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International Basketball League
The International Basketball League lasted just two years. Attendance
figures made sure of that. But it deserves at least a mention on any site dedicated to the spectrum of interesting spectator
sports.
The league included teams in six cities, all by curious and unusual names:
The Las Vegas Outlaws, the St. Louis Swarm, the Trenton Stars, the Cincinnati Stuff and the New Mexico Slam highlighted
the standings. The six teams, split into two divisions, each played 63 games the first year and about 45 the following year.
In Cincinnati, the Stuff played at downtown US Bank Arena. Crowds rarely
exceeded 4,000, but the games had their regulars. The teams included many college stars that never quite made it to the NBA.
But to ensure fans had a reason for interest in the team, management ensured that many of the players on each team were local.
The Stuff, for example, included Lenny Brown from Xavier, George Reese from Ohio State and Melvin Levett from the University
of Cincinnati. In addition, the Stuff teams featured future NBA players Tremaine Fowlkes, Somalie Somake and "Moo-Moo" Blakney.
The league was a lot like the NBA. Games were four 12-minute quarters
and scores typically averaged about 90 points per team. The three point line was between the college line and the NBA line,
and the foul shot placement boxes were angled so guards had a better chance at getting the ball.
But what made the IBL so attractive was its "cute" factor. In Cincinnati
there was a plethora of promotions that included the opportunity to watch the game from a couch, a cookie eating contest,
a dizzy bat contest, a pancake giveaway from Perkins each time the home team scored 100 points and interesting and unusual
halftime performances.
While devoting an entire page to such a short-lived league may seem silly
to those who didn't experience the IBL, but it was for two years my favorite winter "light" sporting event.
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