Pensacola Tornados

Continental Basketball Association (1985-1991)

Tombstone

Born: December 27, 1985 – The Toronto Tornados relocate to Pensacola, FL¹
Moved: 1986 (Jacksonville Jets)
Born Again: July 16, 1986 – The Bay State Bombardiers relocate to Pensacola
Moved Again: 1991 (Birmingham Bandits)

First Game: December 29, 1985 (L 102-100 @ Maine Windjammers)
Last Game: March 16, 1991 (W 128-126 vs. Columbus Horizon)

CBA Championships: None

Arena

Pensacola Civic Center (9,856)²

Marketing

Team Colors:

1990-91: Red, White & Blue³

Ownership

Owners:

1986: Ted Stepien
1986-1987: Roger MacDonald, et al.
1987-1989: Eli Jacobson, Larry Walker, Bob Crongeyer, et al.
1989-1991: Tom McMillan & Jane McMillan

Attendance

Pensacola Tornados attendance records for the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons are not yet available.

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Print Download

Sources:

1990-91 & 1991-92 CBA Official Guide & Registers (1989-90 & 1990-91 seasons)
Rapid City Journal, March 19, 1989 (1988-89 season)
Rapid City Journal, May 25, 1988 (1987-88 season)

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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

The Pensacola Tornados were actually two separate Continental Basketball Association franchises that operated in the Florida panhandle in the late 1980’s and early 90’s.

The first Tornados team arrived abruptly in December 1985, when Ted Stepien, owner of the CBA’s Toronto Tornados, yanked his team out of Ontario and moved it south one month in the 1985-86 season. Those Tornados finished out the 1985-86 season at the Pensacola Civic Center with a 15-33 record.

Tornados 2.0

Stepien moved the team to Jacksonville shortly after the season ended. But another nomadic CBA club quickly materialized to replace Stepien’s franchise. The Bay State Bombardiers, late of Worcester, Massachusetts, moved into the Pensacola Civic Center in July 1986. The new owners carried on with the Tornados name, which Stepien had abandoned.

In the fall of 1986 the Tornados brought 34-year old former New York Knicks center Marvin Webster out of retirement. The 7′ 1″ shot blocker was the #3 overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft but his promising career was short-circuited by recurring battles with hepatitis. Webster averaged 11.4 points and 13.2 in the CBA despite being “so out of shape he could barely run up and down the floor” in the words of Harvey Araton of The Daily News. Nevertheless, Webster used his time in Pensacola to earn one last shot in the NBA, playing 15 games for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1987 before walking away for good.

The End

The Tornados struggled through several seasons of low attendance and ownership transitions before finally departing town for Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 1991.