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CHAPTER TWO

Richfield

Richfield Coliseum was built in the early 1970s and first opened to the public in 1974 as home to the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, the WHA’s Cleveland Crusaders, the NHL’s Cleveland Barons, and, in later years, the AFL’s Cleveland Thunderbolts, as well as indoor soccer teams the Cleveland Force and the Cleveland Crunch. The Coliseum hosted major sporting events, such as the 1981 NBA All-Star Game and showcased several professional-wrestling events seen worldwide on pay-per-view. It also served as a venue for music concerts by big names from Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder to U2 and Bruce Springsteen. Hall of Fame basketball star Larry Bird mentioned that Richfield Coliseum was his favorite place to play on the road.

The building, in the middle of a large area of farmland, was 30 minutes south of downtown Cleveland and stuck out like a sore thumb. This massive structure held more than 20,000 seats and was one of the first arenas to include luxury boxes. Joe Tait, legendary announcer for the Cavaliers, remembered his first impression of the coliseum as “a beautiful building in comparison to the old Cleveland Arena—it was like going from the ghetto to the palace. The one question was if people would still show up because of the long distance many had to travel to get there. At the time, that part of Summit County was surrounded by farms. It was in the middle of nowhere, and there was a sheep ranch right next to it. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful building.”

Vince McKee with the legendary voice of the Cavs, Joe Tait

The Cavaliers had a new home; now they just needed to start winning. Owner Nick Mileti built Richfield Coliseum for his recently formed basketball team. Until then, they had been playing at the Cleveland Arena but hadn’t enjoyed much success. Since the team’s 1970 opening season, the Cavs hadn’t had a single winning season. Shortly after the move to Richfield in 1974, however, they record started to improve. The team won 40 games that year but fell just short of the playoffs. Tait recalled the 1974–75 season positively in that “things were changing because we were starting to get better ballplayers. We had not yet won a lot of ballgames in the history of the team, so the upgrade in the talent of the roster was crucial. The fact that we came within one game was frustrating but also encouraging because it showed you how close they were to bigger and better things.”

During the 1975–76 season, NBA Coach of the Year Bill Fitch led the Cavaliers to a record of 49–33 and a National Basketball League Central Division title. The team boasted a roster filled with talent such as Austin Carr, Bobby “Bingo” Smith, Jim Chones, Dick Snyder, and the newly acquired perennial All-Star Nate Thurmond. Years had passed since Cleveland had won anything, 1964 being the last time a Cleveland team had won a championship. The team’s newfound success had fans across Northeastern Ohio excited about sports again. “After the horrible start to the season, head coach Bill Fitch made the trade for Nate Thurmond, which was the catalyst that turned that ball club around. Nate was a great player and also a tremendous leader. He came in and really galvanized the team to get them aimed in the right direction and then went on to win the division,” Tait said.

Tait became the man lucky enough to call the action of this new miracle team. In his childhood, he had tried to play basketball but never fared too well, as he wasn’t athletically inclined. And because he didn’t have a television growing up, any form of basketball he experienced came through the radio. To make money while attending the University of Missouri in Monmouth, Tait took a job as a janitor at a local radio station. The station offered him a chance to do two five-minute sports radio spots a day. In 1970, the newly formed Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team of the NBA hired Tait as the lead radio play-by-play man, a job he performed until his retirement in 2011. It was an amazing career that resulted in his being inducted into the Broadcast Hall of Fame in 1992.

The first unit of the Cavaliers consisted of Jim Cleamons and Dick Snyder at guard, Jim Chones at center, with Jim Brewer and Bobby “Bingo” Smith holding up the frontcourt. Coming off the bench were Austin Carr, Campy Russell, Foots Walker, and Nate Thurmond. The bench players were just as good as some of the starting lineups that season. The Cavaliers boasted a solid rotation of players who would take them well into the postseason. Joe Lustek, from North Ridgeville, had no bones about sharing his love for that team and those players:

I remember the flashy uniforms standing out among other teams. They were stylish at the time but funny looking back at them now with the short shorts. I used to love Bobby “Bingo” Smith, not only because of his talent but also because of the Afro haircut. Few could ever forget the great energy of Joe Tait on the microphone. An incredible adrenaline and excitement arose from the fans in the crowd. I remember the endless smack talking with other students at school, especially the dreaded Boston fans.

