Eastern Basketball Association (1975-1978)
Continental Basketball Association (1978-1980)
Tombstone
Born: 1975
Moved: 1980 (Philadelphia Kings)
First Game: December 13, 1975 (W 111-109 @ Long Island Sounds)
Last Game: March 23, 1980 (L 123-121 vs. Pennsylvania Barons at the Philadelphia Spectrum)
EBA Championships: None
CBA Championships: None
Arenas
????-1980: J.P. McCaskey High School Gym (2,100)11979-80 Continental Basketball Association Official Guide
1979-1980: Harrisburg Farm Show Arena (10,000)21979-80 Continental Basketball Association Official Guide
Marketing
Team Colors: Red & White31979-80 Continental Basketball Association Official Guide
Ownership
Owners:
- 1975-1977: Sonny Hill
- 1977-1980: Dr. Seymour Kilstein
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Continental Basketball Association
Logo T-Shirt
This Old School Shirts release is strictly for the hardcore hoop heads.
Before the NBA had the G-League, it had the CBA with teams stretched from Puerto Rico to Honolulu. During the CBA’s 1980’s and 90’s heyday, the league provided a launching pad for future NBA All-Stars such as John Starks and Michael Adams as well as coaching legends Phil Jackson and George Karl.
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Background
Here we go with part two of today’s two-poster about the long tradition of the Lancaster Red Roses name in both minor league baseball and basketball in the small Pennsylvania city. Pennsylvania was the birthplace of the Eastern Professional Basketball League (EPBL) in 1946. For four decades, the Eastern League offered the country’s best minor league basketball in high school gymnasiums and recreation centers around Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. The original Red Roses joined the league for its first season in 1946 and played until 1949 and again from 1953 to 1955.
In the fall of 1975, a former Eastern League ballplayer (1958-1967) turned CBS Sports NBA commentator named Sonny Hill revived the Red Roses. Hill entered the team into the Eastern Basketball Association, which was simply a new name for the old EPBL.
The Eastern League was bruised by the formation of the American Basketball Association in 1967. The ABA attempted – quite successfully – to rival the NBA for top talent from 1967 to 1976. The arrival of the ABA more or less doubled the number of top flight professional teams and drained away the best talent from the Eastern League. But by the time Sonny Hill re-formed the Red Roses in late 1975, the ABA was in perilous condition. The league had only about six months to live. Jobs were scarce and talent began to slide back in the other direction – back to the Eastern League.
On opening night 1975, Hill’s Red Roses roster boasted a couple of talented ABA refugees. Willie Sojourner was once part of a trade with Julius Erving and served as the best man at Erving’s wedding. 6′ 7″ forward Tom “Trooper” Washington won an ABA title in 1968 with the Pittsburgh Pipers and appeared in the 1969 ABA All-Star Game.
Later Years
Hill got out after two years of ownership. The EBA became the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) in 1978 and placed teams as far away as Honolulu and Anchorage. Dentist Seymour Kilstein took over the Red Roses in 1977 and the team soldiered on in Lancaster until the spring of 1980.
The franchise went on something of an odyssey after that, moving to Philadelphia, then back to Lancaster as the Lancaster Lightning from 1981 to 1984, and then on to Baltimore, Pittsfield, Massachusetts and finally Illinois.
The club that started out as Sonny Hill’s Lancaster Red Roses at J.P McCaskey High’s gymnasium in December 1975 played its final game in a 10,000-seat arena in Rockford, Illinois as a member of the CBA in early 2009.
Lancaster Red Roses Shop
Red Roses Mug from Rebound Vintage Hoops
Links
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One Response
The Lancaster Red Roses’ odyssey needs some clarification. The team was the Baltimore Lightning for one season (1985-86), but even during that year the team couldn’t draw flies. Their playoff games that year were played in Pittsfield. The team actually survived for nearly 20 years in Rockford, Illinois. Much of the reason the Rockford Lightning survived was because their owner at the time, Wayne Timpe, simply set aside the funds from his million-dollar company to make sure the Lightning always remained in Rockford and always remained in basketball. The team folded after the 2005-06 season; Timpe had passed on, and his kids didn’t want to keep funneling money out of their inheritances into a basketball team.