Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

From the ALL to the PLL

The first weekend of Premiere Lacrosse League action is in the books, with four games played over two days in Albany, New York.

In case you’re wondering, the New York Atlas started things off with a 10-8 victory over the Carolina Chaos on Friday, followed by the California Redwoods outscoring the Denver Outlaws in the nightcap, 15-12.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Bluesky @scottadamson1960.bsky.social**

On Saturday, the two-time defending PLL champion Utah Archers edged the Maryland Whipsnakes, 8-7, in a rematch of last year’s title game, and the Boston Cannons closed out weekend competition by defeating the Atlas, 16-12.

My fascination with field lacrosse goes back several years, but it often seemed like I was following a game that was destined to remain in a fixed niche. Now, however, it truly seems like it’s found solid footing with the PLL.

The circuit is in its seventh season, having grown from a touring series featuring clubs without city attachments to one that remains a traveling show but now reps markets. The next phase of its evolution will likely see it move to a traditional home and away schedule for each of its teams.

Some of the best lacrosse players in the world have a home in the PLL, and it has become one of my favorite sports to watch. (In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve thrown my emotional support behind the Chaos – mainly because I love Charlotte).

Yet, as successful as this venture has become, an early attempt at pro lacrosse in North America proved to be a spectacular failure.

The American Lacrosse League was founded in 1988 and if this is the first you’ve heard of it, you aren’t alone. Blink and you missed it.

The brainchild of two former All-American lacrosse players-turned businessmen, Terry Wallace and Bruce Meierdiercks, the ALL had an April 24, 1988, start. The season lineup featured the Baltimore Tribe, Boston Militia, Denver Rifles, Long Island Sachems, New Jersey Arrows and Syracuse Spirit.

Teams had 23-player rosters, including 14 with two-year, $10,000 contracts and nine playing for $4,000 over one season.

And like today’s PLL, the rosters were loaded. In fact, lineups included several future United States Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductees culled from elite college programs such as Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and UMass.

The Baltimore Sun reported in its April 24, 1988, edition that 80 percent of the league’s 138 players were All-Americans in college.

Tribe player Brooks Sweet – a future Hall of Famer – predicted that every clash would be a battle of elites.

“Every game is going to be like Johns Hopkins against Johns Hopkins,” Sweet, an attackman, said. “I was skeptical at first, but when I saw the caliber of players in the league, I was impressed.”

Rules were designed to make for a fast-paced, offensive game. Teams were limited to three longsticks (typically used by defenders and a midfielder) – five were allowed in the college game at the time. There was also a 25-second clearing clock, “on-the-fly” substitutions, and if an offensive player was fouled a flag was thrown but the penalty not assessed until the play’s completion.

Days before the opener, Arrows general manager John Pappas expressed both “hope and uncertainty” when talking to a reporter from Newsday. He pointed to a team jersey and said, “Could be a collector’s item someday. The question is, will it be hanging in the hall of fame or someone’s closet?”

Unfortunately, it was the latter.

Just over a month after opening day, the league was dead – having played just 13 games.

The Denver franchise went belly up on May 18 and the rest of the league followed suit on May 28. Like many sports upstarts, it fell victim to lack of money – and lack of attendance.

“We got to know players we had read about and were able to play with them,” Arrows player Tom Grimaldi told the Montclair Times for a June 9, 1988, article. “Everyone was in the same boat. It’s disappointing that the league did not last.”

Added teammate John Shaw, “The level of competition was the best I’ve ever seen.”

The next outdoor pro league to come along was Major League Lacrosse, which began play in 2001 and lasted until 2020. That year it merged with PLL, which is now the gold standard for the play-for-pay game.

Thirty-seven years after the ill-fated ALL, professional field lacrosse is finally in a good place. The Women’s Lacrosse League debuted this year with four teams (the Boston Guard, California Palms, Maryland Charm and New York Charging), and attendance and TV audiences continue to rise.

Of course, it has a long way to go to catch up with the National Lacrosse League, a box lacrosse circuit whose roots go back to 1986. The NLL trails only the NBA and NHL in attendance among pro indoor sports worldwide.

But that’s a story for another time …

Game day traditions

Like many sports fans, Buzz Chance has his game day superstitions.

Any time the Baltimore Express hits the basketball court – and Buzz isn’t at Mobtown Arena to cheer them on live – his den served as his own personal luxury suite.

The well-worn yellow Camelback sofa is situated six feet away from the wall-mounted television, and above the TV is a faded red, black and silver Express pennant.

The square side table to the right of the couch features a big bowl full of chips and a smaller one overflowing with mixed nuts. And ice cold beer is just an arms-length away, thanks to the old, battered blue cooler parked on the floor.

But the good luck charm is his dad, who occupies the threadbare easy chair nestled in the corner of the room.

Watching the Express together is a longstanding tradition, one that began when Buzz was just a child. He still remembers snuggling next to his father in the Buick Riviera and taking their 15-mile journey to Mobtown Arena back in 1972. Although their seats were of the “nosebleed” variety, that was just a minor detail.

For the first time, Buzz was getting to see his beloved basketball team up close and in person.

He could still remember wolfing down two hot dogs and what seemed like a washtub-sized vat of popcorn as the Express made quick work of the Austin Jammers.

Buzz recalled the final score being Baltimore 113, Austin 104, but his dad never could seem to settle on the final.

“That first game was a fun one, wasn’t it?” his father would say when reminiscing about the outing. “I think Baltimore won 115 to 100, or something like that.”

