In October, 1972, there were stories about Pittsburgh public relations man Chuck Reichblum forming the National Tennis League. In the Oct. 6 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Vince Leonard quotes Reichblum as saying, "We're out to eliminate the Victorian from tennis, the love and ad-vahn-tages and all-white uniforms. Tennis used to be polite, genteel ladies sipping tea on lawns. Us, we're after the baseball fan."
At the same time, on the West Coast, Billie Jean King, her husband Larry (no, not that Larry King) and Dennis Murphy, who had been involved in forming the American Basketball Association and World Hockey Association, were pursuing a similar project. Eventually, the two groups got together and formed World Team Tennis (WTT).
On May 22, 1973, WTT was officially announced. There would be 16 teams, each of which would have a minimum of two men and two women. Matches would include men's singles, women's singles, and mixed doubles. Murphy was the league president, while former U.S. Davis Cup non-playing captain George McCall was named commissioner.
Reichblum and his two partners, attorney Bill Sutton and industrialist John H. Hillman III (Henry's brother) were awarded the Pittsburgh franchise, which they announced would be called the Triangles. They were considering both Three Rivers Stadium and the Civic Arena as possible homes at that point.
The season would be 44 matches long, and there would be two eight-team divisions. The Triangles would play in the Civic Arena, and the lease allowed for opening the roof.
The draft took place August 3. The Philadelphia Freedoms had signed Billie Jean King to a five-year contract beforehand, as did the Houston E-Z Riders (named for owner E.Z. Jones) with John Newcombe. The Triangles chose fifth in the first round and selected 39-year-old Ken Rosewall, an Australian who remains one of the all-time greats. Reichblum said they wanted him to be a player-coach. Pittsburgh had the twelfth pick in the second round and took Evonne Goolagong, a 22-year-old Australian who'd won Wimbledon and the French Open in 1971. They chose Harold Solomon (who never signed) in the third round and Vitas Gerulaitis in the fourth. They picked Gerald Battrick in the twelfth round and Isabel Fernandez in the sixteenth.
As Leonard put it in the September 18 Post-Gazette, "Brown as the proverbial berry, Evonne Goolagong stepped from behind a fold of beige drapes at the William Penn Hotel yesterday and -- holy kangaroo! -- received a standing ovation."
The team said she signed "a multi-year contract, with a generous salary, annuity plan and insurance."
The Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs match, scheduled for three days later, was a topic of discussion at the press conference. "[It] seems to be like a circus to me," Goolagong said. "They're like performing seals."
Goolagong was the first big-name player to sign with the league since King and Newcombe. "I hope to help make the league a success," she said.
On Nov. 16, the Triangles announced that they'd signed Gerulaitis, who joined Goolagong and Isabel Fernandez on the roster. The 19-year-old signed a one-year contract.
On Dec. 11, Rosewall signed a one-year contract as player-coach. "I think that with Evonne Goolagong and myself, we have the best one-two punch in the league," he said. Rosewall was looking forward to playing in the Arena with the roof open.
The Triangles completed the first trade in WTT history on Dec. 23, acquiring Peggy Michel from the Boston Lobsters for cash and a player to be named. Michel was set to be Goolagong's doubles partner before the league started. Vic Edwards, Goolagong's coach and the Triangles' dirctor of player personnel, recommended the deal.
Oddly, a story in the March 31, 1974 Pittsburgh Press had Frank Fuhrer as the third founding father of the team instead of John Hillman. (The Press and Post-Gazette went on strike the next day.)
An AP story in the May 2 Observer-Reporter said that ticket prices were $7.50, $5.50, $4.00 and $2.50. They listed the roster as Goolagong, Rosewall, Gerulaitis, Fernandez, Michel and Gerald Battrick. The match format would be a set of women's singles, a set of men's singles, a set of mixed doubles, a 15-minute halftime, and the three sets repeated. Scoring within games would just be 1, 2, 3, game, and if the game was tied, 3-3, the next point was sudden death (receiver's choice of which court to take the serve in). Match scoring was the total number of games won in the six sets.
The league was split into four "sections." Pittsburgh was in the Central with the Cleveland Nets, Detroit Loves and Toronto-Buffalo Royals.
The May 6 Beaver County Times had something of a preview of Pittsburgh playing the first-ever WTT match in Philadelphia that night. Elizabeth Taylor was supposed to spin the racquet for the first serve.
"We're in show business," Billie Jean King explained. "This is entertainment, and it's got to be lively and appeal to the masses and I think we've souped it up so that it will."
Liz was a no-show, but 10,611 saw the Freedoms beat the Triangles, 31-25.
The two teams met again the next night at the Civic Arena, and Philadelphia won again, 30-25, in front of 8,108.
