Mohawk Valley Thunderbirds

Continental Basketball Association (1979)

Tombstone

Born: January 1979 – The Baltimore Metros relocate to Utica, NY
Folded: March 1979

First Game:
Last Game:

CBA Championships: None

Arena

Utica Memorial Auditorium
Opened: 1960

Branding

Team Colors:

Ownership

Owner: Tom Ficara

OUR FAVORITE STUFF

Continental Basketball Association
Logo T-Shirt

This Old School Shirts release is strictly for the hardcore hoop heads.

Before the NBA had the G-League, it had the CBA with teams stretched from Puerto Rico to Honolulu. During the CBA’s 1980’s and 90’s heyday, the league provided a launching pad for future NBA All-Stars such as John Starks and Michael Adams as well as coaching legends Phil Jackson and George Karl.

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Background

The Mohawk Valley Thunderbirds were an extremely short-lived minor league basketball team based in Utica, New York. The team started the 1978-79 Continental Basketball Association season as the Baltimore Metros. By mid-January 1979 the Metros were in first place with a 12-10 record. But the club’s finances were a mess. New York cable TV entrepreneur Tom Ficara purchased the team, moved it in midseason to Utica and renamed it the ‘Thunderbirds’.

Most of the club’s Baltimore players declined to follow the team to Utica or were swiftly dealt away. Ficara brought in early 70’s Indiana Pacers stars Freddie Lewis and Bob Netolicky, with Lewis serving as the T-Birds new coach.

The Thunderbirds lasted only nine games in upstate New York. Ficara quickly got sideways with CBA Commissioner Jim Drucker, drawing a $500 fine for arguing with game officials at a game in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In March, Drucker announced that the CBA terminated the Thunderbirds franchise in midseason over unpaid debts.

The CBA tried again in Utica with a new expansion team the following winter. But the Utica Olympics left town after one season and pro hoops has never returned to the city again.