Tombstone
Born: September 23, 1976 – The Hawaii Leis relocate to Seattle, WA / Portland, OR1UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL. “Portland, Seattle get pro net team”. The Capital Journal (Salem, OR). September 24, 1976
Folded: November 1978
First Game: April 27, 1977 (W 30-15 vs. The Soviets @ Knoxville, TN)
Last Game: August 24, 1978 (L 27-22 vs. Boston Lobsters)
World Team Tennis Championships: None
Arena
1977: Portland Memorial Coliseum
Opened: 1960
1977-1978: Seattle Center Coliseum (13,500)
Opened: 1962
Branding
Team Colors: Forest Green & Burnt Orange21978 World Team Tennis Media Guide
Ownership
Owner: Don Kelleher
Attendance
FWIL FAVORITE
Seattle Cascades
WTT Logo T-Shirt
The late 1970’s was an amazing time to be a Seattle sports fan. The years 1976-1979 saw the arrival of the NFL and Major League Baseball, the SuperSonics claiming their first (and only) NBA title, and the Sounders soccer team packing them in at the newly opened Kingdome.
Overshadowed amidst this gold rush was the debut of the Cascades co-ed tennis team in 1977. They didn’t last long, but they left behind this attractive logo, now available on a Unisex T or Women’s Tank Top from our friends at Old School Shirts!
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Background
Short-lived pro co-ed tennis team that set up shop during the late 1970’s. The Cascades began life in 1974 as the Hawaii Leis of the newly launched World Team Tennis (WTT). The Leis were one of the weakest entries in WTT, finishing at or near the bottom of league standings every year from 1974 to 1976.
Hawaii’s name player was Romanian bad boy Ilie Nastase, signed in 1976 for a reported $125,000. But the team finished last again even with Nastase. By midseason 1976, team owner Don Kelleher, a lumber salesman from San Rafael, California, was moving matches to Seattle and Portland, Oregon to test out the markets for relocation. In September 1976, Keller made it official. The Leis would move to both Portland and Seattle for 1977, splitting their 22-game home schedule equally between the two cities. The club would be known as the Sea-Port Cascades.
Splitting Time
The 1977 Sea-Port Cascades were a rather unglamorous group. Nastase did not make the move to the Pacific Northwest, signing instead with the Los Angeles Strings. By World Team Tennis’ fourth season in 1977, the league had attracted many of the sport’s top stars, including Bjorn Borg (Cleveland-Pittsburgh), Rod Laver (San Diego), Nastase (Los Angeles), Chris Evert (Phoenix), Martina Navratilova (Boston) and Billie Jean King in New York, alongside the 1977 Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade. The Cascades biggest name was the Dutch doubles specialist Betty Stove, who lost to Wade in the 1977 Wimbledon singles final. Tom Gorman of the United States signed on as the Cascades player/coach.
The 1977 Cascades finished 18-26, good enough for fourth place and a franchise first: a playoff appearance. The division-winning Phoenix Racquets, led by Evert, made quick work of the Cascades, dispatching them in the WTT quarterfinals.
Final Season & Demise
Kelleher moved the club to Seattle full-time for the 1978 season and sold minority interests in the team to four area businessmen. The Cascades added one-off appearances to the schedule in Boise, Corvallis and Portland, to go with 19 home dates at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
Under Gorman’s direction as player/coach once again, the re-named Seattle Cascades posted a 20-24 record in 1978. It was the franchise’s fifth consecutive losing season dating back to the Hawaii days. But it was also their best performance and it earned the club a second straight playoff berth. In the quarterfinals, the Cascades upset the division winning San Diego Friars. The Boston Lobsters eliminated the Cascades in the World Team Tennis semi-finals in late August 1978.
After the season, World Team Tennis named Cascades doubles specialist Sherwood Stewart as the league’s most valuable first-year player for 1978. Meanwhile, Kelleher and his Seattle-based minority partners announced the club would not return to Seattle and explored selling the team to Houston interests due to disappointing attendance. The Cascades averaged only 1,695 fans per match in 1978, down from 3,100 per game in 1977 when the club split matches between Portland and Seattle.
The effort became moot when the Cascades and the rest of World Team Tennis folded in November 1978.
Sea-Port Cascades Shop
Editor's Pick
Bustin' Balls
World Team Tennis 1974-1978, Pro Sports, Pop Culture & Progressive Politics
by Steven Blush
Bustin’ Balls tells the strange but true story of World Team Tennis (1974-1978) that attempted to transform the prim and proper individual sport of tennis into a rowdy blue-collar league. Billie Jean King and her partners merged feminism and civil rights with queer lifestyle, pop culture and a progressive political agenda to create a dazzling platform for the finest tennis players of the day to become overnight stars.
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Seattle Cascades Video
The Cascades visit the Los Angeles Strings at the Forum. May 17, 1978 HBO broadcast.
Links
###
