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Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis
Author, Mark Montieth spent decades researching this book through extensive interviews and access to previously unseen internal documents regarding the formation and early seasons of the Indiana Pacers in 1967. He tells the dramatic story of the noble, city-wide effort to establish the franchise after a 14-year hiatus from professional basketball in Indianapolis, as well as the tumultuous and electrifying early seasons when the franchise that thrives today first took root.More than merely recounting the games, he delves into the unique personalities of some of the players and the social issues that influenced their careers. He also captures the carefree, raucous nature of professional basketball in a basketball-crazed state in the Sixties. This was an era when fights in games were common, a player could pack a gun in carry-on luggage for a road trip, newspapers unabashedly promoted the team to help assure its survival, games were played in arenas so cold the players could see their breath, a player could be told he was traded while taking a post-game shower and fans would run onto the court and attack a referee after a game.The Pacers would go on to win three championships in the American Basketball Association, and their popularity would play a critical role in revitalizing downtown Indianapolis by establishing the need for a new arena. This book sets the stage for that era by exploring the difficult birth of the franchise and the fateful events that enabled it.
It is illustrated with numerous photos, many never seen by the public.
It is illustrated with numerous photos, many never seen by the public.
- GenresSportsBasketball
416 pages, Hardcover
Published October 5, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 4, 2017
Montieth’s book on the founding of the Indiana Pacers is a passionate, well-researched read that is a must-have for any Pacers junkie. It will surely inform younger fans, surprise diehards and entertain both demographics in equal measure.
January 2, 2021
Those of us who grew up with the Indiana Pacers as mythological heroes of our childhood will delight in this exhaustively researched history of their first two fraught years in the old American Basketball Association.
I use the word “mythological” on purpose. So many of us who couldn’t get to the games at the old Fairgrounds Coliseum on 38th Street in Indianapolis had only our small transistor radios and the reporting of the beat writers to help us follow the team in those days. All these years later, author Mark Montieth — himself a former Pacers beat writer for The Indianapolis Star — eloquently captures the essence of the period before cable TV and then the internet put sports in our face 24 hours a day.
The title is a reference to Indy’s ill-fated and long forgotten forays into pro basketball in the mid-20th century, 15 years before the birth of the Pacers. Monteith pays homage to those teams as prologue for the longing that gripped Indianapolis to be a big-league town.
In 1967, in stepped a daring — some would say crazy — group of investors and true believers who created something called the American Basketball Association. It was a ploy — as the American Football League was then doing — to force their way into the well-established pro league.
We know how that eventually turned out.
What isn’t generally well-known — and as a 50-year fan of the Pacers, I found delightfully surprising to learn — is how crazy the early part of that journey was.
Montieth here focuses on the first two Pacers teams, before players such as Billy Keller, George McGinnis and Darnell Hillman came along. If your knowledge of those teams, which included Hoosier schoolboy legends like Jimmy Rayl, Ron Bonham and Bobby Joe Edmunds, is a little fuzzy — like mine was — the trip through this era of Pacers history will be highly entertaining.
We learn how the Pacers’ famous nucleus of Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Bob Netolicky and Freddie Lewis was assembled. Our memory is refreshed about such key figures as Reggie Harding, Jerry Harkness and Steve Chupin. And Montieth goes to lengths to describe the Wild West atmosphere of life in freezing gyms with tiny crowds and lousy refs.
The author gives much of the credit to the Pacers’ first general manager, Mike Storen, who built an organization that would win three ABA championships and charm a city. All of the on-court accomplishments to come in a few years would not have happened without his disciplined approach to building a championship-caliber team. (Some of that, Montieth notes, happened completely by accident, by the way.)
All of the key players in this vital part of Indianapolis’ sports history are now old men. A number of them — Daniels, Brown, Rayl and Storen among them — have died. Montieth, perhaps noting how the clock is steadily ticking on this generation of stalwarts who paved the way for the city’s splash into the NBA, amateur sports and the NFL, has done an amazing job of chronicling their contributions.
I use the word “mythological” on purpose. So many of us who couldn’t get to the games at the old Fairgrounds Coliseum on 38th Street in Indianapolis had only our small transistor radios and the reporting of the beat writers to help us follow the team in those days. All these years later, author Mark Montieth — himself a former Pacers beat writer for The Indianapolis Star — eloquently captures the essence of the period before cable TV and then the internet put sports in our face 24 hours a day.
The title is a reference to Indy’s ill-fated and long forgotten forays into pro basketball in the mid-20th century, 15 years before the birth of the Pacers. Monteith pays homage to those teams as prologue for the longing that gripped Indianapolis to be a big-league town.
In 1967, in stepped a daring — some would say crazy — group of investors and true believers who created something called the American Basketball Association. It was a ploy — as the American Football League was then doing — to force their way into the well-established pro league.
We know how that eventually turned out.
