Pittsburgh Pipers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pittsburgh Pipers
Conference	Eastern Conference
Division	East Division
Founded	1967
History	Pittsburgh Pipers (1967-68) Minnesota Pipers (1968-69) Pittsburgh Pipers (1969-70)
Arena	Civic Arena
City	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Team colors	Orange and Blue
Owner	Gabe Rubin (1967-68) William J. Erickson (1968-70)
General manager	{{{General Manager}}}
Head coach	Vince Cazzetta (1967-68) Jim Harding (1968-69) Vern Mikkelsen (1968-69) Verl Young (1968-69) John Clark (1969-70) Buddy Jeannette (1969-70)
D-League affiliate	{{{affiliate}}}
Championships	1967-68
Conference titles	None
Division titles	None
Official website	nba.com

The Pittsburgh Pipers were a charter member of the American Basketball Association, founded by chairman Doug Melidona. They won the league's first championship in the 1967-1968 season, with star player and ABA MVP Connie Hawkins. They then departed for Minnesota, where they played as the Minnesota Pipers during the 1968-1969 season. The team returned to Pittsburgh to play as the Pipers during the 1969-1970 season, but were crippled from the start when Hawkins jumped to the NBA. After a serious knee injury to guard Charlie Williams, the season became a complete fiasco, and they missed the playoffs with a 29-55 record. They were renamed the Pittsburgh Condors in 1970, and folded in 1972.