All-American Basketball Alliance (1978)
Tombstone
Born: 1977 – AABA founding franchise
Folded: February 1978
First Game: January 13, 1978 (L 127-119 @ Kentucky Stallions)
Last Game: January 30, 1978 (L 138-136 @ New York Guard)
AABA Championships: None
Arena
Macon Coliseum
Opened: 1968
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: David Lucas
Attendance
The Georgia Titans’ only home game, played at the Macon Coliseum on January 16th, 1978, drew an announced crowd of 574 fans.1Millians, Rick. “Titans Haven’t Put Macon on the Map”. The Macon News (Macon, GA). January 20, 1978
Background
The Georgia Titans were a doomed minor league basketball squad that played for less than a month during the winter of 1978. The Titans were part of the 8-team All-American Basketball Alliance, a comically under-financed league that debuted on January 6, 1978 and played its last contest four weeks later.
Former ABA star Larry Cannon, the #5 overall pick in the 1969 NBA draft out of La Salle, coached the Titans. According to the history buffs over at the Association for Professional Basketball Research, the Titans played just a single home at the Macon Coliseum on January 16, 1978. The Titans’ other 7 games were all played on the road. They had a 5-3 record when the league folded in midseason in early February 1978.
Long-time Georgia Democratic state representative David Lucas was the nominal owner of the Titans. Lucas, who served in the George House from 1974 to 2011, was then in his late 20’s. He serves in the Georgia State Senate as of 2019. Tragically, Lucas’ 26-year old son, Al Lucas, died of a spinal injury suffered in an Arena Football League game for the Los Angeles Avengers in April 2005.
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2 Responses
Amazing to see that 11 teams didn’t manage to play a single game before the league folded
Alabama Aces, Baton Rouge, Carolina Dragons, Indiana Impalas, Massachusetts Rifles, New York Greyhounds, Ohio Orbits, Rhode Island Devils, Springfield, Toronto and the Virginia Sailors.
Those teams were rumors and ideas … never actually organized