The Providence Grays were a forlorn minor league baseball outfit in the Class B New England League for a few months during the summer of 1949. The team ran out of money and folded after just two months of play, foreshadowing the disintegration of the rest of the New England League at the end of that summer.
Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989-1990) Born: May 31, 1989 – SPBA founding franchise Folded: December 26, 1990 First Game: November 1, 1989 (W 13-0 vs. Gold
The Texas Rowels were a co-ed professional team rodeo outfit that played in various cities around Texas in 1978 and 1979. The Rowels were one of six franchises in Major League Rodeo. They competed against rival teams from Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Tulsa. Major League Rodeo contests consisted of seven skills: bareback bronc riding, barrel racing, team roping, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and bull riding. Each team sported a roster of 12 cowboys & 3 cowgirls. Three team members competed in each of the seven events, which were contested twice separated by a 20-minute halftime.
The Winnipeg Thunder were a minor league basketball team that played fitfully for parts of three summers at Winnipeg Arena in the early 1990’s. The team had the misfortune to play in not one but two ramshackle leagues that went out of business in the middle of season. As a result, the Thunder managed to complete just one of the three seasons they embarked upon.
The Pittsburgh Rens – short for Renaissance – were one of eight franchises in Abe Saperstein’s American Basketball League that debuted in the autumn of 1961. The team was notable for signing teenage center Connie Hawkins to his first pro contract after the future Hall of Famer was expelled from college and blackballed by the NBA over dubious insinuations of point-shaving. Hawkins dominated the ABL and won the league’s MVP award as a rookie in 1962. The Rens and the rest of the ABL folded midway through the league’s second season in January 1962.
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