 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Washington Caps" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Washington Caps | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Division | Western Division |
| Founded | 1967 |
| History | Oakland Oaks 1967–1969 Washington Caps 1969–1970 Virginia Squires 1970–1976 |
| Arena | Washington Coliseum |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Team colors | Green and yellow |
| Head coach | Al Bianchi |
TheWashington Caps were anAmerican Basketball Association team from 1969 through 1970. The franchise had previously been theOakland Oaks. From 1970 through 1976 the team played as theVirginia Squires.[1]
With the formation of the ABA in February 1967 a team was awarded toOakland, California for $30,000 with singerPat Boone as primary owner. The team was originally the Oakland Americans but the name was eventually changed to theOakland Oaks.NBA superstarRick Barry signed with the Oaks, as didSteve Jones andLevern Tart. Barry, however, was prevented from playing in the ABA due to a lawsuit brought by his former NBA team (regarding enforcement of thereserve clause in his contract), so he spent the season as an Oaks radio announcer instead of as a player. The Oaks won the very first ABA game in 1967 (a 132–129 victory against theAnaheim Amigos on October 3, 1967. After Barry returned in the 1967–68 season, they breezed through the regular season then won the 1969 ABA Championship over theIndiana Pacers in the playoffs. However, the Bank of America was threatening to foreclose on a $1.2 million loan to the team and in August, 1969, a group of investors led by real estate attorneyEarl Foreman bought the team and moved it to Washington, D.C., for the upcoming season.[2]
With the move came a new identity for the team as the green and gold clad Washington Caps.Al Bianchi replaced the more provenAlex Hannum as head coach. A federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Caps regarding Barry, their top gate attraction, but he openly objected to playing in Washington, D.C., where the team butted heads with the NBABaltimore Bullets and did not have a suitable arena to play home games. He sat out the first 32 games of the season, but the courts left him with no choice except to report to the team or sit out the season. Barry andWarren Armstrong participated in the ABA All Star game, but injuries limited their playing time for the season.
In March 1970 theABA-NBA merger appeared close at hand under conditions that would have required the Washington Caps to relocate, but a subsequent lawsuit derailed the merger until June 1976.
In defiance of all geographic reality, the Caps assumed the Oaks' place in the Western Division despite their move to the Eastern Seaboard. This kept them constantly on the road at faraway venues (their nearest divisional rivals, theNew Orleans Buccaneers, were over 1,000 miles away) and the travel and time differential took its toll on their play. Playing atWashington Coliseum their average attendance was 2,992 fans per game. In a case of exceptionally bad timing, the Caps arrived at a time when the surroundingNear Northeast neighborhood was still recovering from the1968 race riots. Fears that the neighborhood wasn't safe dragged down attendance. Due to the long travel distances involved in divisional play, the Caps played some home games in places likeWichita, Kansas and evenMexico City,Mexico but did not fare well in those supposed home games.
However, due to a solid record in their real home games, the Caps finished the season with 44 wins and 40 losses. The Caps' record put them in third place in the Western Division, 7 games behind theDenver Rockets and one game behind theDallas Chaparrals. In the1970 ABA Playoffs the Caps faced the Denver Rockets in the Western Division semifinals and took the series to seven games before losing 143–119 in the finale in Denver.
| Washington Caps Hall of Famers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | ||||
| No. | Name | Position | Tenure | Inducted |
| 24 | Rick Barry | F | 1969–1970 | 1987 |
| 11 | Larry Brown | G | 1970–1971 | 2002 |
Note: W = wins, L = losses, % = win–loss %
| Season | W | L | % | Playoffs | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Caps | |||||
| 1969–70 | 44 | 40 | .524 | Lost Division Semifinals | Denver 4, Washington 3 |
After the conclusion of the 1969–1970 season the Caps were forced to move once again. At the time,the first merger talks with the NBA were underway, and the owner of the NBA'sBaltimore Bullets,Abe Pollin, wanted to move his team to Washington and didn't want the Caps franchise there. The other ABA owners persuaded Foreman to move the Caps for the second time in as many seasons. (However, the Caps name would be somewhat revived, this time for aNational Hockey League expansion team called theWashington Capitals — also owned by Pollin — in 1974. Since then, the Capitals have been co-tenants with theBullets/Wizards franchise at theCapital Centre andCapital One Arena.)
Foreman decided to make the Caps a regional franchise out in the nearby state ofVirginia called theVirginia Squires. While the team would be based inNorfolk and play most of their games at both theNorfolk Scope and theOld Dominion University Fieldhouse, they also played home games inHampton at theHampton Roads Coliseum, inRichmond at theRichmond Coliseum, and inRoanoke at theRoanoke Civic Center. However, Roanoke was dropped from the list of "home" cities after only one season of play there. The Squires' colors were red, white, and blue.
The Squires would continue to play in every ABA season until 1976. At the conclusion of the 1975–1976 season, the Squires, having fallen on hard times after making a promising start early on in Virginia, were unable to make a league-mandated financial assessment. The Squires were disbanded after the regular season, but just prior to the conclusion of the1976 ABA Playoffs in May 1976 and the eventualABA-NBA merger a month later in June 1976.