Cleveland Cavaliers fans’ enthusiasm helped lift and shape some of Tait’s broadcasting as well, and he vividly recalled the fans’ excitement:

Sure, you get swept up in the enthusiasm and excitement of the whole thing. If anything, you have to make sure that you don’t overdo it yourself because it is very easy to do so. I know a couple of times listening back to old tapes that I probably did go too far. It was hard not to get totally involved in that series because of the extreme nail-biting results of those games. The crowd really did pick up the team and pick me up as well. It was a rare experience because it was the first time the team had ever been to the playoffs and had, at best, a mediocre performance prior to that season. They beat Washington and, because most people considered the fact they were even there a miracle, the name stuck.

Vince with the “Miracle of Richfield” Cavaliers

The first playoff-round matchup for the Cavaliers took place against the Washington Bullets, who later became the Washington Wizards. The Bullets were impressive opponents whose lineup included all-stars Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld, both of whom went on to become Hall of Famers. So formidable was the Bullets lineup that they went on to win the NBA championship title the following season. The Cavaliers were known for their quick offense and their well-rounded attack on both sides of the ball; nevertheless, they would need all of their skills at hand to take down the Bullets. With Joe Tait on the microphone calling the action to hungry sports fans everywhere, the series was ready to kick off with a bang.

Game one ended in heartbreak for the Cavaliers, who lost 100–95 in front of the hometown crowd. The team bounced back during game two in Washington, though, defeating the Bullets 80–79 on a 25-foot jump shot by Bobby “Bingo” Smith in the final seconds. The thrilling one-point win was a sign of things to come later in the series. The men in wine and gold kept the momentum going in game three with a hard-fought win in Richfield, outscoring the Bullets 88–76. Desperate for a win back home in game four, the Bullets came out with a 109–98 victory. The Cavaliers won game five at home 92–91 when Jim Cleamons rebound a shot by Smith and put it back in to beat the buzzer. Matt Morino, COO of Morino Ventures LLC and a current Strongsville resident, shared his memories of this playoff series:

I was lucky to be able to go to a playoff game with my mom, who along with me was a big Cavaliers fan. It was game five of the series with the series tied at 2–2, so that game was critical as the series would be moving back to Washington for game six—a tough place to play, so we did not want that one to be a possible closeout game for the Bullets. I’ll never forget arriving at Richfield Coliseum more than an hour before game time and seeing the place packed. You could feel the electricity in the air with 20,000 fans chanting “Lets Go Cavs!” an hour before game time—no fire from the rafters, no blaring audio system with recorded chants, this was real! And when that old 1970s Cavs theme song, “C’mon Cavs,” began to play, the place went bananas—standing ovations with deafening cheers as the Cavs came out for warm-ups. The game was nip-and-tuck the whole way and, in what had become par for the course, it was going down to the wire. The Cavaliers had the ball and had called time-out to set up the final play for a basket they had to get in a game that was, up to this point, their biggest one ever. The ball was inbounded and went to Bingo Smith for a shot at another buzzer-beating jumper. But this time Bingo was forced much further away from the basket by that stingy Washington defense. Obviously, Bingo’s buzzer-beater in game three was still very fresh on the Bullets minds, and he really had to force this one up. Things looked bleak in those final few seconds, but then, out of nowhere, our point guard, Jimmy Cleamons, had somehow managed to sneak under the basket and, leaping high into the air, caught Bingo’s air ball and laid it in the basket all in one motion as the buzzer went off and the place exploded!

The series only grew more exciting and intense by the day. Following game five, game six went into overtime, but the Bullets managed to bounce back and bring in a win at 102–98.

