History
The history of the Carolina Cougars franchise began when the former Houston ABA franchise was relocated to North Carolina in 1969. During the 1970s, North Carolina did not have a large primary metropolitan area to base a professional sports franchise, so the team's ownership decided to have the teams play its home games in Charlotte at the Charlotte Coliseum, Greensboro at the Greensboro Coliseum, Raleigh at the Dorton Arena and Reynolds Coliseum, and in Winston-Salem at the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum as a regional team. However, the team was based in Greensboro.
Early on, the Carolina Cougars were not especially successful on the court, posting a 42-42 record in the 1969-'70 season, a 34-50 record in '70-'71, and a 35-49 record in '71-'72. Only the '69-'70 Cougars managed to make the ABA playoffs but lost in the Eastern Division Semifinals (first round) to a much stronger Indiana Pacers team. In spite of this, the Cougars had a good fan following, particularly in Greensboro.
The 1971-72 team was coached by former NBA All-Star Tom Meschery, who had just retired from 10 years of NBA play with the San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle Supersonics.
In 1972-1973, the Carolina Cougars hired retired ABA players Larry Brown and former Cougar Doug Moe as coaches. The '72-'73 Cougars were fairly talented and featured players Billy Cunningham, Joe Caldwell, and Mack Calvin. All three appeared in the ABA All-Star Game that season, and Cunningham was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Carolina went on to post a 57-27 record, which was the best in the ABA. The Cougars beat the New York Nets in their first-round playoff series 4-1, but lost a close series to the Kentucky Colonels 4-3 in the Eastern Division finals. There were many upset and disappointed fans in Greensboro when Cougar Management decided to hold game 7 of the series in Charlotte. Greensboro had developed a rabid fan base which gave great support to the Cougars. Of the 42 scheduled regular season home games, 25 were usually scheduled for Greensboro while only 12 were played in Charlotte. With Cougar management having the choice of city to play game 7, it mystified its Greensboro area fans with the choice to play such a pivotal game on a less familiar court. Game 7 was hotly contested but Kentucky prevailed, much to Cougar fans dismay. Many Cougar fans believed had they won that series, interest in the Cougars would've skyrocketed, and the franchise would've stayed in Carolina.
The 1973-1974 season proved to be the last for the Carolina Cougars in North Carolina. Due to injuries and internal squabbles, the '73-'74 Cougars posted a 47-37 record but was swept in the Eastern Division semifinals 4-0 by the Kentucky Colonels. Later in 1974, the Carolina Cougars were moved to Missouri and became the Spirits of St. Louis until the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976. The Spirits of St. Louis were one of only two ABA teams to survive until the very end of the league but not join the NBA; the other was the Kentucky Colonels. (The Virginia Squires folded after the final ABA regular season ended but before the ABA-NBA merger due to their inability to meet a league-mandated financial assessment after the season ended.) At the time of the ABA-NBA merger the Spirits' owners planned to move the team to Salt Lake City, Utah to play as the Utah Rockies.
The Cougars were moderately successful overall and had one of the most loyal fan bases in the NBA. However, it soon became apparent that a "regional" franchise would not be viable in the NBA. Although the Charlotte/Greensboro/Raleigh axis was beginning an unprecedented period of growth that still continues to this day, neither city was big enough at the time to support an NBA team on its own. Additionally, several persons quoted in the book Loose Balls by Terry Pluto say the added travel expenses incurred by the regional concept contributed to the Cougars' failure.
Professional basketball would return to North Carolina in 1988 when the Charlotte Hornets entered the National Basketball Association, but the Hornets would eventually move to New Orleans in 2002. The NBA returned to Charlotte two years later when the Charlotte Bobcats began their inaugural NBA season in 2004-2005.
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