Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: The game that signaled the birth of "Hornets Hysteria"

As we continue to look back at some of the memorable moments from the Charlotte Hornets first season 25 years ago, we'll be looking back at an historical moment that changed the team, and the city of Charlotte forever 25 years ago yesterday, as "Hornets Hysteria" would be born with a game against North Carolina's native son, who would eventually be the man that would own our current NBA team and the driving force behind our city bringing the "Hornets" name back next season.

The game that marked the birth of "Hornets Hysteria"

It wasn't a typical Friday in Charlotte on that day back on December 23rd, 1988, it was just 2 days before Christmas, and thousands of people living here at that time were just busy getting their Christmas shopping done, while others were either flying in or flying out of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport to visit family and friends, and for the Charlotte Hornets, who were 6-17 at the time, they were hard at work preparing for their match-up against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in what would be Jordan's first professional game in his home state before a crowd of 23,388 at the Charlotte Coliseum and a national television audience on SuperStation TBS.

The Hornets were down 85-77 to the Bulls, who were led in scoring by Jordan, who had 33 points, but forward Tim Kempton would provide a little spark for Charlotte off the bench, as his six points would give the Hornets an 87-85 lead with 6:23 left in the game, and with time running out, everyone inside the Coliseum was hoping for a little early-Christmas present, and head coach Dick Harter would come up with a game plan, as Charlotte was tied with Chicago at 101-101 after a Jordan layup, setting the stage for a thrilling finish at "The Hive", and to simply put it, it was truly alive and well that night with just a few seconds left in regulation, as both teams, and those attending the game, watching it on television, or hearing the game on the radio, were on pins and needles as the Hornets needed just one shot to win the game or settle it in overtime, but Rambis was all in, and he wanted to go for the win.

With 26 seconds left in regulation, the Hornets would have the ball, as Robert Reid's jumper attempt was no good with time winding down, and Rambis was right on the spot to recover the loose ball and would stick it in at the buzzer, for the first last-second win in franchise history, and everyone inside the Coliseum would shout in jubilation and the team was jumping for joy, as the Hornets would get what would become one of their signature wins in their first season in Charlotte, defeating the Bulls 103-101, with Kelly Tripucka leading the way with 30 points in the victory for Charlotte. In his post-game press conference,  Harter would give the fans that were there that evening a lot of praise, quoting that "Charlotte, this is your Christmas present." and from that game on, "Hornets Hysteria" was everywhere throughout Charlotte and the Carolinas, as the game that night would make the Charlotte Hornets a household name, while the Charlotte Coliseum would be packed night in and night out for 364 consecutive games.

The way I see it, "Hornets Hysteria" was simply put, something this city needed that day, as it would be an early-Christmas present for the residents of 350,000 people living here at that time who were busy preparing for the holidays, and it was all over our city, as fans wore everything purple and teal and talked about it at work, in sports bars, and everywhere else around our city, as well as throughout North and South Carolina, as people finally took notice about the Charlotte Hornets and adopting them as their hometown NBA team during the first season, and that is something that we are looking forward to recreating next season, when the Bobcats officially change its name to the Hornets for the 2014-15 season and beyond.

"Hornets Hysteria" was indeed another great moment in the first season of the 1988-89 Charlotte Hornets, as we continue to look back at some of the moments from the team's first season 25 years ago and looking ahead to the return of the Hornets next season.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: The First Win

On selected days during this Charlotte Bobcats season, we are continuing our series looking back at some of the key moments during this, the 25th Anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets first season, and in this installment, we'll be talking about the night that the Hornets would finally notch its first win as a franchise, back on Tuesday November 8, 1988.

A young team earns its first win in franchise history

After dropping the first two games of their 1988-89 inaugural season, the Charlotte Hornets were sitting at 0-2 entering that night's home game against the Los Angeles Clippers on November 8, 1988 at the Charlotte Coliseum before a crowd of 18,865, and on the day of the game, Hornets owner George Shinn was addressing the media about a possible name change for the facility, which opened less than 2 months ago back on August 11, 1988, since many of the media members were trying to figure out where in the world was Charlotte located at during the city's quest to bring an NBA team during the mid-1980's. Some thought Charlotte was located in South Carolina, while others thought it was in Virginia, or West Virginia, but we all know that Charlotte is located right here in North Carolina.  

