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.
