Cleveland Rockers

Women’s National Basketball Association (1997-2003)

Tombstone

Born: October 30, 1996 – WNBA founding franchise¹
Folded: December 26, 2003²

First Game: June 21, 1997 (76-56 vs. Houston Comets)
Last Game: September 2, 2003 (L 77-63 @ Detroit Shock)

WNBA Championships: None

Arena

Gund Arena (11,751)³
Opened: 1994

Marketing

Team Colors: Cyan, Black & Silver⁴

Mascot: Rocky (the Raccoon) – introduced during 2000 season

Ownership

Owner: Gordon Gund

FWIL FAVORITE

Rockers Scoop Neck Tee

One of the WNBA’s Original Eight in 1997, the Cleveland Rockers carved a different path than many of their league rivals. While most early WNBA clubs adopted derivative identities of their NBA operators (Hornets/Sting, Kings/Monarchs, Rockets/Comets, etc.), the Rockers sought a completely independent identity from the NBA’s Cavaliers.

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Background

The Cleveland Rockers were one of the eight original franchises of the Women’s National Basketball Association when the league began play in the summer of 1997. The Rockers were operated by Gund Arena Company, the owners of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

During the Rockers inaugural season, the team signed women’s basketball legend Lynette Woodard. Woodard was 37 years old at the time. She never previously had the opportunity to play professional in her home country, although she gained considerable press attention in 1985 when she became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters. Woodard started 27 of the Rockers’ 28 games in 1997 and was sixth on the team in scoring with 7.8 points per game. She went to the WNBA’s Detroit Shock in an expansion draft in 1998 and retired after one final season. Woodard was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.

On the court, the Rockers see-sawed between winning seasons and truly terrible campaigns, but still managed to make the playoffs in five of their seven years of play. Their deepest postseason run came in 1998 when they won the East Division and then advanced to the playoff semi-finals before losing to the Phoenix Mercury 2 games to 1 in a best-of-three series.

The End

On September 19, 2003, Gund Arena Company announced it would no longer operate the Rockers after seven money-losing seasons. The announcement concluded a rough week for women’s sports in the United States. The 8-team Women’s United Soccer Association had folded just four days earlier due to similar reasons of financial exhaustion.

Some Rockers fans questioned the timing, given that the Gund ownership had just invested considerable money into NBA #1 overall draft pick LeBron James and could expect to reap a huge windfall in new revenue with James’ arrival. The WNBA kept the Rockers franchise alive on paper until Christmas time as it sought a buyer for the Rockers in a new market, but none materialized. The league officially terminated the Rockers franchise the day after Christmas in 2003 and the Rockers players were put into a dispersal draft in early January.