It was during that meeting with the local media, that Shinn realized that his left arm was shaking, as Spencer Stolpen, the team's president at the time was checking on Shinn to see if he was okay when he came into the offices at 100 Hive Drive on the day of the game, as Stoplen realized that Shinn wasn't feeling good, and coincidentally, Stolpen had to take Shinn to the hospital, as he did not realize that he had suffered a mild stroke earlier in the day during his briefing about the possible name change for the Charlotte Coliseum, and for many of the fans that were making their way out to the Coliseum for the game that night, they were all indeed worried about the man who made it all happen for Charlotte to get an NBA team and transforming it into a major-league sports city.

As for the game that night against the Clippers at home, it would be played as scheduled, and it would see another first in Charlotte Hornets history, the first-ever Double-Double.  It would be recorded by Kurt Rambis, who would score 17 points on just 7-of-9 shooting from the field, to go along with 14 rebounds, while Kelly Tripucka would lead the way for Charlotte with 24 points, as the Hornets would lead by as many as 14 points in the fourth, but with 1:43 left, the Clippers would go on a run to cut the Hornet lead down to six, and during an 11-5 scoring run to wrap up the game, Robert Reid would score six points down the stretch to lift the Charlotte Hornets to its first ever victory in franchise history, with a 117-105 win over the Clippers at "The Hive", sending the 18,865 fans home happy, which was ironically the smallest crowd of the inaugural campaign for the Hornets, with it being Election Day to go along with it, and the players and coaches were indeed worried about George Shinn after he suffered a mild stroke earlier in the day, so they all got together and signed a basketball and gave it to the Hornets owner in honor of the team's first win in franchise history as they literally won it for George.

The Hornets first win on November 8th, 1988 was another special moment in the history of the Charlotte Hornets during the 1988-89 campaign, as we continue to look back at the team's memorable moments from that first season in honor of the 25th Anniversary of their debut, and looking ahead to the long-awaited return of the Hornets to Charlotte in 2014-15.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: A night to remember

In the 7th and final installment of our series looking back at the 25th Anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets first game, we'll look back at the big day, a day that will live on in the hearts of sports fans in Charlotte, and the Carolinas.

November 4th, 1988.  A day that will live in Charlotte and Carolina sports history forever.  It was more than just a typical day in Charlotte, North Carolina, a city of 350,000 people at the time as this city was about to hit it big on what may be considered an historic day for Charlotte and the Carolinas, it was a day that NBA basketball came to town.  A culmination of 3 1/2 years of planning was all going to become a reality on this night as the Charlotte Hornets took on the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first game in franchise history.

The game wasn't just any regular game, it was more like an Hollywood premiere combined with a gala or awards ceremony, if you get the picture, as the men were all dressed up in tuxedos, while the women wore gowns, and if you were driving down Tyvola Road, you may have saw the searchlights lighting up the sky to lead you to the new Charlotte Coliseum, which was opened 3 1/2 months ago back on August 11, 1988, with the now-infamous scoreboard crash coming a day later on August 12, 1988 and yes, the red carpet was indeed rolled out to welcome the 23,388 attendees to the first game.

Even the Charlotte Symphony was there to provide the pregame entertainment.  It was a festive atmosphere as North Carolina governor Jim Martin, and South Carolina governor Carroll Campbell, both made the journey to honor the man responsible for making the dream of bringing NBA basketball to the Carolinas a reality, George Shinn.

When the pregame festivities all wrapped up, they finally got to the starting lineups, the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to be introduced first, but when the team's first Public Address announcer, John Edwards said "And now, the starting lineups for the Cleveland Cavaliers.....", the Cavaliers remained in the locker room not knowing that the pregame ceremonies all wrapped up.  The Hornets and Cavaliers were getting ready for tip-off, and everyone took out their cameras to capture the moment that would be a memorable one indeed on a night to remember.

The two bright spots that the Charlotte Hornets would have in the game that night was the first basket ever scored in Hornets history as Kelly Tripucka would snag a rebound from Cavaliers center Brad Daugherty and he would put it in the basket with 10:09 left in the opening frame to make it a 4-2 game, and the lone lead of the night for the Hornets would be a 34-32 lead in the second quarter, giving the crowd something to cheer about, in a building that was truly electric, and when I talked to Gerry Valliancourt, the former sports director at the Hornets television flagship at the time, WCCB, and currently the host of "The Gerry V Show" on 730 The Game(WZGV-AM) in 2008, he said that the crowd noise was indeed a factor.  "The noise was a factor and I couldn't hear myself during the broadcast." quoted Valliancourt.

Another of the bright spots from opening night was the public debut of the team's official mascot, Hugo the Hornet, which was created by Cheryl Henson, the daughter of famed Muppets creator Jim Henson, as he would receive rave reviews from the sellout crowd on Opening Night.

