OFF TO A GREAT START SACRAMENTO’S HISTORIC CALIFORNIA STATE CAPITOL WAS CONSTRUCTED IN THE 1800s 8 OFF TO A GREAT START
JACK TWYMAN In 1806 a Spanish expedition headed by Gabriel Moraga discovered a smooth-flowing river in central California An expedition member wrote The air was like champagne and the Spaniards drank deep of it drank in the beauty around them Es como el sagrado sacramento It’s like the Holy Sacrament Moraga dubbed the river and surrounding valley Sacramento Several decades later the discovery of gold on the nearby American River ignited a feverish influx of people who hoped for instant wealth John Sutter Jr son of one of the men who had made the initial discovery established a trading colony on the Sacramento River to serve the miners calling it Sacramento Soon it became the first incorporated city in California and within a few years was named the state capital Today Sacramento is the sixth-largest city in California and the metropolitan area has a population of more than 2 5 million 9
AFTER YEARS OF RELOCATING THE TEAM CELEBRATED TWO DECADES AT ITS SACRAMENTO HOME IN 2004 Many of those gold rushers made transcontinental treks that included several stops along the way So did the city’s franchise in the National Basketball Association NBA the Sacramento Kings which arrived in 1985 And like many of California’s early settlers the team boasts an especially colorful history in Chicago Two years later Harrison moved the team into a 6,400-seat arena At the same time he renamed it the Rochester Pros because local newspapers disliked giving free publicity to a liquor company by mentioning the team name in game stories Harrison sought out the best possible In 1923 a high school hoops star in Rochester New York named Les Harrison formed two semi-pro teams sponsored by liquor companies Seagrams and Ebers Brothers soon after his graduation The Rochester Seagrams were good enough to be invited to the 1940 and 1941 World Professional Basketball Championships competition for his team scheduling games against opponents such as the Harlem Globetrotters and New York Renaissance In 1945 he had the opportunity to join the National Basketball League but Seagrams refused to support this effort Harrison and his brother Jack borrowed enough money to buy 10
COURTSIDE STORIES Stars in Other Galaxies The 1945 46 Royals NBL championship team received contributions from three players who went on to stardom in other fields pro football quarterback Otto Graham major-league baseball catcher Del Rice and actor Chuck Connors Graham was a college All-American in both football and basketball who played that one year with Rochester before turning his talents to football and leading the Cleveland Browns to seven championships in two leagues Rice was a three-sport star in high school and signed a pro baseball contract soon after graduating He played 4 seasons in Rochester combining that with what became a 17-year major league career in which he received renown as a top rated defensive catcher Connors played college basketball primarily as a backup He filled the same role with both the Royals and later the Boston Celtics I wasn’t a bad basketball player but I was far from the world’s greatest Connors said Good defense no offense that was me So it’s somewhat ironic that Connors who also played pro baseball achieved his greatest fame as a sharpshooter in the television series The Rifleman 1958 63 OTTO GRAHAM 11 Stars in Other Galaxies