What isn’t generally well-known — and as a 50-year fan of the Pacers, I found delightfully surprising to learn — is how crazy the early part of that journey was.
Montieth here focuses on the first two Pacers teams, before players such as Billy Keller, George McGinnis and Darnell Hillman came along. If your knowledge of those teams, which included Hoosier schoolboy legends like Jimmy Rayl, Ron Bonham and Bobby Joe Edmunds, is a little fuzzy — like mine was — the trip through this era of Pacers history will be highly entertaining.
We learn how the Pacers’ famous nucleus of Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Bob Netolicky and Freddie Lewis was assembled. Our memory is refreshed about such key figures as Reggie Harding, Jerry Harkness and Steve Chupin. And Montieth goes to lengths to describe the Wild West atmosphere of life in freezing gyms with tiny crowds and lousy refs.
The author gives much of the credit to the Pacers’ first general manager, Mike Storen, who built an organization that would win three ABA championships and charm a city. All of the on-court accomplishments to come in a few years would not have happened without his disciplined approach to building a championship-caliber team. (Some of that, Montieth notes, happened completely by accident, by the way.)
All of the key players in this vital part of Indianapolis’ sports history are now old men. A number of them — Daniels, Brown, Rayl and Storen among them — have died. Montieth, perhaps noting how the clock is steadily ticking on this generation of stalwarts who paved the way for the city’s splash into the NBA, amateur sports and the NFL, has done an amazing job of chronicling their contributions.
January 30, 2018
You don’t need to be a fan of the Indiana Pacers or even the ABA, just a fan of the game, to appreciate the history this book brings to the table. If you liked “The Book Of Basketball” you will like this book too. But being a Pacers fan does help.
This is a fair and honest treatment of a struggling league in a city and state conflicted over its love of basketball and resentment over the way things ended with the Olympians.
If the author does as he suggests, and writes “bookends” to this story (a prequel about the Indianapolis Kautskeys and Olympians and a sequel about the three Indiana ABA championship years) I, for one, will be waiting with anticipation.
This is a fair and honest treatment of a struggling league in a city and state conflicted over its love of basketball and resentment over the way things ended with the Olympians.
If the author does as he suggests, and writes “bookends” to this story (a prequel about the Indianapolis Kautskeys and Olympians and a sequel about the three Indiana ABA championship years) I, for one, will be waiting with anticipation.
July 18, 2020
Fond Memories
I was six years old when the Indiana Pacers franchise was founded. I have fond memories of the transistor radio my grandmother got me so I could listen to the games as I fell asleep at night and getting up the following morning so my dad could tell me how they had done. Mel Daniels, Bob Netolicky, Freddie Lewis, and Roger Brown were heroes to me. This book tells the story of the first two years of the Indiana Pacers franchise. It is well researched and captures both the facts and the spirit of those early years. I look forward to the rest of the author's planned trilogy!
I was six years old when the Indiana Pacers franchise was founded. I have fond memories of the transistor radio my grandmother got me so I could listen to the games as I fell asleep at night and getting up the following morning so my dad could tell me how they had done. Mel Daniels, Bob Netolicky, Freddie Lewis, and Roger Brown were heroes to me. This book tells the story of the first two years of the Indiana Pacers franchise. It is well researched and captures both the facts and the spirit of those early years. I look forward to the rest of the author's planned trilogy!
December 16, 2020
Excellent book for those of us around for the ABA Indiana Pacers start. Covers the 1st two years of the franchise. It is an older published book copyright 2017, that I was able to find at local library. The author is open about facts from 50 years ago that may not agree with public news articles or even news articles of the time that were inconsistent. At about 400 pages written in an easy to read and engaging style it is a quick read. I finished it a week. The author mentions seeing this as the middle book of a trilogy. I would hope he writes the other books. At least the ABA one.
June 24, 2018
Must read for Pacer fans
Mark Montieth of pacers.com has written the definitive history of the Pacers first two years. A prequel and a sequel are promised. Everything is here sometimes in excruciating detail. You should buy a copy if for no other resson than to support Mark in his research.
Mark Montieth of pacers.com has written the definitive history of the Pacers first two years. A prequel and a sequel are promised. Everything is here sometimes in excruciating detail. You should buy a copy if for no other resson than to support Mark in his research.
March 29, 2018
This was a very good read about the first two years of the Indiana Pacers. I have been a fan of theirs since they got into the NBA and I moved to the Indianapolis area. I don't know a lot about their early years, and this told the story.
February 27, 2020
A maticulous account of the effort to bring pro basketball back to Indianapolis. It's nothing more or less than I expected. A good read.
June 5, 2021
A must read - well written account of the formative days of the Indiana Pacers, with biographical insights of the key players and coaches.
December 1, 2024
We need more books on the aba
May 5, 2025
Thorough book about the birth of the ABA & an almost day-by-day account of the Indiana Pacers, the most stable and successful of the four ABA franchises that were absorbed into the NBA.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews