View source for San Diego Conquistadors

{{short description|Defunct basketball team}}
{{Infobox basketball club 
| name = San Diego Conquistadors
| logo =File:San_Diego_Conquistadors_logo.png
| imagesize = 175px 
| division = Western Division
| founded = 1972 
| folded = 1975
| history = '''San Diego Conquistadors'''<br>1972–1975<br> '''San Diego Sails'''<br>1975  
| arena = [[Peterson Gymnasium]] (1972–73)<br>[[Golden Hall (arena)|Golden Hall]] (1973–74)<br>[[San Diego Sports Arena]] (1974–75) 
| city = [[San Diego, California]] 
| colors = Gold and Red (1972–1975) <br> {{color box|#FFC62C}} {{color box|#C60B1C}} <br> Ocean Cap White, Royal Blue, and Kelly Green (1975) <br> {{color box|#FFFFFF}} {{color box|#003EA4}} {{color box|#038444}}
| coach = [[K. C. Jones]] (1972–73)<br>
[[Wilt Chamberlain]] (1973–74)<br>
[[Alex Groza]] & [[Beryl Shipley]] (1974–75)<br>
[[Bill Musselman]] (1975) 
| owner = [[Leonard Bloom]] (1972–75)
Frank Goldberg & Bud Fischer (1975)
| league_champs = None
|nickname=The Q's|color1=#FFFFFF|color2=#FFC62C|color3=#C60B1C}}
The '''San Diego Conquistadors''' (known as the '''San Diego Sails''' in their final, partial season) were a professional [[basketball]] team based in [[San Diego]], California, that competed in the [[American Basketball Association]] (ABA). The "Q's", as they were popularly known, played from 1972 to 1975. As the Sails, they played an incomplete season only, beginning the 1975–1976 season but folding after only 11 games with 3 wins and 8 losses.

== History ==

===San Diego Conquistadors===
The franchise was founded by [[Leonard Bloom]] in 1972 as the [[American Basketball Association|ABA]]'s first — and as it turned out, only — expansion team. They would unintentionally replace both [[Miami Floridians|The Floridians]] and [[Pittsburgh Condors]] franchises, who folded earlier that same year, since both teams initially sought after San Diego as a potential relocation site for survival before ultimately folding operations on their ends. On August 7, 1972, Bloom announced the team would be named the Conquistadors, complete with a profile of [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo]], who had landed on the [[San Diego Bay]] on September 28, 1542.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://newspaperarchive.com/ontario-daily-report-aug-07-1972-p-58/ | title=Ontario Daily Report Archives, Aug 7, 1972, p. 58 | date=7 August 1972 }}</ref>

The new team was slated to play at the [[San Diego Sports Arena]], but a feud between Bloom and Peter Graham, the operator and lease-holder of the city-owned 14,400-seat arena, led Graham to lock the newborn team out of the facility for two years. Graham was reportedly upset about Bloom being awarded the ABA expansion team he had also sought after himself.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Remember the ABA: San Diego Conquistadors|url=http://www.remembertheaba.com/san-diego-conquistadors.html|access-date=2021-01-25|website=www.remembertheaba.com}}</ref> By the time the conflict was resolved in the fall of 1974, it was too late for a weakened franchise that had been forced to play, in the interim, at bandboxed [[Peterson Gym]]nasium (3,200 seats) on the campus of [[San Diego State University]], and [[Golden Hall (arena)|Golden Hall]], a multipurpose facility in [[Downtown San Diego|downtown]].

[[File:1972–73 San Diego Conquistadors.jpeg|thumb|195px|left|The 1972–73 San Diego Conquistadors]]
After reaching the [[1973 ABA Playoffs|1973 ABA playoffs]] in their inaugural season, the Q's seemingly pulled off a coup by paying center [[Wilt Chamberlain]] $600,000 to become their player-coach. But the [[Los Angeles Lakers]] sued to block their former star from playing for his new team. Relegated to a sideline role, Chamberlain was reduced to an indifferent, 7-foot-1-inch sideshow who once skipped a game in favor of an [[autograph]] session for his recently published [[autobiography]]. His fill-in, on that and other occasions, was assistant [[Stan Albeck]], who later skippered the [[Chicago Bulls]], [[San Antonio Spurs]], and [[New Jersey Nets]] of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Even when Chamberlain was on hand, he mostly left the Q's in Albeck's hands.

