World Basketball League (1990-1991)
Tombstone
Born: 1990 – WBL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1991
First Game: May 12, 1990 (W 112-90 vs. Illinois Express)
Last Game: August 27, 1991 (L 114-98 @ Florida Jades)
WBL Championships: None
Arena
Mid-South Coliseum (11,200)11991 Dayton Wings Program
Opened: 1964
Closed: 2006
Marketing
Team Colors: Purple, Silver & Black21991 Dayton Wings Program
Ownership
Owners: Billy Dunavant, et al.
Attendance
Fun While It Lasted has cobbled together only a partial record of Memphis Rockers attendance and World Basketball League attendance more broadly. We hope to add more data as we can uncover it.
Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.
Sources:
- Williams, David. “City supports big-time sports”. The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN). July 14, 1991 (1992 Rockers figures)
- 1992 World Basketball League Media Guide (1990 & 1991 WBL figures)
FWIL FAVORITE
Memphis Rockers Logo T-Shirt
The Rockers were Memphis’ first pro basketball team since the Bluff City’s various American Basketball Association teams left town in the mid-1970’s. Though the team lasted just two seasons, the Rockers provided a platform for John Starks and Vincent Askew to emerge as productive NBA players during the 1990’s.
This Rockers tee design is available from American Retro Apparel in both Sport Grey and White. Sizes small through XXXL available today!
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Background
Inaugural game program (top right) for the short-lived Memphis Rockers franchise (above) of the defunct World Basketball League (1988-1992). The WBL was an oddball minor league basketball loop that played during the summer time and banned players above 6′ 5″ in height. Franchises stretched across Canada and the U.S. from Saskatchewan to Boca Raton. Each season also included games against imported touring teams from Europe and the Soviet Union.
The Team
The Rockers organization was led by Head Coach & General Manager Tom Nissalke, a journeyman ABA and NBA Head Coach, who served in that role with seven organizations from 1971 to 1984. Nissalke earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1977 while with the Houston Rockets.
During the Rockers’ first season in 1990, the team signed two local favorites from Memphis State in guard Andre Turner and forward Vincent Askew. The pair helped lead the MSU Tigers to the NCAA Final Four in 1985. Other notables included former Notre Dame star and Los Angeles Lakers 1st round pick David Rivers (1991) and the immortal House Guest (1991), a member of the All-Name Team who led an otherwise brief and undistinguished minor league career.
Askew & Starks
The Rockers would last just two seasons at Memphis’ Mid-South Coliseum before folding in late 1991. But the low-budget club ($150,000 annual salary cap, according to Black Enterprise) developed two overlooked players who went on to success in the NBA. One was Askew, who leveraged his time in the WBL and his status as a two-time MVP in the winter-time Continental Basketball Association into a journeyman NBA career during the 1990’s. Most notable was John Starks, a 6′ 3″ guard out of Oklahoma State who played for the Rockers in 1990. Starks latched on with the New York Knicks later that year. He starred in the NBA for more than a decade, earning an All-Star nod with the Knickerbockers in 1994.
Starks was arguably the biggest star to emerge during the short, wacky life World Basketball League. The league itself lasted less than a year after the Rockers gave up the ghost in late 1991. The WBL fell apart during its fifth season, after league founder and Youngstown Pride owner Mickey Monus was caught embezzling money – upwards of $10 million – from his Phar-Mor discount pharmacy chain to prop up his money losing basketball hobby. The league folded in August 1992 without completing the season.
Ownership
WBL franchises were owned 60% by the league itself, with the other 40% sold off to local investors (when the WBL could find such people, which was hit and miss). In the case of the Rockers, cotton baron Billy Dunavant partnered with a group of five prominent black businessmen to buy the local stake in the fall of 1989. The expansion franchise was valued at $1 million. Dunavant put up $200,000 for a 20% stake and the group of Calvin Anderson, Pat Carter, Claude English, George Jones and Harold Shaw Sr. posted $200,000 for their 20%.
The money was chicken feed for Dunavant, at least, who previously owned the popular Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League from 1984 to 1986 and was actively courting an NFL expansion franchise for Memphis at the time the Rockers were formed.
Memphis Rockers Shop
Our Favorite Stuff
World Basketball League
Logo T-Shirt
Yes, the professional basketball league with a height limit! You had to be under 6′ 5″ tall to play in the run-and-gun World Basketball League during it’s 1988-1992 existence. The WBL was rather popular in Canada, but its American clubs struggled badly and an embezzlement scandal finally sunk this entertaining circuit in 1992.
This design is available from American Retro Apparel in both Sport Grey and White. Sizes small through XXXL available today!
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Downloads
2012 interview with former WBL Director of Public Relations Jimmy Oldham
Justia case summary: United States of America vs. Michael I. Monus
Links
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2 Responses
I use to do flips for the Memphis rockers and I wanted to know if there are any videos of the halftime shows
I use to do flips for the Memphis rockers basketball team back in the 90s. I was part of the halftime show and I would like to know if it was any video