The New Orleans Pride was a women's professional basketball team located in New Orleans, United States, that competed in the Women's Professional Basketball League, the first women's pro league in the United States, from 1979 to the leagues folding following the 1980-81 WBL season. For both seasons, the team was coached by former NBA player and coach Butch Van Breda Kolff.
Franchise history Background The Pride where founded by 32-year old stockbroker Steve Brown, John W. Simpson and his wife Claudette Simpson. 1979–1980 The Pride's 1979–80 season debut was on 15 November, 1979, where the New York Stars defeated the Pride, 120-112, before a record crowd of 8,452 in the Louisiana Superdome. After starting the season in the Western Division, the team was moved to the Eastern Division following the folding of Washington Metros and the Philadelphia Fox. The Pride finished the season with a 21–13 record, good for second place in the Eastern Division. It lost to the Minnesota Fillies in the first round of the playoffs, 1–2. Augusta Forest led the team in scoring and rebounding with averages of 18.8 points and 9.2 rebounds. Bertha Hardy, who was named to the WBL All-Pro team, came next, averaging 17.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and league leading 2.7 per game. The team finished in the upper half of the league in attendance, averaging around 2,000 spectators per game.
1980–1981 Prior to the season, general manager Steve Brown was replaced with Claudette Simpson. In March 1981, during the 1980–81 season, with the team having a 17-14 record, Van Breda Kolff was suspended for the rest of the season by the team which cited the coaches unpaid fines to the league and the recent poor performance where the team had lost five games in a row. In his stead, assistant coach Ray Scott served as an interim head coach. The Pride finished the season in third place in the Coastal Division, with a 18–19 record, and missed out of the playoffs. Cindy Brogdon of the Pride was named to the WBL All-Pro team after the season.
Season-by-season record Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, W–L% = Winning percentage Season GP W L Finish Playoffs 1979–80 34 21 13 2nd, Eastern Lost in First Round, 1–2 (Fillies) 1980–81 37 18 19 3rd, Coastal Did not qualify
Individual awards WBL All-Pro team Cindy Brogdon - 1981 Bertha Hardy - 1980
WBL All-Star Sybil Blalock - 1981 Cindy Brogdon - 1981 Augusta Forest - 1980 Sandra Smallwood - 1980
Head coaches Butch Van Breda Kolff 1979–1981 Ray Scott (interim) 1981
References
External links New Orleans Pride on FunWhileItLasted.net