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ing the last remaining link to the 1958 Championship team.

In their places were Lou Hudson, the number one pick in 1966, Zelmo Beaty, Joe Caldwell, Lenny Wilkens, and Bill Bridges. By 1968, the Hawks added another Western Conference title with a record of 56-26, the best in the history of the club, and Guerin became the Hawks second Coach of the Year.

Then came the shocker. During the broadcast of an Atlanta Braves baseball game, announcer Milo Hamilton told the fans of Atlanta the city was going to have a professional basketball team. It was, of course, the Hawks, a perennial NBA powerhouse, moving from St. Louis to Atlanta.

Under Guerin, the Hawks were sensational the first two years in Atlanta. They won the Western Conference title again in 1970 and advanced to the conference finals both seasons before losing to the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers.

With the emergence of the American Basketball Association came the fall of the Hawks. The new league raided the NBA teams, offering big money to the NBA stars in order to build credibility. Beaty was the first to jump in '69 and Caldwell followed a year later.

Though the Hawks drafted Pete Maravich, the college scoring champion from Louisiana State, in 1970, the team struggled into the playoffs the next two seasons. The club finished ten games under .500 each year and couldn't get past the first round of the playoffs.

For the 1972-73 season the Hawks moved into the Omni with a new coach. Coach Fitzsimmons. Behind the 27.1 scoring average of Hudson, the Hawks responded to the new surroundings by reversing the record of the previous year.

The next year, however, the Hawks failed to make a playoff appearance for the first time in twelve seasons, and second in 19. Only another expansion team, this time the New Orleans Jazz, kept the club from plummeting into last place. The first move to rectify the situation, was to trade Maravich to New Orleans for a slew of draft choices.

Owning the first and third selections in the 1975 NBA College Draft, the Hawks chose David Thompson from North Carolina State and Marvin Webster from Morgan State. The NBA-ABA bidding war was at its peak and both players opted for the Denver Nuggets of the rival league.

Disaster followed. The team lost 51 games, the most in thirteen years, and tumbled into last place for the first time since the team left Milwaukee. Fitzsimmons lost his job eight games from the end.

The bright spot on the club was the emergence of John Drew, a second round pick in 1974, as one of the premier offensive players in the league. Draw was Basketball Weekly's Rookie of the Year for 74-75 while leading the league in offensive rebounds and he averaged 21.4 points per game in his second season.

Rumor was the team would be sold and moved elsewhere. Hubie Brown, who coached the Kentucky Colonels to the 1975 ABA Championship, took over the team and promptly began to change the team image. Midway through the season, half of the rumor became reality as Ted Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves and WTCG-TV, bought the club but stated the team would remain in Atlanta.

Lou Hudson, an 11-year veteran of 730 NBA games, all in a Hawks uniform, was traded to Los Angeles as a youth movement was institute. The number 23 worn by Hudson was retired on the Lakers first visit to the Omni, marking the second Hawks number to be retired. The two men so honored, Pettit and Hudson, share the Hawks record for most points scored in one game--57.

The 77-78 Hawks became the Cinderella team of the NBA by advancing to the playoffs for the first time in five years. Brown was named the NBA Coach of the Year as the fans became "Hubie's Sixth Man". 

ATLANTA FALCONS

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STEVE BARTKOWSKI]

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