels had it all together! And Hubie Brown was an innovator and a breath of fresh air for a team that had long lacked chemistry between the players and coaches. These Colonels were the greatest!
And they saved 1975 for the state's fans --the universities of Louisville and Kentucky barely let the '75 NCAA title slip through their hands. But the Colonels brought it home!
Hubie is my go to guy for basketball knowledge
Head Coach Hubie Brown, and Assistant Coach Stan Albeck would go on to greatness in coaching in the NBA too. Hubie Brown became the Voice of the NBA in television. The Kentucky Colonels and The Indiana Pacers were the Premiere Organizations in the American Basketball Association. The Kentucky Colonels had a ALL FEMALE Ownership. Indiana and Kentucky are premiere Basketball Heritage States in America.
Part 5. The Derby Parade honoring the Colonels was the only time I wanted to go to it. I could not due to the hours I was working. I know I ramble a little in the comments but the Colonels were my favorite Pro Basketball team. I have not watched Pro Basketball since 1976.
My favorite team of all time, in any sport. Long live the Kentucky Colonels!
I was at that game! I was 14 at the time and got dropped off by my Mom who did not care to go the game. I'm from Southern Indiana but was a Colonels fan and still to this day 10/7/2012 hate the Indiana Pacers. If you were a Colonels or ABA fan get Pinky Gardners book on the Colonels.It's funny what I remember about this game the most is after the game I went on the floor and the lights went out due to a thunderstorm in the area. To be continues.
The Colonels should have been chosen to go to the NBA.
The franchise may have had financial problems. I don't know why it wasn't admitted to the NBA but some research probably could uncover the reason.
Another possibility is that the owners just made money dissolving the team. Perhaps they got paid for the player contracts.
Bird Averitt and Darnell Hillman,names I haven't heard in years,decades...
We need another professional basketball Kentucky team. This state cares too much about basketball to not have one.
Kentucky deserves an NBA franchise. End of story.
Jearbear1245 it really pisses me off as a Kentucky native that we have no pro team from ANY sport.
What do you call UK and UL?
I grew up a Indiana Pacer and ABA fan. I was happy that my Pacers were invited, but only one other of my favorite teams are playing in the NBA today... the Spurs. The Pacers lost two great rivals when the Stars folded and later the Colonels quii operations. Louisville needs a team.
@@ericlyons4413 shew it took 3 years for this to get some responses! But I agree with you. Louisville would be a perfect place for the professional team to be. It would be something for the whole state to get behind. We don’t have a professional sports team of any sport here
love hearing about these guys , terry pluto wrote a terrific book on the history of the aba called " loose balls " A MUST READ for a TRUE basketball fan , that loves the history of the game .
The Colonels would have won the NBA championship in 1975.
Part 3. I was at South Port High School for a basketball scrimmage a few years ago and found the Wall of Fame. I found Louie Dampier's pictrue and told my freind that if the 3 point line was where it is now Damon Bailey would not hold the Indiana High School scoring record. It would be as untouchable as Wilt Chamerlain scoring 100 points in a game. To be continued.
Colonels, Squires, and Spirits should merge with NBA
John y brown is the reason, they were not part of the merger ,he accepted payments from the 4 teams taken in ,to drop out
Then he took that money and bought the Buffalo Braves, only to flip that franchise for the Boston Celtics.
Bring back Kentucky colonels damnit
Kentucky was a fun team to watch. I grew up near Los Angeles, so I was a Lakers (NBA) fan. However, I loved to watch the ABA ball rotate and had a red-white-blue basketball when I was a kid!
I got to watch that ball spin at Freedom Hall. Particularly when Louie Dampier would launch a 3-pointer, it was like a full color fireworks show.
Now I don't want to point blame at anyone for the Colonels not making the NBA, but somehow you've got to point the finger right at John Y. Brown Jr. I'm not exactly sure as to why. Maybe he couldn't see the writing on the wall, or whatever. But for some odd reason he had this blind loyalty to and for ABA. So you see, you have to give him at least part of the blame for it, especially when considering in that year prior to the merger, the ownership's of both the Nuggets and Nets had came to him personally, and had specifically asked him to join in their application's to the NBA and he turned them down flat.
Artis Gilmore: REVERSE DUNK ON AN INBOUND LOB. I do not belive I have ever seen that. Sick, just sick.
I was 11 years old and I remember that like it was yesterday, I miss them
How in the world Kentucky was not included in the merger?
Much Gratitude
This Is Great, Thanks You...
ABA was the greatest basketball league ever
This is refreshing to watch.
Faking on austin texas bus fulks
Aba..gold 😁🇱🇷
Part 4. I hate You Tube's limit on comments. Sorry about part 3 where I duplicated some of part 2. I was looking foward to the Colonels 1976/1977 season which never happened. Why? By 1977 I was driving and could go to more games.
great video thaxs