Spirits of St. Louis
The Spirits of St. Louis were one of three teams in the American Basketball Association that did not survive the merger with the NBA. They were a member of the league in its last two seasons, 1974-75 and 1975-76.The Spirits (who took their name from the Atlantic Ocean-crossing plane flown by Charles Lindbergh) were the third incarnation of a franchise that was once known as the Houston Mavericks and later the Carolina Cougars. Despite their history, they essentially were an expansion team, as there was just one holdover from the Cougars.
They were a colorful team featuring a number of players, both on and off the court, who were fairly successful in their basketball careers. Among them were Moses Malone, acquired during their second season, who went on to a long and successful career in the ABA. Maurice Lucas spent both of his ABA years as a Spirit, then later became an all-star in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers. Other well-known players that played the team included former Boston Celtics sixth man Don Chaney, future Celtics head coach M.L. Carr, and Ron Boone, who held the record for consecutive games played in pro basketball for many years.
A couple of off-court personalities from the team became well known as well. One of the coaches in 1975 was former NBA player Rod Thorn, who became the NBA's vice president of basketball operations (or, in essence, the No. 2 man behind commissioner David Stern) for a number of years. On radio, the team featured Bob Costas as an announcer. Costas would go on to a highly successful career working for NBC television and radio.
The owners of the franchise, Ozzie and Dan Silna, struck a deal to acquire future television money from the teams that joined the NBA, 1/7 from each team, in perpetuity. With television deals becoming more and more lucrative, the deal has made the Silnas quite rich, earning them in upwards of $100 million .
