Minnesota Pipers
| Pittsburgh Condors | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Conference | None |
| Division | Eastern Division |
| Founded | 1967 |
| History |
Pittsburgh Pipers 1967–1968 Minnesota Pipers 1968–1969 Pittsburgh Pipers 1969–1970 Pittsburgh Condors 1970–1972 |
| Arena |
Pittsburgh Civic Arena (1967–68, 1969–1972) Met Center (1968–69) |
| Location | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Team colors |
Red and Gold (1970-72) |
| Team manager |
Vern Mikkelsen 1967–1968 Marty Blake 1970–1972 |
| Head coach |
Vince Cazzetta 1967–1968 Jim Harding, Vern Mikkelsen, and Verl Young 1968–1969 John Clark and Buddy Jeannette 1969–1970 Jack McMahon 1970–1971 Jack McMahon and Mark Binstein 1971–1972 |
| Ownership | Gabe Rubin 1967–1969 Metro Sports Haven Industries 1970–1972 |
| Championships | 1 (1968) |
| Conference titles | no conference play in ABA |
| Division titles | 1 (1968) |
The Pittsburgh Condors were a professional basketball team in the original American Basketball Association. Originally called the Pittsburgh Pipers, they were a charter franchise of the ABA and captured the first league title. The team played their home games in Pittsburgh's Civic Arena.
The Pipers were one of the ABA's inaugural franchises in 1967. The team had great success on the court, posting the league's best record during the regular season (54-24, .692) and winning the league's first ABA Championship. The Pipers were led by their star player, ABA MVP and future Hall-of-Famer Connie Hawkins, who led the ABA in scoring at 26.8 ppg. The Pipers swept through the 1968 ABA Playoffs and defeated the New Orleans Buccaneers 4 games to 3 to take the title, with Hawkins earning Finals MVP honors. The ABA title remains Pittsburgh's only pro basketball championship.
The Pipers shared the Pittsburgh Civic Arena with the city's expansion National Hockey League team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pipers attracted fairly respectable gates by ABA standards, averaging 3,200 fans per game.
Despite the championship and strong attendance figures in Pittsburgh, the Pipers franchise left Pittsburgh after their 1968 ABA Championship and moved to Minnesota in 1968, becoming the Minnesota Pipers. Minnesota was left vacant when the Minnesota Muskies had trouble drawing people in the league's first season and moved to Miami to become the Miami Floridians. The ABA league office was based in Minneapolis (home of league commissioner George Mikan), so the Pipers moved when a Minneapolis attorney named Bill Erickson bought a majority share of the team. As with the Muskies, their home arena was Bloomington's Met Center. Despite making the playoffs (but losing in the first round to, coincidentally, the Miami Floridians), the Pipers' attendance settings fared no better than the Muskies and they moved back to Pittsburgh after only one season. In Terry Pluto's book on the ABA, Loose Balls, Pipers co-owner Gabe Rubin says he returned to the Steel City because he couldn't think of anywhere else to go.
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