A breezy history of pro basketball in Winnipeg

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2022 (191 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Word that pro basketball will return to Winnipeg in the summer of 2023 brought back memories of the two pro teams that played in our city in the 1990s. The new team will play in the 11-team Canadian Elite Basketball League and call the Investors Group Athletic Centre at the University of Manitoba home.

Winnipeg had a pro team in 1992 when the Thunder joined the World Basketball League (WBL). A summer league, the WBL was formed in 1988 with teams in Calgary, Vancouver and four American cities. Coached by Tom Nissalke, Thunder played its home games in the Winnipeg Arena. Nissalke was the American Basketball Association coach-of-the-year in 1971-72 and earned National Basketball Association (NBA) coaching honours in 1976-77.

The Thunder were the only team where the local owners, in Winnipeg headed by future mayor Sam Katz, had controlling interest of the franchise. In the case of the other nine teams operating in 1992, the league, which was bankrolled by the league founder, Youngstown, Ohio discount pharmacy chain CEO Mickey Monus, controlled 60 per cent and local owners 40 per cent. The league disbanded on July 31 once it was learned that Monus was funding his hobby through embezzlement of funds from his firm.

Thunder then played in the National Basketball League, not to be confused with the NBA, in the 1993 season. The all-Canadian pro league with Katz as president and Nissalke as commissioner had teams from the Maritimes to the Prairies. The Saskatchewan Slam beat the Thunder in a semifinal and then the Cape Breton Breakers in the final. In 1994, the Thunder were in last place in the six-team league when it disbanded on July 9.

The Winnipeg Cyclone was the next pro team to hit the local hardwood joining the International Basketball Association (IBA) for the 1995-96 season. With original teams in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Bismarck and Fargo, North Dakota, and Rapid City, South Dakota plus the Cyclone a more appropriate name might have been the Northern League like the pro baseball league. Cyclone owner Earl Barish served as league president. The IBA later expanded as far east as Youngstown, west to Billings, Montana and Saskatoon, and as far south as Salina, Kansas.

Cyclone home games were played in the Winnipeg Convention Centre, nicknamed The Wind Tunnel, which provided a cozy atmosphere for fans. During the league’s six seasons, the Fargo-Moorhead Beez won two championships and the Black Hills Posse, Mansfield (Ohio) Hawks, Des Moines Dragons and Dakota Wizards one each. The league ceased play in the fall of 2001.

Coach Darryl Dawkins was a formidable presence on the Cyclone bench in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons. He stood just under seven feet tall, weighed in at more than 275 pounds, and wore bright red, yellow and blue suits that didn’t appear to be tailored by Hanford Drewitt. In his first season, Dawkins was named IBA co-coach of the year with Kevin Mackey of the champion Hawks. Cyclone finished the regular season in first place in the Western Division, but lost the division final to the Magic City Snowbears. Mansfield beat the Minot, ND-based Snowbears for the league championship. The 43-year-old Dawkins played 18 games in his second year before releasing himself and adding Winnipeg’s Dan Becker to the roster.

Dawkins spent 14 seasons in the NBA primarily with the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Nets. Nicknamed Chocolate Thunder by singer Stevie Wonder, he also called himself Sir Slam and Dr. Dunkenstein. He claimed to be from “Planet Lovetron” where he practiced “interplanetary funkmanship.”

On Nov. 13, 1979 in Kansas City, he broke the backboard while attempting a slam dunk and three weeks later did again at home in the Philadelphia Spectrum. The NBA reacted by creating a rule that breaking a backboard would result in a fine and suspension. Dawkins called his first dunk “The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam.” You can view his dunks on YouTube.

In the 1998-99 season, Cyclone guard Andrell Hoard led the IBA in scoring with an average of 26.8 points per game and shared the most valuable player award with Mike Lloyd of the Hawks. Lloyd became a Cyclone partway through the next season. While playing at Northeastern Illinois University, Hoard aka Highlight won the 1997 College Slam Dunk Championship.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com