Anchorage Northern Knights

Anchorage Northern Knights
Founded	1977
League	EBA 1977–1978 CBA 1978–1982
Team history	Anchorage Northern Knights 1977–1982
Arena	West Anchorage High School Gym
Colors	Gold & Purple
Championships	1 1979–80
Division titles	2 1978–79, 1979–80

The Anchorage Northern Knights were a team in the Continental Basketball Association from 1977 to 1982.

When the team joined the league, then known as the Eastern Basketball Association, it attracted national attention for being perhaps the most misplaced franchise in the history of professional sports. Playing in Anchorage, the team was 5,000 miles away from its nearest competitor, as all the other teams were based in the eastern Pennsylvania-New York-New Jersey area. League officials "began to see the publicity value a team in Alaska would have for the EBA, which, with an enlarged talent pool since the ABA folded, had been trying to upgrade its image from that of a nickel-and-dime Pennsylvania mill-town circuit—which is mostly what it had been—to something on the order of baseball's Triple-A leagues," wrote John Papnek in Sports Illustrated.

During the team's first two seasons, the Knights began their regular schedule with an extended homestand; then endured a mid-season bus trip to every CBA team in the league; then finished out the season with another homestand.

The Knights experienced success in the 1977-78 season, leading the league in attendance and often playing before sellout crowds. They won the Western Division with a 24–7 record in 1977-78. The team advanced to the CBA Finals the following year, where they were swept in four games by the Rochester Zeniths, with whom they had begun to develop an impassioned rivalry. In 1979-80, the Northern Knights captured the CBA Championship by defeating Rochester in seven games.

Brad Davis played for the Northern Knights in the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons, capturing the CBA Newcomer of the Year Award in 1978–79. Davis then embarked on a long NBA career, highlighted by twelve seasons with the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, where he became the first player to have his jersey number retired by the NBA franchise. Future NBA Clipper Ron Davis was a two-time CBA scoring leader; in 1979–80, he was CBA Most Valuable Player for the Anchorage squad.

Other favorite Northern Knights included Freeman Blade, Tico Brown, Steve Hawes, Arvid Kramer, Steve Hayes, Brad Branson, and Al Fleming. The Knights were coached by Bill Klucas.

Year-by-year

Year	League	Record	Reg. Season	Playoffs
1977/78	EBA	24–7	1st, Western	Semifinals
1978/79	CBA	27–22	2nd, Northern	Finals
1979/80	CBA	29–16	2nd, Northern	Champion
1980/81	CBA	25–17	2nd, Western	Western Division Semifinals
1981/82	CBA	14–32	4th, Western	Did not qualify

Home court

Throughout their history, the Northern Knights played their home games in West Anchorage High School's gymnasium.

References

External links

Sports teams based in Alaska

Baseball	ABL: Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks Anchorage Bucs Anchorage Glacier Pilots Mat-Su Miners Peninsula Oilers Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks

Hockey	ECHL: Alaska Aces NAHL: Fairbanks Ice Dogs Kenai River Brown Bears

College athletics	NCAA Division II Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks

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