International Basketball Association (1996-2001)
Tombstone
Born: 1996 – IBA expansion franchise
Folded: September 20011ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Minot’s professional basketball team, the Magic City Snowbears, fold”. The Journal (Rapid City, SD). September 16, 2001
First Game: November 30, 1996 (W 103-96 @ Fargo-Moorhead Beez)
Last Game:
IBA Championships: None
Arena
Branding
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: Curt Zimbelman, Tom Anderson, et al.
Attendance
Background
The Magic City Snowbears were a low-level minor league basketball team that played in the Upper Midwest-based International Basketball Association for five winters during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. “Magic City”, in this case, was Minot, North Dakota. The Snowbears ranged as far north as Winnipeg and Saskatchewan and east into Minnesota, Iowa, and Ohio for IBA competition.
The team made it to back-to-back championship series of the International Basketball Association (IBA) in 1999 and 2000, but lost both times. The Mansfield Hawks swept the Snowbears in the 1999 IBA championship series. In 2000, the Des Moines Dragons beat the Snowbears three games to one.
The IBA and the Snowbears both folded during the summer of 2001. Some years later, Minot got another minor league hoops team, the SkyRockets, who played in the Continental Basketball Association from 2006 until 2009.
Trivia
Former Snowbears owner Curt Zimbelman was elected Mayor of Minot in 2002 and went on to serve in the post for 12 years.
##