But in the end, the Cavs would spoil the inaugural game for the Charlotte Hornets, going on a 34-10 run in the second quarter, and evenutally putting it away as they would roll on to a 133-93 win, and when the game ended, the Hornets would receive a standing ovation from the crowd acknowledging their support in the first game, despite being on the losing end of the scoreboard, to cap off a very special night in history.

The next morning, Ron Green, Sr., the long-time sports writer for The Charlotte Observer, would give his own take on the Hornets first game, stating that "It was a good day, the most exciting in Charlotte sports history.  As fine a day a city like this can hope to experience."  Experience was indeed the word of that night in November of 1988, and for those of us that were here at the time, or for those that weren't around, the night that the Charlotte Hornets took the floor for the first time would always be a special moment for all of us Charlotte and Carolina sports fans alike.  And if you're wondering who led the Hornets in the loss on November 4th, 1988, it was Tripucka and Kurt Rambis that scored 16 points each for Charlotte.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: Who are these guys?

Over the last 6 days, we have been chronicling the early years of the Charlotte Hornets franchise as we approach the 25th Anniversary of the team's first game. This time around, we'll talk about the most important thing a franchise needs, a head coach and some players that would make up the 1988-89 edition of the Charlotte Hornets.

Scheer begins an extensive hunt for a coach

Carl Scheer, who was hired as the first Vice President and General Manager of the Charlotte Hornets on June 25, 1987, would have a plan to look for a head coach that would roam the sidelines of the new Charlotte Coliseum for the Hornets first season, and after an extensive search, he would select Dick Harter, who was an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers at the time, to be the very first head coach in Charlotte Hornets history on June 3, 1988.  Harter had a background as an college and NBA coach, first breaking into the head coaching capacity at Rider University for a season, before leaving there to be the coach at Penn, where he spent 5 1/2 years as their coach.  His best years came during his time at the University of Oregon, where his teams were known as the "Kamikaze Kids" from 1971 until the time he left for Penn State University as it's head coach from 1978-83.

Harter made his NBA coaching debut as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons in 1983 and served in that capacity until the 1986 season, where he moved to Indiana to serve as a Pacers assistant coach.  The extensive background that Harter had coaching in college and in the NBA was exactly what Carl Scheer and owner George Shinn had in mind during the search.  With the coach in place, the next thing the Hornets would add on to their list of needs to make the team work, a list of players, in the expansion draft and in the 1988 NBA Draft, and for Scheer and Director of Player Personnel Gene Littles, they would hit the ground running to build that first roster to take the floor of the Charlotte Coliseum.

Who are these guys?

On June 23, 1988, the Hornets, along with the Miami Heat, led by a group headed by Broadway producer Zev Buffman and former NBA player/coach and Charlotte native Billy Cunningham, participated in the 1988 NBA Expansion Draft.  The players that the Hornets and Heat were going to get came from previous established teams in the league.  Charlotte won the coin toss, allowing Miami to select first in the expansion draft, and Miami would take Arvid Kramer from the Dallas Mavericks.  Charlotte had the next pick in the draft, and the Hornets would select the player that would have a huge impact on basketball in Charlotte, Dell Curry, who was with the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Another player that would be an integral part of the Hornets was Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues, who was picked 6th by Charlotte.  There was a few draft day trades during the expansion draft, and the Hornets were involved in one, as they sent Mike Brown, who was picked 8th by Charlotte, to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Kelly Tripucka.

In all, the Hornets picked 11 players in the expansion draft, and in the NBA Draft, held on June 28th, 1988, Charlotte used the 8th pick in the draft to select Rex Chapman out of the University of Kentucky, to set up the roster for the expansion Charlotte Hornets to take the floor for its inaugural campaign in 1988:

1988-89 Charlotte Hornets inaugural season roster

Forwards(6):

• Kurt Rambis(Signed as a Free Agent on July 28, 1988)
• Tim Kempton(Signed as a Free Agent on August 17, 1988)
• Robert Reid(Acquired from Houston in exchange for Bernard Thompson on July 18, 1988)
• Brian Rowsom(Signed as a Free Agent on October 6, 1988)
• Tom Tolbert(Selected 34th by Charlotte in 1988 NBA Draft)
• Kelly Tripucka(Acquired by Charlotte from Utah in exchange for Mike Brown in 1988 Expansion Draft)

Guards(7):

