Tag: One-Year Wonders

Brooklyn Dodgers (1977-1978)

October 7, 2020

The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team recorded its final out at Ebbets Field on September 24th, 1957 and left Crown Heights for Los Angeles soon afterwards.  The beloved ballpark met the wrecking ball in February 1960. The baseball Dodgers, of course, are whom everyone talks about when they speak of the Brooklyn Dodgers these days. But the name was actually used by a variety of teams over the years across various sports. Today we’ll look at (to my knowledge) the last team to adopt the “Dem Bums” identity: the minor league Brooklyn Dodgers basketball team of 1977-1978.

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Memphis Sounds American Basketball Association

Memphis Sounds

September 30, 2020

The last of Memphis’ three short-lived entries in the iconic American Basketball Association of the 1970’s, the Sounds counted Stax Records soul music legend Isaac Hayes among the team’s investors.

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Middle Georgia Heat Wave Minor League Football System

Middle Georgia Heat Wave

September 19, 2020

This Macon-based semi-pro football squad played a single season in the Minor League Football System during the summer of 1990, only to see the league come apart at the seams. Former Buffalo Bills chief Lou Saban was the Heat Wave head coach initially but left the team midway through the season, leaving the squad in the hands of long-time New England Patriots defensive stalwart Julius Adams, a Macon native.

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Las Vegas Dealers Western Basketball Association

Las Vegas Dealers

September 13, 2020

The Las Vegas Dealers were one of seven founding teams in the Western Basketball Association in 1978. The Dealers proved to be the league’s shakiest franchise and barely made it through the season. Dealers founders James Speed and his wife Sylvia came to the ownership suite through unusual – and sad – circumstances. 6′ 7″ James Speed was a prized recruit for the University of Iowa basketball program in 1970. Before he ever took the floor for the Hawkeyes, complications from routine medical procedures left him permanently blind in both eyes. Speed later used part of his $750,000 malpractice judgment to buy the Dealers.

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1973 Atlanta Apollos Program from the North American Soccer League

Atlanta Apollos

September 4, 2020

The Atlanta Apollos were a One-Year Wonder in the North American Soccer League that competed for just four months between May and August 1973 before closing up shop. The Apollos replaced Atlanta’s previous NASL franchise, the Chiefs, who folded following the 1972 season.

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