Category:Allentown Jets

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Allentown Jets 
American basketball team
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The Allentown Jets were a minor league basketball team that played in the Eastern Professional Basketball League (EPBA) (later the Eastern Basketball Association and Continental Basketball Association) from 1958 to 1981. The team was one of the most dominant franchises in CBA/Eastern League history, winning eight playoff championships and 12 division titles.

The Jets began play during the 1958-59 EPBA season when Jim Burke, Bill Donlin, Dick Heller, Johnny Kimock and Clarence Trainer purchached the defunct Wilmington Jets EPBA franchise and moved it to Allentown. The Jets played their home games primarily in the 3,500 seat Rockne Hall of Allentown Central Catholic High School.

In its first season, the Jets finished in last place with a 6-22 record, but that quickly changed when the Jets obtained a working agreement with the NBA New York Knickerbockers. With that agreement in place, the Jets became a development team for the Knicks, with 27 New York players spending time with the Jets at the beginnings or ends of their careers.

The Jets won a total of eleven regular season championships - 1961 62, 63, 64, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77 and 1980. In seven of those seasons, the Jets won both the regular season as well as playoff championships. Four Jet players won the EPBL/EBA most valuable player award. Roman Thurmon in 1962, Andy Johnson in 1964, Walt Simon in 1965 and Hawthorne Wingo in 1972. Many Jet players eventually found their way to playing in New York and Madison Square Garden. The Jets drew national attention when both them and the EBA were featured in a March 1971 Sports Illustrated article. The rival American Basketball Association (ABA) raided the EBA for talent starting in the 1967-68 season, drawing on more than a few Allentown Jets to sign and play in the new league. Jet players were also signed to new NBA teams when it expanded to 14 teams by 1970.

At least twice, the Jets played NBA teams in exhibitions. In April 1959, the Knicks beat the Jets 131-102, and in April 1961, the Boston Celtics beat the Jets 120-106. The 1976 United States Olympic Team played one of their final tune-up games against the Jets on July 9th, beating the Jets 122-103. The 1976 US Olympic Team went undefeated at the Montreal Olympics, winning the Gold Medal.

The end began during the 1978-79 season when the EBA changed its name to the Continental Basketball Association, and expanded with teams fro Maine to Allentown to Anchorage, Alaska, and eventually to Hawaii. The Jets had also changed their name to the Lehigh Valley Jets for the 1979-1980 season and moved to Northampton Community College for their home games. Although they did win the 1980 CBA championship, the changes lost their luster of the EBA and Rockne Hall teams. They dropped out of the CBA after the 1980-81 season, hoping to form a new league like the old EBA, but that never happened and the team went into history.

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Media in category "Allentown Jets"

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