• Muggsy Bogues(Selected in Expansion Draft)
• Rex Chapman(Drafted 8th by Charlotte in 1988 NBA Draft)
• Dell Curry(Selected in Expansion Draft)
• Rickey Green(Selected in Expansion Draft)
• Michael Holton(Selected in Expansion Draft)
• Ralph Lewis(Selected in Expansion Draft)
• Sidney Lowe

Centers(3):

• Earl Cureton(Signed as a Free Agent on July 20, 1988)
• Dave Hoppen(Selected in Expansion Draft)
• Greg Kite

The roster is set, the coaching staff has been assembled, and for the Charlotte Hornets, there was only one more thing left to do....play some basketball.  In the 7th and final chapter of this series, we will look back at the day that would live in Charlotte and Carolina sports history forever, as the Charlotte Hornets would hit the floor of the Charlotte Coliseum for the first time as a team, as Charlotte would finally make the big time at last on that Friday night in November of 1988.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: The making of a mascot

In the first 4 chapters of our series looking back at the early years of the Charlotte Hornets franchise leading up to the 25th anniversary of the team's first game this upcoming Monday, we covered a lot of background of the Hornets franchise during it's infancy.  From George Shinn's intentions to bring a NBA franchise, to the day that Charlotte would join the NBA, to the team's decision to have a "Name-the-Team" contest which saw "Hornets" be the winning favorite, and we talked about Alexander Julian's involvement in designing the team's uniforms...all for some North Carolina barbecue.

In Part 5 of our series, we'll talk about the involvement of how the daughter of the "Muppets" creator, got to work on building a mascot from scratch.

The birth of "Hugo"

When the team was going to be known as the Charlotte Hornets, it was obvious that the team needed a mascot that fans of all ages can love, and they turned to the daughter of Jim Henson, the man responsible for creating the "Muppets" to come up with a mascot that would be the face of the Hornets franchise.

Cheryl Henson, the daughter of "Muppets" creator Jim Henson,
came up with the design for Hugo the Hornet.

The person that came up with the concept of the mascot was Cheryl Henson, who is the President and CEO of the Jim Henson Foundation.  Shortly after the team unveiled it's logo, designed by Jerrell Caskey of Hendrick Sportswear on November 12, 1987, which featured a teal and purple bee all decked out in sneakers dribbling a basketball, Henson wouldn't waste any time to come up with a design for the team's mascot, as the team announced that she would build the costume of the Hornets mascot on August 26, 1988.

When she finished up earning a degree in textile design, she first went to Alexander Julian to ask him for a job with his company, and he informed her that he wasn't hiring at the time he was designing the uniforms for the Hornets, and she asked Julian if she needed any help in designing the mascot.  The backstory of it was that Cheryl did a lot of work building the characters on "The Muppet Show" as a teenager.

She and Alex both agreed, and Cheryl would turn the logo into a full-bodied costume, done in of course, purple and teal, which was suggested by Julian, and she done the work on the costume by hand and she even hand-sculpted the head of the mascot, which would be known as Hugo the Hornet by the time he made his debut on November 4, 1988 during halftime of the Hornets inaugural game vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Charlotte Coliseum.  The name was suggested by over 6,000 people in the Charlotte Observer, and another backstory to the name was that the name "Hugo" was chosen one year before Hurricane Hugo struck the Carolinas on September 22nd, 1989, as there was talk about changing the mascot's name, but a Hornets spokesman at the time said that Hugo the Hornet will continue to be the name.

In Part 6 of our series, we'll talk about the core of every NBA team, a head coach, and players, and on Monday, we'll commemorate the anniversary with a look back at some of the hoopla from November 4th, 1988, when the Charlotte Hornets took to the floor of the Charlotte Coliseum for the first time.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: Fashion, Basketball, and Barbecue

As we continue to lead up to the 25th Anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets first game this upcoming Monday, we are doing a look back at the early days of the Hornets franchise, from George Shinn assembling a "Band of Renegades" to bring Charlotte an NBA franchise, to the day when David Stern told Shinn that it wasn't a joke on April Fool's Day, 1987 that Charlotte made the cut, and in part 3 of this series, we talked about how Shinn wanted to give the fans what they want in a team name, with "Hornets" being the winning favorite in the "Name-the-Team" contest.

In this chapter of our series, we'll talk about how a famed clothing designer, with ties to our state, played a role in designing a uniform that would become one of the most recognizable looks in NBA history, and the little perk that he would get in return for designing the team's uniforms.

Fashion, Basketball and Barbecue?

There's a certain old saying that goes "Clothes make the man", and for the young Charlotte Hornets franchise, they need some colors and a jersey to make the team look great, so George Shinn enlisted famed clothing designer Alexander Julian to come up with some color combinations for the team's jerseys and colors.

