Continental Basketball Association (1980-1981)
Tombstone
Born: 1980 – Re-branded from Pennsylvania Barons
Folded: 1981
First Game: November 27, 1980 (W 130-129 vs. Philadelphia Kings)
Last Game: March 1, 1981 (L 172-138 vs. Rochester Zeniths)
CBA Championships: None
Arena
Scranton Catholic Youth Center (3,850)11980-81 Continental Basketball Association Official Guide
Team Colors: Red, Black & White21980-81 Continental Basketball Association Official Guide
Owner: Arthur Pachter
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Continental Basketball Association
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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 winter of 1980-81 marked the last hurrah for long-time Scranton basketball promoter Art Pachter. Pachter became a fixture at the city’s Catholic Youth Center during the 1950’s, sitting directly behind the bench of his beloved Scranton Miners at Eastern League home games each weekend. A teenage entrepreneur who opened his local auto parts business at age 19, Pachter became a Miners stockholder at age 23 in 1961 and took control of the club the following year.
By dawn of the 1980’s, Pachter was the dean of Eastern League owners but the league was a radically different organization from the Pennsylvania-based weekends-only bus league that was second only to the NBA in quality during much of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Miners were long gone, replaced by a succession of Pachter-backed clubs in both Scranton and neighboring Wilkes-Barre.
The Eastern League itself was no more, re-branded in 1978 as the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). The CBA began to play on weekdays and expanded as far afield as Hawaii and Anchorage, adding costly air travel to Pachter’s diminishing bottom line. Pachter assessed the state of affairs in a 1981 interview with the Scranton Times-Tribune:3Jordan, Jack. “Pachter Calls it Quits in Pro Basketball”. The Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA). September 23, 1981
Since the advent of the American Basketball Association [in 1967] it has been all downhill for professional basketball in Scranton. That league took many of our best players and it ruined the league. After that we were forced to pay players $200-plus a game and there were several on each team. Financially it was a disaster.
Barons to Aces
N
ovember 1980 found Pachter trying out a new identity – the Aces – to try and counter the community apathy that plagued his Scranton Apollos and Wilkes-Barre Barons clubs of the 1970’s.
Pete Monska, a long-time Eastern League player and coach who led Pachter’s Barons to the league title in 1978, remained on as the Aces head coach.
The season was a disappointment, with the Aces finishing last in their division with a 13-27 record. But the Scranton Aces did produce one of the great success stories in Art Pachter’s long run in minor league basketball: Rory Sparrow.
The team procured the services of several late round 1980 NBA draft picks who were cut in NBA training camps that fall. Randy Owens (27.8 ppg), a 6th round pick of the Indiana Pacers, and Barry Young (27.5 ppg), a 9th round choice of the New Jersey Nets, finished 3rd and 4th respectively in the CBA scoring charts for the 1980-81 season.
But the top find was Sparrow, the Nets’ 4th round pick in 1980 out of Villanova. After an impressive partial season with Scranton, Sparrow earned a midseason call-up to New Jersey. The next season, 1981-82, Sparrow started all 82 games for the Atlanta Hawks. He would go on to enjoy a 12-year career in the NBA.
End of the Line
Art Pachter pulled out of the CBA after the 1980-81 season. After considering a membership in the newly formed Atlantic Basketball Association, a collection of former Eastern League communities in Pennsylvania left behind the ambitions and economics of the modern-day CBA, Pachter came to the conclusion that marked the end of his run as a minor league hoops promoter:44Jordan, Jack. “Pachter Calls it Quits in Pro Basketball”. The Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA). September 23, 1981[/mfn]
I don’t think the people of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre really want professional basketball anymore. And I’m only trying to kid myself waiting waiting for the fans to come out and support the team.”
Scranton Aces Shop
In Memoriam
Head coach Pete Monska died on November 3rd, 1997 following a battle with cancer. He was 71 years old.
Aces owner Art Pachter passed away on May 15th, 2021 at the age of 83. He closed his auto parts supply business, Pachter Automotive Supply on the corner of Penn Avenue and Walnut Street, in 2017.
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