Nonetheless, the team again reached the postseason, bowing out in the first round, for the second year in a row, in the [[1974 ABA Playoffs|1974 ABA playoffs]].

The season, however, was overshadowed by the arena situation.  Frustrated with his inability to get a lease for the Sports Arena, Bloom announced plans for a 20,000-seat arena in [[Chula Vista]].  However, a referendum on the arena, held just after the season started, failed by only 294 votes.  League officials then ordered Bloom to take preliminary steps toward moving to Los Angeles, in hopes of returning to a market abandoned by the [[Utah Stars]] four years earlier.

For their third season in 1974–75, the Conquistadors lost Chamberlain, but finally gained a lease in the Sports Arena.<ref name="sut130706">{{cite news |first=John |last=Maffei |work=[[U-T San Diego]] |title=Sports site No. 3: San Diego Sports Arena |url=http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jul/06/travel-top-50-sites-sports-arena-john-ooden/ |date=July 6, 2013 |access-date=July 8, 2013}}</ref> But without Chamberlain as a gate attraction, the team was roundly ignored by San Diegans, and placed last in the Western Division, missing the [[1975 ABA Playoffs|1975 ABA playoffs]].

=== San Diego Sails ===
Bloom sold the franchise during the summer of 1975 to Frank Goldberg and his partner Bud Fischer, who had been involved with co-ownership of the successful [[Denver Nuggets]] franchise.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/17/archives/people-in-sports-big-10s-first-black-court-coach.html | title=People in Sports | work=The New York Times | date=17 March 1976 }}</ref> Goldberg started anew, renaming the team the San Diego Sails and hiring former [[University of Minnesota]] coach [[Bill Musselman]]. They hired [[Iry Kaze]] as general manager. With a completely different roster, color scheme, set of uniforms, and just about everything else, the re-branded Sails sought to repeat Denver's turnaround a season earlier from mediocrity to championship contender.

But the Sails attracted just 3,060 fans to their home opener on October 24, 1975 – a loss to the Nuggets – and fan attendance rapidly dwindled further as the team limped to a 3–8 start; only 1,670 showed up for San Diego's third (and ultimately last) home game, against the [[San Antonio Spurs]]. Goldberg soon learned San Diego was to be shut out of the pending [[ABA–NBA merger]], reportedly due to the insistence of Lakers owner [[Jack Kent Cooke]], who refused to share his [[Southern California]] [[fan base]] with a team to the south.

With the team lacking fan support or a long-term future, Goldberg folded the franchise on November 12. The ABA, which planned to start the season with ten teams before having the [[Baltimore Claws]] fold operations after three exhibition games, saw its number drop to eight with the Sails' failure; on December 2, the [[Utah Stars]] also disbanded following failed merger talks with the [[Spirits of St. Louis]], cutting the league to seven teams and forcing the ABA to shrink its original two-division setup to just one division where the five best teams would eventually meet up in the [[1976 ABA Playoffs|1976 ABA playoffs]] by the conclusion of the regular season.

Musselman was surprised by the move while Kaze later sued the owners for owed money.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/17/archives/people-in-sports-big-10s-first-black-court-coach.html | title=People in Sports | work=The New York Times | date=17 March 1976 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://newspaperarchive.com/anderson-herald-bulletin-nov-12-1975-p-17/ | title=Anderson Herald Bulletin Archives, Nov 12, 1975, p. 17 | date=12 November 1975 }}</ref>

=== The ABA's demise and later San Diego basketball ===
The moribund state of the last-place [[Virginia Squires]], who folded after the regular season ended but before the [[1976 ABA Playoffs|1976 ABA playoffs]] concluded, left the ABA with only six teams and forced the league to seek a merger with the more established NBA, which absorbed four of the six remaining teams with the [[Indiana Pacers]], [[Brooklyn Nets|New York Nets]], [[Denver Nuggets]] and [[San Antonio Spurs]] joining the NBA, while the owners of the [[Kentucky Colonels]] and 6th place [[Spirits of St. Louis]] were paid off and folded their franchises.