Alexander Julian, who grew up in Chapel Hill and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is best known for creating the Colours by Alexander Julian fashion collection in 1981, and he was also known for the redesign of the University of North Carolina men's basketball team uniforms with the signature argyle pattern on the side of the jerseys upon the request of legendary head coach Dean Smith during the 1991-92 season. Julian also designed the jerseys and seating layout for the Charlotte Knights, a team that Shinn also owned at the time in 1990, the year that the Knights, who were affiliated with the Chicago Cubs and played in the Southern League at the time, began play at Knights Castle(later renamed Knights Stadium) in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

At one point in time during the uniform design process, Julian suggested that pink would one of the colors that the team would use, which did not please Shinn during a press conference when he announced that Julian would design the uniforms, and he was trying to decide if he would or would not use pink as one of the uniform colors.  He would go to the drawing board, and do a lot of brainstorming on some color combinations for the Hornets to use for their team colors and uniform design.  In the end, he decided that he would go with Teal, which was one of the newer colors at the time, saying that "Teal was idea to use because it was fresh and new and exciting and looked good on every color of skin tone."  said Julian. He also decided that Purple would be one of the Hornets colors to go along in the uniform design process.  He would also add in Kelly Green, Royal Blue, and Carolina Blue to the mix on the pinstripes and he would do some multi-color trims to round out the uniform design process.

And what would Alexander Julian get in return for the Hornets uniforms? Barbecue.  Why barbecue?  Because we all know that Barbecue is a way of life here in our state, and Alex would later go on to say that Shinn would send him 5 pounds of North Carolina Barbecue to his home in Connecticut, and the rest as they say, was history as Julilan's Hornets jerseys would mean a lot of historic significance, as he was the first fashion designer to design an NBA team's uniforms, while the Hornets would become the first team in history to wear Teal uniforms on the road.

In Part 5 of our series coming up, we'll put the spotlight on Cheryl Henson, the daughter of famed Muppets creator Jim Henson, as she would have the task of building a mascot from scratch.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: The Name Game

This upcoming Monday will mark the 25th anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets first game back on November 4, 1988, and we are looking back at some of the important and interesting milestones from the franchise's birth.  In the first chapter, we talked about how George Shinn went from being a janitor at a business school, to making millions as owner of Rutledge Education Systems, and to assembling a group of investors in a quest to bring an NBA team to Charlotte, and in part 2, we talked about how his speech to the NBA Board of Governors led up to the phone call from commissioner David Stern back in 1987.

Today, we'll discuss about how one name didn't warm up to those of us that were growing up here during that time, and how Shinn wanted to give the fans what the wanted to look for in a name for an NBA franchise.


What's in a Name?

"Lakers", "Yankees", "Cowboys", "Celtics", "Red Sox". Those are some of the legendary nicknames that we have come to known as sports fans, but during our quest to bring the NBA to Charlotte, it was a tale of 2 nicknames, one that was somewhat a bad decision, while the other would be all about a connection to our city's history.  Shortly after the NBA awarded Charlotte an expansion franchise, George Shinn and his group already selected a name for the new expansion team, called the Charlotte "Spirit"?  When that was first announced, some of the fans said "What kind of nickname was that?" 

Well, according to legend, Shinn wanted to choose the name "Spirit" as a reflection of the city and it's people, and many said that the choice for the name wasn't pretty, given the fact that some of the fans would associate the name with "The PTL Club", which was a christian television program that was based in Charlotte and was hosted by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and it was a subject of an investigative report by The Charlotte Observer, the city's newspaper back in 1987 uncovering the organization's fundraising activities that would lead to the eventual downfall of the Bakkers and the PTL ministries as a whole, and The Charlotte Observer would go on to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the PTL investigations in 1988, but it was part of a marketing campaign the Charlotte group had in 1986 titled "Bring the NBA to Basketball Country", and that drew a lot of outrage from the fans saying that it was a bad choice for a team nickname in the NBA, so it was back to the drawing board for George Shinn to come up with a way to give the fans what they want.

And he did, as Shinn realized that the "Spirit" name wasn't taking off with the hometown fans in Charlotte, he would give the fans what they want the team to be called in something he would call "Spirited Voting".  So in April of 1987, he enlisted the help of The Charlotte Observer for a "Name-the-Team" contest, which drew over 9,000 Charlotte Observer readers, and fans, to send in their suggestions for what the team should be called, and it was pretty obvious that both, Observer readers and fans wanted a team name that can reflect the city's history and heritage, and in the end, 2,916 of those fans that took part in the Name-the-Team contest overwhelmingly chose "Hornets" as the winning nickname for the team, over the "Knights", "Cougars", "Spirit", "Crowns", and "Stars".