“It was 113-104, dad,” Buzz would reply. “Like they say, you never forget your first time. I remember you buying me that pennant and me having a stomach ache from all that popcorn I ate. And I’ll always remember that score.

“Are you sure? Because I really thought it was 120-112, or something like that.”

The subject would come up several different times over the years, and Buzz’s dad always remembered the final tally differently. Only during the dawn of the internet age did Buzz finally convince his father – sort of.

“Look here,” Buzz said, clacking away at the clunky home computer after the noisy dual-up connection was complete. “This has all the Express information dating back to the first year of the franchise in 1968. See … Express 113, Jammers 104, November 17, 1972.”

His dad ambled over to the “computer machine,” raised his eyeglasses and leaned in.

“Hmmm,” he said. “Well, I guess you’re right. But I coulda sworn it was 118-110 … or something like that.”

More than 50 years later, the Express and Jammers were back at it, this time in Game 4 of the Continental Division playoffs.

Growing up, Buzz always perched on the couch and his dad plopped in his easy chair when the two watched games together. The tradition took a break when Buzz went to college and in the early days of his marriage, but ultimately it continued when his father moved in with Buzz and his wife back in 2020.

His dad was too feeble to actually go to games by then, but he still enjoyed following the Express on television.

And on this night, Buzz guzzled beer, shoveled in snacks, cussed a little and cheered a lot as the Express hung on for a 107-99 road win, evening the series at two games apiece.

Once the game ended, he turned off the TV, walked over to the easy chair and carefully lifted up the urn with his father’s remains. Once placed back in its usual spot on the mantle of the fireplace, Buzz smiled.

“Thanks for helping pull ‘em through against the Jammers again, Pop,” he said. “Still wasn’t as good as that time you took me to my first game, though. Remember? Baltimore 113, Austin 104 … or something like that.”

Basketball’s million dollar challenge

Fifty years ago today, the Golden State Warriors completed a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets to claim the NBA championship – their first since moving to Northern California (from Philadelphia).

The Warriors finished 48-34 in the regular season before beating the Seattle SuperSonics (four games to two), Chicago Bulls (four games to three) and Washington.

But while the champagne was still dripping from their uniforms, another professional basketball team challenged the NBA kings to a world championship showdown.

The Kentucky Colonels, champions of the American Basketball Association, wanted a series to determine the sport’s true champion. The Louisville-based club logged a 58-36 mark in the ABA regular season before topping the New York Nets, 108-99, to win the Eastern Division tiebreaker game.

The Colonels then bulldozed the Memphis Sounds in the first round of the playoffs, Spirits of St. Louis in the Eastern Conference Finals and Indiana Pacers in the ABA Finals.

They won all three series four games to one.

On the day Golden State raised its trophy, ABA Commissioner Dave DeBusschere sent a telegram to Warriors president Franklin Mieuli, NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy and commissioner-elect Larry O’Brien.

“The television networks would like to put on a world championship series between the two leagues,” read the cable. “A three to five-game series would provide an additional $1 million in revenue for the teams, the leagues and the players. Baseball has its World Series and football has its Super Bowl between the leagues. Professional basketball should have some method to determine the true world champions. We stand ready to prove who has the best team in professional basketball.”

Colonels owners John Y. Brown and his wife, Ellie Brown, had no immediate comment, but Kentucky assistant manager David Vance was all for the NBA vs. ABA challenge.

“We could play the series if they would play it,” he told Associated Press. “There’s no way they can claim to be world champions without beating all of the known world.”

The ABA was hardly punching above its weight when it made the offer. It had completed its eighth season and was already playing – and beating – NBA in exhibition games and talking about a champion vs. champion battle.

In fact, it held a 31-17 edge over the senior circuit in preseason action and was 16-7 in exhibitions played in advance of the 1974-75 campaign.

The Colonels finished 3-2 in their interleague exhibition slate, including wins over the Bullets and Bulls. And as for Kentucky’s credentials, they were coached by Hubie Brown and featured Artis Gilmore, Dan Issel and Louie Dampier – all four future Hall of Famers.

There had been merger talks for several years, so a roundball world series made perfect sense.

Well, it made perfect sense for the ABA.

The NBA had nothing to gain by such a matchup, and a day after DeBusschere sent the telegram Kennedy shot down the idea.

“The NBA, as usual with these annual challenges, rejects the 1975 proposal – period,” he said.

Thus, we’ll never know if the Colonels could’ve topped the Warriors. And sadly, we never got to find out how that franchise would’ve fared in the NBA.

After struggling with attendance during their early years (there was talk of moving the franchise to Cincinnati), the Colonels starting doing big box office business in the 1970s.

Average crowds for the 1970-71 season were 7,375, followed by 8,811 (1971-72), 7,113 (1972-73), 8,201 (1973-74), 8,727 (1974-75) and 6,935 (1975-76). By any standard of measure, they were one of the ABA’s strongest franchises.

There was a merger ahead of the 1976-77 season (it was completed on June 17, 1976), but it didn’t include Kentucky. That seemed odd, considering how crazy for basketball the Bluegrass State is. The NBA accepted the Nets, Pacers, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, but the Spirits and Colonels were left out.

The omission of Kentucky is worth a whole ‘nother story (and maybe I’ll get to that another time). Officially, John Brown declined to pay the $4.5 million entry fee to the NBA, which was treating the arrival of former ABA teams as expansion. Ultimately, Brown agreed to fold the franchise in exchange for $3 million, and its players were placed in a dispersal draft.

Anyway, I like to think the Colonels would’ve beaten the Warriors in the million dollar matchup.

As a guy who grew to love the game because of the ABA, how could I think otherwise?