THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220571
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: Long
The Triple-A Tidewater Tides moved into a new home, Met Park, considered one of the most innovative minor league baseball facilities in the nation.
{REST} The Norfolk Neptunes were the most successful minor league football team in the United States, attracting 15,000 to 17,000 fans per game to Foreman Field.
The 10,000-seat Hampton Coliseum opened even as another 10,000-seat arena, Scope, was a year from completion in downtown Norfolk. The latter would be the home of the Virginia Wings, the top farm club of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings.
Best of all, Hampton Roads had its own major league franchise, the Virginia Squires of the old red-white-and-blue American Basketball Association.
Among those with fond memories of Virginia's only previous major league franchise is basketball Hall-of-Famer Julius ``Dr. J'' Erving.
``The people took to us and liked us,'' recalls Erving, who left the University of Massachusetts early to sign with the Squires in 1971. ``We were the only major league team in town. It was exciting, and I think we blended into the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach very well.''
But the sunny local sports picture dimmed almost as suddenly as it had appeared.
The Tides were never a big draw at Met Park. The Neptunes folded because of league problems in 1971. The Wings failed to attract enough fans to survive.
And the Squires were in big-league financial turmoil for most of the franchise's life.
Erving played only two years for the Squires before his contract was sold for $500,000 to pay mounting bills. The franchise itself survived six seasons before drowning in red ink.
The roots of Hampton Roads' only major league franchise sprang from a meeting in New York City on Feb. 2, 1967, when an 11-team ABA was formed. One of those teams was the Oakland (Calif.) Oaks, principally owned by singer Pat Boone.
The team remained in Oakland for two years before financial problems led to a cross-country shift to Washington under a new owner, Earl Foreman, an attorney with a sports background. Foreman reportedly obtained the franchise simply by assuming the team's debts, including an interest-free $500,000 note.
The Capitals, as they were renamed, played in the old Washington Arena to a lot of empty seats. Foreman lost $500,000 his first season, but smartly recovered that amount and a valuable promise when the ABA and NBA sat down to discuss a possible merger for the first time. As a precondition to the talks, the NBA demanded that Foreman move his team out of Washington, away from the NBA's Baltimore franchise.
Foreman agreed, after being paid $500,000 by other ABA owners and after being assured by the NBA that his franchise would get a free ride into the NBA in the event of a merger.
On July 31, 1970, Foreman announced that he was moving the team to Virginia and that the team would play home games in Norfolk, Hampton, Richmond and Salem, with headquarters in Norfolk.
But Foreman failed to realize the headaches that would result from such a regional concept. The Squires played games in Salem only two years and Richmond four years before retreating to Norfolk and Hampton only.
The Squires were successful their first season, following an embarrassing start when Rick Barry refused to make the move from Washington to Hampton Roads. They won their first six games and went on to win the East Division championship by 11 games.
Area fans had their own local hero in Mike Barrett, who had played on local Navy teams before being selected for the U.S. Olympics team. Former University of North Carolina stars Larry Brown and Doug Moe were on the team, along with rookie Charlie Scott, another former Tar Heel.
The Squires were coached by Al Bianchi, a former NBA player whose fiery courtside demeanor made him popular with area fans.
The team was exciting, too, and generated a large following, averaging 119.74 points per game. Scott, who shared league rookie honors with Kentucky's Dan Issel, was top gun with a 27.1 average.
But the franchise was unable to benefit fully from the artistic success because it played Norfolk games in a cramped Old Dominion University field house while waiting for Scope to be finished.
The Squires moved into Scope the following year. But by then the franchise already was beginning to unravel because of financial pressures on Foreman.
Scott jumped the team in March 1972 because of a contract dispute. He joined the NBA's Phoenix Suns.
A month later, the team's other superstar, rookie Julius Erving, disclosed that he had signed a future contract with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks even though he had four years remaining on his ABA contract. Erving tried to jump to the Hawks before the 1972-73 season but was ordered back to Virginia by the courts.
In August 1973, Foreman sold Erving to the New York Nets of the ABA in an effort to keep the Virginia franchise afloat long enough to be included in a merger with the NBA. Foreman received $500,000 for Erving, but that was not enough to keep the team operating when the merger talks bogged down again.
Next, Foreman sold another promising star, Swen Nater, to San Antonio.
While peddling players, Foreman also was trying to sell part of the franchise to local investors. He got only small nibbles, though, and in January 1974 he sold the last of the team's superstars, George Gervin, to San Antonio.
Amid the financial turmoil, the Squires struggled on the court and at the gate. They finished second, 23 games behind Kentucky, in their second year in Virginia; and third, 15 games behind winner Carolina, their third year. In the fourth year, they were 28-56, 27 games out of first place.
With home attendance down to a couple thousand loyal fans, Foreman said he would fold the franchise unless it could be purchased by local investors.
Norfolk City Manager Bob House convened a group of businessmen who raised $1.08 million to keep the team in Virginia.
Despite the new ownership, and a willingness by the ABA to forgive old debts, the New Virginia Squires, as they were called, did not fare much better than the old Squires.
The franchise operated for two more years before folding, just short of being included in the long-awaited merger with the NBA.
On May 10, 1976, the ABA terminated the Virginia franchise because it failed to pay $100,000 in back payroll and league assessments. A few weeks later, the only ABA franchises included in the merger with the NBA were Denver, San Antonio, Indiana and the New York Nets.
{KEYWORDS} VIRGINIA SQUIRES PROFESSIONAL SPORTS MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS NORFOLK NEPTUNES
by CNB