Before I get going, let me give a quick shout out to some new international readers. I've broken through to Canada (finally), Russia, and both of the former Czechoslovakia nations. Welcome aboard. Surprisingly, this is the only picture I could find of the championship banners at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (nee Conseco Fieldhouse). I was really looking for a picture of just the three ABA banners, but apparently that does not exist on the internet. Next time I'm in the arena, I guess I'll have to do my best to fix that. Anyway, as we talked about yesterday, the Pacers were and are known as the face of the ABA. Part of that was the stability that was thoroughly uncommon in the ABA. The other part of that would be the three championships, most of anybody in the league. There were two other championship appearances as well. Success breeds many things, and becoming the face is one of those things. It's probably not a coincidence that the guy who bagged Gaddafi was wearing a Yankees hat, as opposed to, say, the Mets or Cardinals. That was the Pacers of the ABA. All that said, you might be forgiven if you didn't really notice it in the papers of the time. The Indianapolis News, I've concluded, had a lacking sports section when it came to the Pacers. For one, they won the championship during Indianapolis 500 season, which really hurt what would be devoted to the Pacers. Still, they found plenty of space to put in pictures of baseball players and golfers, and not a single picture of the Pacers in any of their three championships? Here, from the first title in 1970, we get all of three stories. The first is the only mention of the Pacers anywhere on the front page. As always, click on the stories for bigger versions. For supposedly making Indianapolis a "big league city," they sure didn't put a lot of coverage on it. That said, read about the "victory 'picnic'" in that last paragraph again. Could you imagine that happening now? When the Colts won the Super Bowl in 2007, I never heard of anybody making a mess of ham and beans at the RCA Dome for parade goers. Part of the problem, as I alluded to yesterday, is that the ABA felt it had to legitimize itself against the NBA. Take a look at this story from Roger Brown after winning the championship. That headline kind of says it all, doesn't it? Also interesting to note that Brown complains that the season is too long. Now, granted, the Pacers played 84 games that year. But, it's interesting to read that and think about the practically universal complaint of NBA players now about how an 82 game season is too long. In any case, here is the "official" championship story. It's about two-thirds story and one-third straight quotes from players and Slick Leonard. After taking a year off of being champions, the Pacers once again reached the top in 1972. The front page didn't bother to mention the victory at all, but there were a pair of stories ran in the sports section. One I would call a game story, except it does take the season in retrospect. Coming into the playoffs, the Pacers didn't quite seem right, winning ten less games than they had the previous two years. But, as we've seen with wild card teams in baseball and football, all it takes is getting hot at the right time. That story is on the left. On the right, we have the celebration story. The Pacers announce they will be holding a barbecue, public invited, to celebrate the win. Seriously, this is so lacking today. Also making several notable appearances in the story is Bob Netolicky. This guy should be much more prominent in Indiana sports history, in my opinion. After winning the title in 1973, it was clear the Pacers were the class of the ABA. And when that happens, well, we've all met a Yankee fan before haven't we? It's always a crisis unless you're on top of the pile at the end. I wish I could find the article, but I remember reading a parody where the writer lamented a world where third graders had never known a world with World Champion Yankees. Pacer fans, and the Indianapolis News, were getting greedy. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but it makes for some unsatisfactory coverage lo these many years later. This is the only story I found covering the Pacers third (and last, as it turned out) ABA championship. Again, the Pacers threw a dinner for the public to celebrate. In a nice touch after beating the Kentucky Colonels, the Pacers served KFC to the masses.
You might want to come back to this post in a couple days when we move into the Indianapolis Star's coverage of the Pacers and a couple moments of glory they've had since joining the NBA. The difference is just astonishing. But, right now, I'm heading out to get some scans of another pivotal moment in Pacer history. See you then! Comments are closed.
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