An ad in the form of an open letter in the August 9, 1970 Pittsburgh Press put it this way:
"Admittedly, it's been a hectic summer for the Condors...new ownership...several new names...the institution of a rebuilding program...a changeover in both front office and player personnel."
The Pipers of the American Basketball Association moved back to Pittsburgh in 1969 after a disastrous season in Minnesota. Unfortunately, Connie Hawkins didn't return with them, instead accepting a settlement of his suit against the NBA that allowed him to play (and star) for the Phoenix Suns.
After a dreadful 1969-70 season both on the court and at the box office, Gabe Rubin sold the team to a conglomerate called Haven Industries. (Haven Industries Inc. owned Airport Services Inc. which created International Sports Inc. to own the basketball franchise.) At an April 29 news conference, the new owners announced that they'd be holding a contest to change the team's name, in hopes of improving the club's image.
On May 21, the team announced that the contest would end June 6. The winner would receive $500 and a pair of lifetime tickets, while everyone else who submitted the winning name would get 2 seats for the opener and an ABA basketball. Entries were to include a 25-word-or-less essay on why the name should be adopted.
On June 24, new general manager Marty Blake announced that law student Donald Seymour had submitted the winning entry, and the team would be the Pioneers. Seymour's reason:
"Aside from being unique in all of professional sports and having the catchy 'P P' alliteration, this name is significant in view of Pittsburgh's heritage (as 'Gateway to the West'), Pittsburgh's present spirit (as a Pioneer in urban development - signified by the Civic Arena itself), and hopefully a new 'pioneering' era of professional basketball in the Pittsburgh area."
Alert readers will note that there were 57 words in that entry. Mrs. Angela Weaver of Wexford did, too, and on July 2, she went to Common Pleas Court to ask for an injunction preventing the Pioneers from using the name until they decared a winner of the contest who followed the rules. At the same time, Point Park College was unhappy to see that their teams' name was being used and threatened to seek their own injunction if a planned meeting with Blake was unsatisfactory.
By the 6th, the club had been served papers in the Weaver suit. That same day, Neil Rosenstein and Ron Roye, chairman and president of the team, respectively, resigned their positions with the club and its parents.
Three days later, Blake was named team president, and said he'd come up with a new name without a contest. On July 17, an odd ad appeared in the Sunday Press, with a cartoon bird dribbling an ABA basketball toward the Civic Arena. Within the week, Blake declared the club would be the Pittsburgh Condors.
The 1970-71 team, while an improvement over the previous season, still floundered both on the court and in the stands. Haven had actually invested some money in the front office, but things didn't pan out, and Blake was let go in January. Mark Binstein, who had been the original general manager of the New Jersey Americans, and had somehow attached himself to the sale of the Pipers, became GM and held the position until the end of the 1971-72 season. That was when the club went extinct, unlike its endangered namesake.
