Tucson Sky

International Volleyball Association (1977-1980)

Background

The Tucson Sky were a franchise in the co-ed International Volleyball Association from 1977 until the league disbanded in the middle of the 1980 season.  The Sky followed an earlier failed IVA team in Tucson – the Tucson Turquoise – who played for a single season in 1976 before folding.

After a last place 11-25 finish in their debut season of 1977, the Sky appeared in the IVA championship series in both 1978 and 1979.  Both times they faced the Santa Barbara Spikers.  The Spikers took the crown in 1978. The Sky evened the score in 1979 and won what would prove to be the final championship of the IVA.

Demise of the IVA

The Sky returned for a fourth season in the summer of 1980. But by this point the IVA was hobbled by weak franchises in other cities and demoralized by Jimmy Carter’s decision to boycott the 1980 U.S. Olympics.  The Olympics were expected to give a profile boost to both men’s and women’s volleyball and serve as a platform for the IVA’s brand new cable deal with the fledgling ESPN network.  Instead, the league folded in July 1980 shortly before what was intended to be the All-Star Break.

“We were about two years ahead of the times,” Sky owner Doug Clark told Corky Simpson of The Tucson Citizen in 2000.  “If the league could have held out just two more years, I believe we would have been a smash hit on cable television.”

The Sky were known for a never ending parade of wacky promotions under General Manager Bob Garrett.  Click on the link to Corky Simpson’s Tucson Citizen article above for an entertaining recap of Garrett’s greatest hits.

Among the notable players to suit up for the Sky was 6′ 7″ former Phoenix Suns NBA player Scott English, who was also one of the top players in the IVA during the late 1970’s.

Links

Corky Simpson’s Tucson Citizen retrospective from August 2000

International Volleyball Association Media Guides

International Volleyball Association Programs

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