Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 30 years later: November 4, 1988, it all begins

This year marks the 30th anniversary of NBA basketball in Charlotte, and today marks the observance of the very first NBA game ever played in the city, as the Charlotte Hornets would mark their debut as the 24th franchise in the National Basketball Association as one of the league's 4 expansion teams.  Their opponent that night was the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have been in the league since 1970, and everyone in this small sleepy Southern town of 350,000 residents at that time were all excited and looking forward to welcoming Charlotte to the big leagues as the Hornets would become the first major-league sports team in the Carolinas. Before that, a lot of things would all come into focus to make it a reality.

One man's vision made it all happen

The vision to bring the NBA to Charlotte was made possible by Kannapolis, North Carolina native George Shinn, who was a self-made millionaire as owner of Rutledge Education Systems, a private for-profit business school, and long before that, he even served as a janitor at Evans Business College, and when that school was facing financial trouble, Shinn would buy the school.  When the NBA decided that it would plan on expanding in the mid 1980's, he would assemble a group to help "Bring the NBA to Basketball Country", by bringing in Felix Sabates, owner of several car dealerships in the Charlotte area, and is still a minority investor in the current Hornets franchise, Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, and the late Cy Bahakel, founder of Bahakel Communications Ltd., the owner of WCCB, Charlotte's CW affiliate and the original television home for Hornets basketball.

A dream and vision achieved

On April 5, 1987, the NBA Board of Governors would announce that the league would be expanding by four teams, with two teams slated to begin play in 1988-89 and two more would join in 1989-90, and interestingly enough, the first of those four teams would be Charlotte, because at the time of the League's plans to expand, the city was already in the process of building the brand new Charlotte Coliseum off of Tyvola Road Extension, which impressed league executives, and the Charlotte group had over 10,000 fans on a waiting list for season tickets for that first campaign in 1988-89.  After Charlotte was awarded an NBA expansion franchise, fans got involved with the effort, which included a "Name-the-Team" contest, as over 9,000 fans sent in suggestions for the team name, and they overwhelmingly selected "Hornets" as the winning favorite.  Along the way, Charlotte's new NBA franchise would see more things come their way, including fashion designer Alexander Julian being picked to design the iconic Hornets uniform, Cheryl Henson, daughter of "Muppets" creater Jim Henson coming up with the design of "Hugo", the team's mascot, and of course Dick Harter being chosen as the first ever coach of the Charlotte Hornets franchise.

The Big Day

November 4, 1988. Opening Night of the Hornets inaugural season. Fans were excited and anxiously waiting for what would go down as one of the biggest days in Charlotte, as well as throughout North and South Carolina, as 23,388 fans would pack the new Charlotte Coliseum, which opened 2 months earlier back on August 11, 1988, mostly in gowns and tuxedos for the Hornets debut.  It was a mixture of what would be a Hollywood premiere or an awards program, as searchlights would light the way for those that were  heading to the game that evening would be in for the night of their lives, even the Charlotte Symphony and Oratorio Singers of Charlotte were even there for the pregame entertainment, as well as the Governors of both Carolinas, South Carolina governor Carroll Campbell and North Carolina governor Jim Martin, were there to all honor George Shinn and his vision to bring a major-league sports franchise to the Carolinas.

After the festivities ended, it was time to play some basketball, and the game would produce two bright spots for the Charlotte Hornets on that night. The first would come when Kelly Tripucka would snatch a rebound from Brad Daugherty and put it in the basket for the very first basket in Charlotte Hornets history, and the Hornets would get what would be their only lead of the night, a 34-32 lead in the second quarter.  But the Cavs would spoil the opening night party for Charlotte as they would cruise to a 133-93 win that night, and when the game ended, some of the 23,388 fans gave the Hornets a standing ovation as they would leave the court on what would be a big night in Charlotte sports.

This is the first in a series of postings looking back at some of the memorable moments during this the 30th anniversary year of NBA basketball in Charlotte, as we look back at where this franchise has been and look ahead to where it will be going in the future.