Following World War II in 1947, the Professional Basketball League of America (PBLA) was formed as a result of a sudden surge of interest in the sport. The league featured 16 teams including the Omahawks. The first professional basketball game played in Omaha was at Creighton University where the league’s best team, the Chicago Gears, went on to defeat the hometown team in front of 1,000 fans. Its star player, Ralph “Swede” Langer, had previously led the hometown Bluejays to back-to-back National Invitation Tournaments (NIT). The league soon folded with Omaha having only played six games while finishing with a 2-4 record.
Fast forward two decades and Omaha got a second chance to act as a home team for a professional basketball team. From 1968-1971 the Cincinnati Royals of the National Basketball League (NBA) played 12 home games in Omaha. This practice continued after the team relocated to Kansas City in 1972 at which point they became the Kings.
Until 1975 the team split its home games between Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City and the larger Civic Auditorium in Omaha. These teams were led by Tiny Archibald, Jimmy Walker and Sam Lacey. While the team moved into the new, much larger Kemper Arena after that, it didn’t abandon Omaha completely as they played several games there through the 1977-1988 season. As you may have guessed, the Kings would relocate to Sacramento after the 1984-1985 season. Tiny Archibald was later inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
After the Kings relocated to Kansas City permanently, the Civic Auditorium also served as the home to the Nebraska Wranglers of the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WPBL) in 1981. The league was the predecessor to the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team featured two of the league’s best players in Rosie Walker and Nancy Lieberman. After a game, the team went to its regular hangout at Tiger Tom’s in Benson where another of its star players, Connie Kunzmann, and teammates met up with a man that they met earlier in the day at a promotional event. Sadly, Connie never showed up for the practice the next day. A few days later the man admitted to killing her during an argument. Under the shadow of her murder and the unresolved search for her body, the team went 27-9 before winning the championship in front of a crowd of 3,500. While Connie’s body was found weeks later, the heinous act overshadowed the Wranglers’ success.
The WPBL folded after the season which was just its third. Afterwards, the Wranglers referred to themselves as a team without a league. While the team would never be heard from again, all three players (Rosie Walker, Nancy Lieberman and Connie Kunzmann) would be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Omaha got yet another chance when the Rochester Flyers of the Continental Basketball League (CBA) relocated in 1989. At the time, the CBA was a developmental league for the NBA. The Flyers franchise originated in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1982 and had experienced some limited success over its first seven years. It wasn’t until they moved to Omaha that they would reach the pinnacle. Playing in Aksarben Arena rather than the Civic, the team was named the Racers in honor of the nearby horse track.
During all eight of its seasons in Omaha, the team was led by head coach Mike Thibault. The franchise experienced unparalleled success over its first four years in Omaha including winning the league championship in 1993 and returning to the finals in 1994. The team’s best player was Tim Legler who went undrafted in the 1988 NBA draft only to be named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) while playing for the Racers.
Despite efforts to save the team by the community, the cost of ownership proved too costly for owner Steve Idelman. The team was deemed inactive for the 1997 season. The entire league folded in 2001 when it declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Afterwards its coach returned to the NBA as an assistant coach before becoming the winningest head coach in the WNBA. Its star player experienced success in the NBA including winning the league’s three-point contest in 1996. The 1993 championship team was inducted into the Omaha Sports Commission Hall of Fame in 2023.
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