Lancaster Lightning

Continental Basketball Association (1981-1985)

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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 Lancaster Lightning had a nice little run out in Pennsylvania Amish County from 1981 to 1985 as a member of the Continental Basketball Association (1946-2009).  Lancaster had a long history of supporting minor league basketball dating back to the 1940’s.  Traditionally, Lancaster’s pro baseball and basketball clubs were both known as the Red Roses.

The last basketball version of the Red Roses left Lancaster in 1980 to try their luck in the big city at Philadelphia’s Martin Luther King Arena. Known as the Philadelphia Kings during the winter of 1980-81, the club lasted only one season in the City of Brotherly Love. The team hurriedly moved back to the peace and tranquility of Lancaster in 1981 and took the name “Lightning”.  Moving with the club from Philadelphia was former NBA All-Star Cazzie Russell. Russell played for the Philadelphia Kings, but hung up his high-tops to focus on head coaching duties with the Lightning.

1982 Championship Season

Under Russell’s direction, the 1981-82 Lightning were 34-12 and the best club in the 8-team Continental Basketball Association. The tiny league nevertheless lived up to its name with teams spread across the continent from Bangor, Maine to Anchorage, Alaska.  In April 1982, the Lightning beat the Billings Volcanos in a best-of-seven series to win the 1982 CBA crown.

The Lightning drew national press attention later on in 1982 when Steve Craig, one of the club’s young guards out of Brigham Young University married Mormon pop/television star Marie Osmond. Craig and Osmond later divorced in 1985.

Move To Baltimore & Aftermath

Owner Seymour Kilstein, local urologist in Lancaster, moved the Lightning to Baltimore in 1985 and finally sold it to new owners in Rockford, Illinois in 1986.  The franchise endured as the Rockford Lightning until 2001, when the club went out of business as part of the broader bankruptcy of the Continental Basketball Association.

After 26 years apart, Steve Craig and Marie Osmond remarried in 2011.

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Links

Continental Basketball Association Media Guides

Continental Basketball Association Programs

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