From Rayl to Miller: A Brief History of the Indiana Pacers

You all know that the Indiana Pacers are improving. I'm currently the beat writer for the team and a huge fan, so like the rest of you I've been suffering through the last few years, from the that 2004 brawl with the Pistons, Reggie Miller retiring in 2005, or Jermaine O'Neal leaving in 2008.

Then there were good times. The Reggie Miller era. The Pacers making it to the NBA Finals in the 1999 season. The 2003 season with the 61-21 record, best in the NBA.

What follows is a brief history of the team from 1967 to today.

Current information

The Pacers play in Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. They have two mascots at every game: Boomer, a cat, and Bowser, a dog. They play in the Eastern Conference inside the Central Division; their two main rivals are the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Herbert and Melvin Simon own the team and David Morway is the general manager. Jim O'Brien is the head coach. The team's Web site is www.pacers.com

Franchise History
The ABA Years

In 1967, a group of six investors purchased a league called the ABA (American Basketball Association) and created a team called the Pacers. Richard Tinkham, one of the six investors, called the team the Pacers because of Indiana's rich history of harness racing pacers and the pace car used in the Indy 500.

Tinkham said the “Pacers” decision was an easy one, but the real debate was whether the team should be called the Indiana Pacers or the Indianapolis Pacers. Since one of the original ideas for the team was to have it playing throughout the state with its base in Indianapolis, the official team name became the Indiana Pacers.

For their first seven years in the ABA (1967-1974), the Pacers played in the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum, now called the Pepsi Coliseum. In 1974, the Pacers moved to Market Square Arena and stayed there for the next 25 years.

In the second season of eligibility for the team, the Pacers had a new head coach who had been a star with the Indiana Hoosiers, Bob "Slick" Leonard, who replaced previous head coach Larry Staverman. Leonard turned the Pacers into a storybook team with amazing superstars like Jimmy Rayl, Mel Daniels, George McGinnis, Bob Netolicky, Rick Mount, and Roger Brown.

The Pacers became the most succesful team in ABA History, winning three ABA Championships in thier last four years there. They appeared in the ABA Finals five times in their nine-year history with the league.

Early Years with the NBA

The Pacers were one of the four teams to join the NBA with the ABA-to-NBA merger in 1976. In the 1976-77 season, the Pacers joined the merged league with the New York Nets (now New Jersey Nets), Denver Nuggets, and San Antonio Spurs of the ABA. In the financial category, the Pacers were the weakest of the four teams in that area.

Although the Pacers made the cut because of their television audience being ahead of the Kentucky Colonels, financial troubles began immediately. They began giving up on some of their star players. When the Pacers entered the NBA, they were charged $3.2 million, just like the other former ABA teams that were merging with the NBA.

The NBA would only accept four ABA-NBA merger teams and Indiana was one of those four. The new NBA teams were barred for sharing some of the TV broadcast for four years.

The Pacers finished their first NBA season 36-46 and two players, Billy Knight and Don Buse, were invited to the NBA All-Star game. But that was only one of the very few highlights for the Pacers in those 13 years. They only managed to have one winning record and have only two playoff appearances.

More depression came when they released Billy Night and Don Buse before the 1977-1978 season. After those two losses, they acquired two good players, Adrian Dantley and John Williamson, but they were both gone in December.

After poor performances in these 13 years, the fans' attention began to wane. Indiana needed to find a way to get their fans back, and a handful of odd decisions followed.

Their first tried out Ann Myers in 1979, who became the only woman ever to try out for an NBA team. She did not make the squad.

Then, the Pacers traded some guy named Alex English to the Nuggets for ABA superstar named George McGinnis. He made very very little contribution to the team and failed in his two years with Indiana. Meanwhile, English became one of the greatest scorers of all time.

Then, in 1984, they acquired Tom Owens, who played one year w

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