This edition of the Chicago Aces was a short-lived entry in World Team Tennis during the summer of 1982. The team was a brand re-boot of an earlier Chicago Aces team that competed in the very first season of World Team Tennis back in 1974. Aces owner Larry King was (at the time) the husband of tennis superstar and WTT co-founder Billie Jean King. The team would ultimately play only a single month under the ‘Aces’ name.
The Sacramento River Rats were a pro Roller Hockey outfit that played four summers in the California capital city from 1994 to 1997. The Rats were part of Roller Hockey International. At its peak, the league had 19 clubs all across the U.S. and Canada and had a cable TV deal with ESPN2. Notable players included NHL veterans Bruce Bell and Link Gaetz and female goaltender Manon Rheaume. Three River Rats players later advanced to play in the NHL as well. The team disbanded after the 1997 season.
The Golden Gaters tennis team was the Bay Area franchise in the co-ed World Team Tennis league of the mid-1970’s. Of the league’s original 16 franchises that debuted in 1974, the Golden Gaters were one of just two that remained standing in its original city when the league played its final season in 1978. The league considered the Golden Gaters to be its “San Francisco” franchise, but the team played nearly all of its matches in blue-collar Oakland at the Coliseum Arena.
The Oakland Breakers were one of four original franchises in the low-key, California-only relaunch of World Team Tennis in 1981. The original World Team Tennis, founded in part by superstar Billie Jean King, existed from 1974 to 1978 and included a Bay Area franchise known as the “Golden Gaters”. The Breakers, like the Gaters before them, made their home at the Oakland Coliseum.
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