In this article, we’ll be following the story of the St. Louis Hawks’ move to Atlanta. This is the second article in our series of articles for every NBA franchise that changed its location throughout history. The first article was about the Los Angeles Lakers, who moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. Let’s now dive deep into why the St. Louis Hawks moved their franchise to Atlanta.
The Atlanta Hawks are a team that appears to get close to winning an NBA title, but yet, they always end up coming up short. This has been the case since Dominique Wilkins was creating highlights in the 1980s.
Now today, the Trae Young Hawks have shown signs of success, yet, they constantly come up short, continuing this tradition. Of course, the Hawks did actually win one title in their storied franchise; it just didn’t happen in Atlanta.
Before Atlanta, the Hawks played in St. Louis, Missouri. It was in 1958 when the St. Louis Hawks made history by becoming the only team to defeat a Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Bob Pettit was the star of those St. Louis Hawks, and he stole the show from Russell in the 1958 Finals. This includes 50 points by Pettit in Game 6 to help the Hawks win the championship in a 110-109 thriller.
Most NBA fans do know the Hawks played in St. Louis before Atlanta, but did you know the franchise began in another city other than St. Louis? Also, most fans don’t know why the Hawks decided to leave St. Louis and head to Atlanta.
These questions will be answered here in this article. So, without further ado, let’s dive deep into the history of the franchise known today as the Atlanta Hawks.
The Hawks Become A Franchise And Their Reason For Moving To Atlanta
The franchise known today as the Atlanta Hawks started out playing in Buffalo, New York, and was known as the Buffalo Bisons. This was back in 1946, and the team played in the National Basketball League (NBL).
The franchise would not stay long in Buffalo. In fact, they’d last only 38 days before moving to the banks of the Mississippi River. This area is known as the Tri-cities and includes the areas of Molina and Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.
The team played most of its games in Molina, and the team would get a new name: The Tri-Cities Blackhawks. In 1949, the NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Tri-Cities Blackhawks would be one of the teams from the NBL to come along to the newly formed NBA.
The franchise would move again in 1951 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they would finally adopt the name “Hawks” to become the Milwaukee Hawks. In 1955, the franchise would move again, this time to St. Louis, to become the St. Louis Hawks.
After winning the 1958 NBA championship and reaching three other NBA Finals (1957, 1960, 1961), the Hawks would move one last time to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1968. Of course, the Hawks remain in Atlanta to this day, and this brings up our initial question. Why did the Hawks move out of St. Louis?
There’s not much information on why owner Ben Kerner, who co-founded the Buffalo Bisons with Leo Ferris, moved his team from Buffalo to the Tri-cities area and then to St. Louis. There was a reason for the move to Atlanta, though.
Despite having success in St. Louis, attendance for games was low. Some of the reason was that their arena could only seat about 10,000 people, which wasn’t good enough compared to other NBA arenas at the time.
Then, in 1968, a group from Atlanta, led by real estate developer Thomas Cousins and former Georgia governor Carl Sanders, approached Kerner with an offer to buy the team. A deal was eventually made, and Kerner sold his franchise to the Atlanta group for $3.5 million.
The Atlanta group then, of course, moved the franchise to Atlanta to become the Atlanta Hawks that we know today. There you have it. The reason why the St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta was that, like many teams, attendance was low, and they needed to get to a bigger market.
So far, the Atlanta Hawks have not been able to duplicate the success the franchise saw while being in St. Louis. Will their fortune change in the foreseeable future? This is a question we don’t have an answer for, but Atlanta fans would sure hope so.
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