The meaning of the Hornets nickname

When Shinn officially announced that the Charlotte Hornets would become the team's name on June 5, 1987, team officials would have do a lot of research to dig up some history behind the team's name, as well as the historic significance and connection to Charlotte itself.  According to legend, the origins of the "Hornets" namesake trace to the Revolutionary War, and one of those battles that occurred was the Battle of the Bees, which occurred on October 3, 1780. In that battle, an estimated 450 British troops were attempting to load up on some supplies from McIntyre's Farm in the Northeast end of Mecklenburg County, but they were met by a group of 14 American patriots after the British Redcoats turned over several hornets nests, causing the British soldiers to elude from them, and along the way, the hidden American patriots saw their chance to strike and open fire, causing the British to retreat in the hopes that they were under attack from a significantly larger force.  After British general Charles Cornwallis left Charlotte on October 12, 1780, he would go on to say that Charlotte was "A veritable hornet's nest of rebellion."

The "Hornets" nickname was used by our city's minor-league baseball teams from 1901-73, and it was also the nickname of our city's short-lived World Football League franchise during the 1970's.  There was a lot of reasons why the "Hornets" nickname would be a good fit for the team, and they wanted to choose it to reflect the city's history, and I did a post about the history of the Hornets name back in July, when the city's current NBA team, the Charlotte Bobcats, was on the verge of reclaiming the Hornets name again, and you can read more about it here.

In our next installment of our series leading up to the 25th Anniversary of the Hornets first game, we'll talk about how Alexander Julian wanted to design the uniforms for some good-old fashioned North Carolina barbecue, and how the daughter of famed "Muppets" creator Jim Henson got into the act of designing and building a loveable mascot we would all fall in love with.

NOTE: One of the nicknames that was considered in the "Name the Team" contest, was the "Knights", and it would eventually become the nickname of Charlotte's minor-league baseball team when Shinn bought the Charlotte O's from the Crockett family in 1987.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: The call that changed a city forever

As we continue to countdown to the observance of the 25th anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets inaugural game this upcoming Monday, we are taking a look back at the birth of the franchise, and how the city fell in love with the Hornets.  In part 1 of this six part series, we talked about how George Shinn made his millions as a self-made entrepreneur and how he assembled a band of renegades back in 1985 that would set out on a journey to bring Charlotte an NBA franchise.  In part 2 of this series, we'll talk about how Shinn impressed the NBA Board of Governors, and the call that would change the city forever on April Fool's Day, 1987.

How Shinn sold the NBA on Charlotte

After announcing his intentions to pursue an NBA expansion franchise, George Shinn and his group would have to do a lot of hard work in order for Charlotte to secure the bid. After Shinn traveled to New York to present the league with a $100,000 check to make Charlotte's bid official on June 23, 1986, the next step in the process would have to be a presentation to the NBA Board of Governors on October 20, 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona.  Commissioner David Stern knew that he wanted Charlotte to be in the fold for an expansion franchise.  At one point, there was 11 cities that were in the running, and Charlotte was always last in the pickings, according to Shinn.

Then, came the 30-minute presentation to the NBA Board of Governors, and in that speech, Shinn addressed the Board of Governors about why he and his group wanted Charlotte to have an NBA team in the first place, and the reasons why fans wanted to support the team when it would begin play in the 1988-89 season.

In the speech, which was interrupted by applause on two occasions, Shinn would say that Charlotte was on the rise as one of the fastest-growing cities in America with it's rapid population, and realizing that the one thing that Charlotte was lacking was a major-league sports franchise with the minor-league Charlotte O's baseball team(Shinn would later acquire the team in 1987), NASCAR, and UNC Charlotte's athletic teams being the only games in town back then. He would later say that the Charlotte group had over 10,000 ticket deposits, from those in Charlotte that signed up to be on a waiting list to purchase season tickets for that first season, after the group launched its ticket drive in July of that year, with former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt being the first to purchase two season tickets at a Charlotte City Council Meeting on July 23, 1986 to kickoff the drive, and in the runup to the presentation, they reached the goal of 7,500 season tickets with more than 900 sold for a total of 8,412 tickets sold.

Shinn stated that Charlotte was already building the new Charlotte Coliseum, a modern-day state-of-the-art facility that would serve the franchise as it's major tenant, and during discussions he had earlier in the process with Martin Brackett, who oversaw the Charlotte Auditorium-Coliseum-Convention Center Authority as it's Chairman, Paul Buck, who was the Managing Director of the Auditorium-Coliseum-Convention Center Authority before his retirement in 1988, and city officials, they all agreed on terms after 5 months of negotiations on a lease for the new Coliseum for only $1 per game for the first five years, and he would go on to say that having a NBA team as the major tenant for a new facility would put the city on the map, as well as generating revenue for the new Coliseum as a whole. It was his experience as an author and a public speaker that would turn out to be the turning point in that meeting that would be a key moment in the city's bid for an NBA franchise.

And when the speech came to its conclusion, hall of fame coach Red Auerbach stood up and applauded, and he would hug him after he made his speech to the Board of Governors on that night in Phoenix.  A day later after the speech to the NBA Board of Governors, a columnist for The Sacramento Bee said that "The only franchise Charlotte is going to get is one with Golden Arches", referring to the famed logo for McDonald's. With Shinn's speech to the Board of Governors in the rear view window and the reasons why the league should consider giving Charlotte an NBA expansion team, all that was left was for commissioner Stern to decide if the "Queen City of the South" would make the cut for an expansion franchise to join the National Basketball Association for the 1988-89 season.

The new Charlotte Coliseum first opened it's doors on August 11, 1988, and it's 23,388 seating capacity would be one of the largest seating capacities in the NBA at that time.

Some of the NBA experts that covered the league during the mid to late-1980's knew that Charlotte would have a legitimate long shot to be in the running for an NBA expansion franchise, with the city being on the verge of the birth of the banking industry during that time with the city being the home of First Union(later Wachovia and is now Wells Fargo) and NCNB(later NationsBank and now Bank of America) and with the city's rapid growth in its population, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the country during the mid 1980's, and in his speech to the NBA Board of Governors, Shinn did mention that his group had an "Ace in the Hole", and that was Charlotte was already in the process of building the "New" Charlotte Coliseum, a $52 million dollar state-of-the-art 23,000 seat facility located on Tyvola Road Extension in the western end of the city just off Billy Graham Parkway and minutes away from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, at the time during the city's pursuit of an NBA expansion franchise.

Work on the new Coliseum began with a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on August 12, 1985, after Charlotte voters approved a bond referendum one year earlier in November of 1984, given the fact that the original Charlotte Coliseum(now Bojangles Coliseum), which opened in 1955 on East Independence Boulevard was beginning to show its age at the time of construction, knowing that it was lacking a lot of amenities such as an outdated sound system, concession space, luxury skyboxes, and lack of parking spaces, and when the building was completed in time for it's grand opening on August 11th, 1988 before a sold-out crowd, with an opening ceremony that featured a dedication by the reverend Billy Graham, and of course, the infamous scoreboard crash the following day on August 12, 1988, the new Charlotte Coliseum would have three unique distinctions that would set things apart from all of the other NBA arenas in that time: 

• The Charlotte Coliseum's seating capacity of 23,388 would be one of the largest seating capacities for an NBA team. 
• It would be the largest basketball-specific arena ever to serve as a full-time home for an NBA franchise.
• The new Charlotte Coliseum would have the distinction of not only being the largest sports and entertainment venue in North and South Carolina, but it would also have the distinction of being the largest sports and entertainment venue in the Southeast when it opened its doors in August of 1988.

The Call that wasn't no April Fool's prank

It was April Fool's Day, 1987, and it was the moment of truth for the people of Charlotte, and for George Shinn.  The culmination of a dream and a vision to bring an NBA franchise to Charlotte would be decided with just one phone call.  Then, out of the blue, David Stern called George's son, Chad Shinn and he would give the phone to his dad when he said "It's David.", and commissioner Stern said that "George, this is April Fool's Day, but this is no April Fool, you have been selected Number one." As that call by commissioner Stern would officially seal the deal for the City of Charlotte to finally welcome a major-league sports franchise to not only the city, but also to the states of North and South Carolina, as George Shinn's lifelong dream of bringing pro basketball to the "Tar Heel State" finally came true.

The other 3 cities that made the cut for expansion by the NBA along with Charlotte, North Carolina were Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Orlando, Florida, as approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 22, 1987 in New York City. Charlotte and Miami would be the first 2 teams to play in the 1988-89 season, while Minnesota and Orlando would begin play in the 1989-90 season.

I forgot to mention this in part one of our series about the Carolina Cougars role in Charlotte's hunt for an NBA franchise, that many of us here at the time thought we didn't have a chance to land an NBA team, but for those who grew up during the 1960's and into the 1970's we were one of three cities that served as the home for the old Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association, along with Raleigh and Greensboro, and it was one of the key parts of why George Shinn and his group wanted the NBA to have Charlotte in the picture of getting an NBA team.

In the next chapter of our series, we'll explain about why the "Spirit" name didn't turn out to be a good choice at first for the franchise and how Alexander Julian came into the fold to design the uniforms for the team.

Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: A 7-part series

1988, A special year in history.  A cost of a gallon of milk was just $2.30, a postage stamp: only $0.25, and the cost for a gallon of regular gas would only be $1.08.  The number one song on the Billboard chart was "Groovy Kind of Love" by Phil Collins.

1988 was also a special year in Charlotte, North Carolina, a city of only 350,000 residents at the time, as Sue Myrick was sworn in as Charlotte's first and only female mayor, famed mosaic artist Romare Bearden, who grew up in our city, died at the age of 76, The Charlotte Observer won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the downfall of Jim Bakker and the PTL ministries, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's men's basketball team went back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977, after the 49ers defeated Virginia Commonwealth University in the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game, and the new Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola Road would officially open its doors for the first time.

But the date that many Charlotteans, as well as those in North and South Carolina will always remember will be Friday, November 4th, 1988, when the NBA's 24th franchise, the Charlotte Hornets, took the floor for the first time. It was the culmination of 4 1/2 years of planning and hard work for the man who had a vision to bring NBA basketball to our region, George Shinn, and in this series leading up to the 25th anniversary of the Hornets first game, we'll talk about how it all came together for Charlotte to become an NBA town. In the first of this series, we'll talk about George Shinn's role in putting it together, and his dreams of making Charlotte an NBA town a reality.

One Man's Vision

Shinn, who grew up in nearby Kannapolis, and attended A.L. Brown High School, made a name for himself as the owner of Rutledge Education Systems. Prior to that, he worked as a janitor at Evans Business College, when he realized that when the school was in financial trouble, he stepped up and bought the school.  In 1985, He would put together a group of local investors, which included Rick Hendrick, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports and Hendrick Automotive Group, Felix Sabates, who currently owns a Mercedes-Benz dealership, and media magnate Cy Bahakel, the founder of Bahakel Communications, owners of Charlotte's CW affiliate, WCCB, to begin a 2 1/2 year push to "Bring the NBA to Basketball Country".  Many of the critics said to themselves that our city could support an NBA team, and for one columnist for The Sacramento Bee said in his article that "The only franchise Charlotte is going to get is one with Golden Arches".  Shinn's first goal was to ultimately be a owner of a Major League Baseball franchise, and he said in an interview with Charlotte Magazine, which can be found HERE, it was Peter Ueberroth, who was at the time the commissioner of Major League Baseball told Shinn that the city was too small at the time to have a Major League Baseball franchise*.

That didn't stop him for continuing his lifelong dream to bring Charlotte a true major-league sports franchise, and to add some excitement to a state that truly loves its basketball with the "Big 4" teams of Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, and Wake Forest, as well as the college teams here locally, including Davidson, Johnson C. Smith, and UNC Charlotte. During that time, Charlotte was making a name for itself as one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States back in 1985, while the NBA announced it plans to expand, and Shinn indeed wanted to try his luck there, and after filing an application with the league for an expansion team, he had a long road ahead of him.  

In the next chapter of our series, we'll talk about the day Charlotte would get the call they've been waiting for, and in the days to come, we'll talk about how the name, uniforms, and mascot came together, as well as a roster of players that would become household names, leading up to next Monday's anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets first game.

*-Shinn's dream of becoming a baseball owner, a minor-league baseball owner to be exact, became a reality in 1987, when he bought the Double-A Charlotte O's, who were affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles and played in the Southern League at the time, from the Crockett Family and he renamed the team as the Charlotte Knights in 1988, and in 1989, he bought the Single-A Gastonia Rangers, who were affiliated with the Texas Rangers in the South Atlantic League. Shinn would own the Gastonia Rangers until 1992, when he sold the franchise to Don Beaver, who relocated the franchise to Hickory, North Carolina, where they would become what we now know today as the Hickory Crawdads.

As for the Charlotte Knights, Shinn would remain the team's owner until December of 1997, when once again, Don Beaver bought the franchise from Shinn, just like he did 5 years earlier in 1992, when he bought the Gastonia Rangers from Shinn.