Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
As Bob Bass says, you had to be there.
For those who were there and involved in the beginning of the American Basketball Association, it was a unique, one-and-only experience, according to Bass, the first coach of the Denver Rockets (now Nuggets).
The ABA began play with ownerships that ranged from just above mom-and-pop status to businessmen who were far removed from the world of sports. Bill Ringsby owned the Rockets and tried to run the basketball franchise as he did his trucking company, with predictable success.
With the NBA the established professional league, the ABA truly was a stepchild. It played its games in many arenas across the country that were barely suitable for bingo, let alone basketball. And with the aloof NBA looking down its collective nose, the new league responded with a snappy red, white and blue basketball and a 3-point field-goal line to reward long-range shooters.
“To be frank, it was the most fun I’ve ever had coaching basketball,” said Bass, reminiscing from his retirement home in San Antonio. “The players were so glad to have a job, they just wanted to play. Some of the franchises were a laughingstock the way they were organized. Denver was first class.
“We never missed a payroll and our checks never bounced.”
For Bass, moving to the ABA for the inaugural 1967-68 season was intriguing but it also was a big step from the safety of coaching Oklahoma Baptist. He knew Rockets general manager Dick Eicher, making it an easier step.
“I had to think about giving up my job at Oklahoma Baptist for a situation where you didn’t know what was going to happen,” Bass said. “You didn’t know if you were going to get paid or anything. But I knew the owners were taking a chance, so I was willing to take a chance, too.”
Bass joined a Rockets staff that included Eicher, Del Klone in the front office and trainer Lloyd Williams.
Larry Jones, an all-league player the second year, Byron Beck, Wayne High- tower and Lonnie Wright were the stalwarts of the early Rockets. And Bill “The Hill” McGill, Julian Hammond, Tom Bowens, Lefty Thomas and Willie Murrell were among others who became fan favorites. The Rockets played in the fan-friendly Auditorium Arena, a facility that held fewer than 7,000 but is remembered by Williams as “one of the best places in the country to watch basketball.”
Bass’ insider stories are many. He remembers Hightower as a “real character.”
The 6-foot-9 Hightower, from the University of Kansas, was maybe ahead of his time. He could play the perimeter and beat defenders off the dribble.
Bass recalls that the Rockets played in the old Loyola University gym in New Orleans. The playing floor was above the team benches and players had to climb stairs to enter the game.
But maybe the most unusual playing site was in Commack, Long Island, where New Jersey played some of its home games. The arena was the home of a minor-league hockey team and the basketball floor didn’t cover the entire ice surface. Players wore their top coats over their warm-ups and uniforms to stay warm while on the bench.
The Ringsbys also owned Aspen Airways.
“We might have been the first pro team to have its own plane,” Bass said. “We had the same pilot most of the time and got to know him pretty well. We called him Red Baron.”
The Aspen Airways planes weren’t the fastest. On one trip back from Long Island, it took eight hours, including a fuel stop in Kansas City.
Bass’ time with the Rockets coincided with some other pioneers of the ABA. Alex Hannum was the coach for Oakland and Larry Brown and Doug Moe were some of his players. All three would later coach the Nuggets.
Bass left the Rockets after two seasons when Ringsby refused to talk about a contract extension until late in June. Eicher had resigned, and Bass became anxious about the future. His teams had finished third both years.
“It was always year-to-year in the first five or six years of the ABA,” Williams said. “When the season was over, you didn’t know if you’d be back the next fall.”
Bass talked to Texas Tech about its vacant coaching job and was hired.
“That was the biggest mistake I ever made,” Bass said.
He quickly got back into the ABA with Florida and the San Antonio Spurs.
“For me, the ultimate in any sport is being the last guy standing,” Bass said. “I got to do that one time in 1966 when Oklahoma Baptist won the NAIA championship.”
Bass made a career in professional basketball as a coach and in front-office posts with the Spurs and the Charlotte and New Orleans Hornets.
“I stayed in the game until I was 75 years old,” Bass said, remembering when he was 38 and pondering a coaching move to the new Denver Rockets.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
