The Utica Olympics, known also as Mohawk Valley Thunderbirds, were an American

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

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

that were members of 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) from 1978 to 1980. The team was previously known as the Baltimore Metros. The team moved to Utica during the 1978–79 season and were renamed the Mohawk Valley Thunderbirds. The franchise disbanded following the season, but another Utica CBA franchise was created. They were known as the Utica Olympics and finished last place in the CBA following the 1979–1980 season, with a 15–31 record. The franchise was relocated to

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

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 ...

and became the Atlantic City Hi-Rollers. During their two seasons, the franchise had seven coaches: Larry Cannon, Fred Keller, Freddie Lewis, Nappy Doherty, James Klein, Dick Frank, and Gary Mazza. In 1979, the Utica Police Department declined to renew a contract with the Utica public school system to serve as

hall monitor In the United States, a hall monitor may be either a student volunteer who is charged with maintaining order in a school's corridors, or an adult paraprofessional staff member who carries out similar duties, sometimes in conjunction with other fu ...

s in their eight schools. Superintendent of schools Dr. Anthony Scolzo called his acquaintance James Klein, the Olympics coach, to discuss his predicament. Klein recommended the schools hire Olympics players as hall monitors. Eventually, a total of eight players from Utica's roster served as hall monitors and two players, Bruce Lee and Ron McFarland, were promoted to

substitute teacher A substitute teacher is a person who teaches a school class when the regular teacher is absent or unavailable; e.g., because of illness, personal leave, maternal leave and so on. "Substitute teacher" (usually abbreviated as sub) is the most c ...

Year-by-year

References

Basketball teams in New York (state) Continental Basketball Association teams Defunct basketball teams in the United States 1978 establishments in New York (state) 1980 disestablishments in New York (state) Basketball teams established in 1978 Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1980

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

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