American Basketball League (1962)
Tombstone
Born: 1962 – The Hawaii Chiefs relocate to Long Beach, CA
Folded: December 31, 1962
First Game:
Last Game:
ABL Championships: None
Arena
Long Beach Arena
Opened: 1962
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: Art Kim
Background
The Long Beach Chiefs were a very short-lived pro basketball entry in Abe Saperstein’s American Basketball League (ABL) of the early 1960’s. Saperstein, the famed promoter of the Harlem Globetrotters exhibition team during their rise to prominence, was the front man for the ABL went it launched as a challenged to the NBA in the autumn of 1961.
The original ABL franchises numbered eight entries, including the Hawaii Chiefs, owned by Art Kim. After the ABL completed its debut season in 1961-62, the unstable league shrunk from 8 clubs to 6. Among the league’s offseason shifts and contractions in 1962, Kim moved his Chiefs franchise from Hawaii to the mainland, settling in Long Beach, California where the city’s new Long Beach Arena had opened that same year.
The 1962-63 Long Beach Chiefs were a solid squad. The club won its first 10 games of the season. On New Year’s Eve 1962, the Chiefs resided in 2nd place in the ABL standings with a 16-8 record. But the league was out of gas and disbanded on that night, midway through its second season of competition.
Bill Spivey was the Chiefs’ leading scorer at 22.5 points per game during their brief stay in Long Beach.
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