There are few moments in sports that can match the buildup and thrill of a game seven. The feeling of do-or-die is one of pure anxiety that can only be cured with a win. Yells and excitement from the fans had the ground of Richfield Coliseum shaking an hour before the start of game seven. During warm-ups, the crowd containing more than 20,000 cheering fans chanted, “Let’s go Cavs!” If the fans had anything to do with it, the Cavaliers would not be having a first-round exit. Ruben Rodriguez, who was from Cleveland but had been stationed by the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia, was given tickets and flew back home for the final game in the series. He had these vivid memories of the game to share:

I will never forget that game; it was the loudest crowd anywhere for any sport. You could actually feel the place shake! When Phil Chenier missed the last shot, there weren’t enough cops to stop the fans from cutting loose. There were dudes climbing on the baskets as if they were tearing down goalposts instead.

Sulaiman Ahmad, from Euclid, also shared his thoughts from the time spent at the series:

The main thing I remember about the Miracle of Richfield was the noise. I have never heard a crowd that was that loud. At times, Richfield Coliseum felt like it was literally moving.

Joe Tait had a special viewpoint of the fan’s reaction from the broadcast table on the court:

It was a “natural” crowd reaction, and that’s what made it so special. Nate Thurmond had his brother, George, come to one of the games and place a tape recorder on his lap so he could record the amazing sound of the crowd at the packed Coliseum. There had never been anything like what we were all experiencing. That entire season, the crowd response was just unbelievable. Those things don’t happen anymore because of the artificial commercial atmosphere produced at arenas now.

As fate would have it, game seven would be an even more intense game than the previous six thrillers that the fans had witnessed. Local Cleveland fans were unable to watch the game due to an NBA blackout, but as Matt Morino shared, fans were still able to listen to and watch snippets of it:

My whole family gathered around our radio at home to listen to Joe Tait call the biggest basketball game in Cleveland history. The TV news stations also had something called “Action Cams” that were stationed at the game and would interrupt TV programming for short snippets of film from this huge game. It was hard to hear Joe’s voice at times—the crowd was deafening. The game was tied at 86 with just seconds to go, and the Cavs had the ball and had called time-out to set up for the last shot again. We watched—yes, watched; even the NBA couldn’t keep their blackout for these last few seconds—as the Action Cams had interrupted all Cleveland TV stations to show this final, fateful play.

Just like in previous games, it came down once again to the final shot. Dick Snyder was called upon to take the final shot with just under 5 seconds remaining. As his running 5-foot bank shot hit off the glass and went in, the Richfield crowd came unglued. The city had just witnessed the completion of a miracle.

Although they would fall short in the next round of the playoffs, losing to the highly touted Boston Celtics in six games, no one could take away the pure joy Cleveland fans felt during game six of the Bullets series. Many believe that if starting center Jim Chones hadn’t broken his foot in a practice between the two series, taking the steam out of the red-hot locomotive engine that had become Cleveland basketball, the Cavaliers might have even upset the Celtics. The Cavaliers did manage to win two games in the series with outstanding plays at home in front of rabid fans. Backup center Nate Thurmond did his best to fill in for Chones, but the Celtics’ John Havlicek was too much for him. Joe Tait gave his firsthand account of what happened during those games against Boston:

Nobody expected the Cavaliers to beat Boston at that particular time, and the fact that they came back in that series got people pumped up to an even higher level. People began to think that even without Chones this team could still be a team of destiny. It was in the fans’ minds that they could pull off one of the all-time greatest upsets. It was easy for the fans to get swept away in it. The problem was that Thurmond had to pick up extra minutes for the hurt Chones, and it was simply too much to ask. Despite their best efforts, we fell short in six games.

North Olmsted native John Rehak, a noted child psychologist and youth basketball coach for many years, also shared his memories of the series:

It is my honest opinion that if Jim Chones didn’t break his foot, that the team would have won the NBA Championship. It was a magical time for our city, and one that I will never forget.

Bruce Rice of North Olmsted, a retired mailman and an avid Cleveland sports fan, recalled:

We brought a banner to each game with a giant rear end on it that said, “Hey Cowens, Stuff This!”

The truth, however, was that Cleveland sports teams were in the middle of a miserable run. The Browns hadn’t been good in years. The Indians never made it back to the playoffs after getting swept in the World Series in 1954 against the San Francisco Giants. The Cavaliers had been terrible until this magical run. They gave the city some desperately needed hope. It didn’t matter if it was the clever nicknames or the colorful uniforms—Cleveland fans were just happy to have a winner.