In 1978, the NBA's [[Buffalo Braves]] arrived in San Diego as the [[Los Angeles Clippers#1978–1984: San Diego Clippers|San Diego Clippers]]; in 1984, they moved up the coast to become the [[Los Angeles Clippers]]. San Diego has not had another major-league pro basketball team since. A couple of minor-league hoops teams have called the city home: the [[Continental Basketball Association]]'s [[San Diego Wildcards]], who folded after only 21 games in 1996, and the [[International Basketball League (1999–2001)|International Basketball League]]'s [[San Diego Stingrays]], who played from 1999 to 2001. San Diego has also had various franchises in the semi-pro, 21st century [[American Basketball Association (2000–present)|American Basketball Association]], such as the B-Kings, Sol, Surf, Wildcats and Wildfire.

==Basketball Hall of Famers==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! colspan="4" style="background:#FFC62C; color:#C60B1C;"|San Diego Conquistadors/Sails Hall of Famers
|-
! colspan="4" style="text-align:center; background:#C60B1C; color:#FFC62C;"|Coaches
|-
! Name || Position || Tenure || Inducted
|-
| [[Wilt Chamberlain]] <sup>1</sup> || Head Coach || 1973–1974 || 1978
|-
| [[K.C. Jones]] <sup>1</sup> || Head Coach || 1972–1973 || 1989
|}
'''Notes:'''
* <sup>1</sup> Inducted as a player.

==Season-by-season==
{| class="wikitable"
|align="center" style="background:#FFE6BD;"|<small>'''[[List of ABA champions|ABA champions]]''' </small>
|align="center" bgcolor="#DDFFDD"|<small>'''ABA finalists'''</small>
|align="center" bgcolor="#D0E7FF"|<small>'''Division champions'''</small>
|align="center" bgcolor="#96CDCD"|<small>'''Playoff berth'''</small>
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center; font-size:95%" summary="Season (sortable), Conference, Finish (sortable), Division, Finish (sortable), Wins (sortable), Losses (sortable), Win% (sortable), GB (sortable), Playoffs, Awards and Head coach"
|-
! scope="col" | [[Template:ABA seasons|Season]]
! scope="col" | League
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|[[Division (sport)|Division]]
! scope="col"| Finish
! scope="col"| W
! scope="col"| L
! scope="col"| [[Winning percentage|Win%]]
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|[[Playoffs]]
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|[[List of American Basketball Association awards and honors|Awards]]
|-
|colspan="9" align=center style="background:#FFC62C; color:#C60B1C; border:2px solid #C60B1C;"| '''San Diego Conquistadors'''
|-
|[[1972–73 San Diego Conquistadors season|1972–73]] ||[[1972–73 ABA season|ABA]] || Western ||4th|| 30 ||54 ||.357 || Lost [[1973 ABA Playoffs#(1) Utah Stars vs. (4) San Diego Conquistadors|Division Semifinals]] ([[Utah Stars|Stars]]) 0–4 || —
|-
|[[1973–74 San Diego Conquistadors season|1973–74]]  ||[[1973–74 ABA season|ABA]] || Western ||4th ||37 || 47 ||.440 || Lost [[1974 ABA Playoffs#(1) Utah Stars vs. (4) San Diego Conquistadors|Division Semifinals]] ([[Utah Stars|Stars]]) 2–4 || —
|-
|[[1974–75 San Diego Conquistadors season|1974–75]] ||[[1974–75 ABA season|ABA]] || Western ||5th||  31 || 53 ||.369|| colspan=2|Did not qualify 
|-
|colspan="9" align=center style="background:#003EA4; color:#FFFFFF; border:2px solid #038444;"| '''San Diego Sails'''
|-
|[[1975–76 San Diego Sails season|1975–76]] ||[[1975–76 ABA season|ABA]] || Western || || 3 ||8 ||.273|| (team folded) || —
|-
{{s-end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Sports|California}}
*[http://www.remembertheaba.com/San-Diego-Sails.html  San Diego Sails page at RememberTheABA.com]

{{ABAteams}}
{{ABA seasons}}

[[Category:San Diego Sails| ]]
[[Category:American Basketball Association teams]]
[[Category:Defunct basketball teams in the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct basketball teams in California]]
[[Category:1972 establishments in California]]
[[Category:1975 disestablishments in California]]
[[Category:Basketball teams established in 1972]]
[[Category:Basketball teams disestablished in 1975]]