The Anchorage Northern Knights were a

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger a ...

team based in

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

from 1977 to 1982. The team played in the Eastern Basketball Association (EBA) during the 1977–78 season. The next season, the league changed its name to the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

(CBA). The Northern Knights were their division champions two years in a row (1979–1980) and won the 1980 CBA Finals. Throughout their history, the Northern Knights played their home games at West Anchorage High School Gymnasium.

History

When the Northern Knights joined the league, then known as the Eastern Basketball Association (EBA), it attracted national attention for being perhaps the most misplaced franchise in the history of professional sports. Playing in

, the team was 5,000 miles away from its nearest competitor, as all the other teams were based in the eastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

–

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

–

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

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," John Papnek in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. 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 Northern Knights had the longest recorded road trip in professional sports history during the 1979–1980 season as the team traveled by bus around the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...

—playing 16 games in 31 days. The Knights experienced success in the 1977–78 season, leading the league in attendance and often playing before big crowds, although they never did sell out their home venue. 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. It was the first professional sports championship won by an Alaskan team. 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 The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

, where he became the first player to have his jersey number retired by the NBA franchise. Ron Davis was a two-time CBA scoring leader; in 1979–80, he was CBA Most Valuable Player for the Anchorage squad. Notable Northern Knights players included Freeman Blade, Tico Brown, Steve Hawes, Arvid Kramer, Steve Hayes, Brad Branson, and Al Fleming. The Knights were coached by Bill Klucas, who won the 1980 CBA Coach of the Year award. Dick Lobdell, who was the voice of the Alaska Baseball League, served as the Northern Knights play-by-play commentator. The demise of the team came with the very nature of their expenses, as the team never turned a profit; in addition, attendance and interest began to dip badly, as the novelty of the Alaskan team playing in an Eastern Seaboard-focused league began to wear off with both fans and with the league, as by then it had begun to expand nationwide. The first two seasons saw the team pay for air fare for teams to fly out to Anchorage. The next three seasons saw a share of travel costs, but in 1982, the owners wanted to push that out, which led to a vote for the Knights to pay for all travel from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

to Anchorage. The success of the vote, combined with the arrest of an owner for a

pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...

, led to the disbanding of the team from the league.

Season-by-season standings

;Key ;Table

All-time roster

* Nate Barnett * Norton Barnhill * Greg Bell * Freeman Blade * Brad Branson * Tico Brown * Roger Burkman * James Cornelious * Brad Davis * Harry Davis * Melvin Davis * Ron Davis * Paul Dawkins * Craig Finberg * Pat Flanigin * Al Fleming * Lucious Foster * Tony Fuller * Curt Gilstrap * Jerome Gladney * James Hardy * Herman Harris * Steve Hayes * Tony Jackson * Roy Jones * Clarence Kea * Andre Keys * Rob King * Larry Knight * Arvid Kramer * Edmund Lawrence * Rickey Lee * Jim Perryman * Keith McCord *

Dick Miller Richard Miller (December 25, 1928 – January 30, 2019) was an American character actor who appeared in more than 180 films, including many produced by Roger Corman. He later appeared in the films of directors who began their careers with Corm ...

* Purvis Miller * Charles Mitchell * Ron Moore * Alex Oliveira * Stan Pietkiewicz * John Ramsay * Clarence Ruffen *John Smith * Dean Tolson * Tony Turner * Jeff Tyson * Bernard Vaughan * Slick Watts *Dave Wear * Tom Wheeler * Connie White * Rudy White :''Sources''

References

External links

1977-1982 Anchorage Northern Knights
via FunWhileitLasted.com {{Alaska Sports Basketball teams in Alaska Continental Basketball Association teams Defunct basketball teams in the United States Basketball teams established in 1977 Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1982 Sports in Anchorage, Alaska Defunct sports clubs and teams in Alaska