The Triangles picked up their first win in New York, 28-23, on May 9. They won again in Florida the next night, but then Goolagong left the team to play Federation Cup for Australia. Goolagong did, in fact, lead the Aussies to a victory in Italy, but the Triangles lost all four of their matches while she was away. (Carole Graebner, who was trying to come back after a four-year layoff, was added to the roster in her absence.)
The fourth loss, to Toronto-Buffalo on May 19, was notable for a couple of reasons. First, the league had changed the format of matches. Instead of two sets each of men's singles, women's singles and mixed doubles, there was now one set each of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. This was designed to speed up matches, which were lasting over three hours. The Triangles also paid the $200 to open the Arena roof.
After their loss to the Royals, the Triangles were in last place in the Central Section with a 2-6 record. Fernandez had gone 2-5 in women's singles during Goolagong's absence, and Rosewall was merely 9-6 in his singles sets. But with Evonne set to return from Italy, things were looking up. "I swear we're going to win every game the rest of the season, and I'm not talking garbage," claimed Fernandez.
With Goolagong's return, Graebner was returned to the team's reserve list. In her first match back on May 21, Evonne beat Marita Redondo in singles, 6-3, and teamed with her Australian Open-winning doubles partner, Peggy Michel, although they lost their set, 6-4. The Triangles dominated the Los Angeles Strings, 28-16.
The next match was one of the occupational hazards of WTT. It was in Hawaii, and the Triangles beat the Leis, 24-16. Pittsburgh released Graebner, who was picked up by New York.
On May 30, the Triangles defeated the Florida Flamingos, who wore pink uniforms, 25-21. Goolagong lost her first singles match since returning when Betty Ann Grubb beat her, 6-4. Evonne also filed suit in Paris, along with Jimmy Connors, to demand that she be allowed to play in the French Open, which wasn't admitting WTT players. Goolagong and Connors had won the Australian titles, so they each had a chance at a Grand Slam. A French judge ruled the next day that there was no need for an expedited decision, so both were out of the tournament.
Vic Edwaards' response to the decision: "The French Federation's loss is World Team Tennis' gain."
The Triangles went to Cleveland June 2, where both they and the Nets would put their six-match winning streaks on the line. Cleveland won, 30-20, as Rosewall lost his first singles match in two weeks to Cliff Richey.
Two nights later, while Cleveland had to deal with an Indians forfeit on Dime Beer Night, Boston Lobs player-coach Ion Tiriac forfeited one game in men's doubles as the Triangles returned to their winning ways, 31-18, at Walter Brown Arena.
On June 6, after Goolagong and Michel extended their doubles record to 7-2 in a home win over Baltimore where they actually had to close the roof because wind threatened the hanging scoreboard, the partners talked about their success.
"I feel very equal with Evonne on the court," Michel smiled. "Earlier in the season, when things were going badly, I felt I was letting the team down first and not doing the job for Evonne."
Goolagong chimed in. "Peggy is a great partner. She's a perfect doubles player. We know each other and we have confidence. That's why expect to win before we step on the court."
When she'd hit a bad shot, Goolagong would shake her head and apologize to Michel.
"Oh, I do that all the time," Evonne giggled. "Actually, I like singles better because you don't have to concentrate as much."
The Triangles dealt Toronto-Buffalo their eighth straight loss on June 11 in thrilling fashion. At the Coliseum in Toronto, Mike Estep and Wendy Overton won the last four games of the mixed doubles set to tie the match at 25. This meant that match would be decided with a nine-point tiebreaker. Pittsburgh didn't lead until the final point, when Michel (whose partner was Gerald Battrick) served to Estep, who returned to Michel. She hit the ball back to Estep, who put it into the net.
Two nights later, in the Civic Arena, Goolagong dropped Rosie Casals' singles record to 21-3 as the Triangles avenged a recent loss by obliterating the Detroit Loves, 31-12. "The team felt quite determined tonight," Evonne said. "Sometimes I have to get mad to play right." She was right enough to beat Casals, 6-3, and Pittsburgh had an insurmountable 18-4 lead after three sets.
After the match, Casals was calm. "The Pittsburgh players were definitely revenge conscious. That's what the game is all about -- to win. Sports is competitive. Everybody seemed up for it on the Pittsburgh side."
Before the match, Casals threatened, "We'll protest if the roof is open. This is supposed to be an indoor league." Reichblum claimed that it was coincidence that the roof wasn't opened until the intermission after the women's singles because of gusting winds.
The margin of victory set a new league record, while Detroit's 12 games won tied for the season low.
The Triangles won their next two matches at home. With the league taking a three-week Wimbledon break, they were 15-8, having gone 13-2 after Goolagong's return from Italy. The record was good for third place in the Central Section, percentage points behind Cleveland and Detroit. The Atlantic Section's Philadelphia was two games ahead of the three teams at the top of the Central.
Goolagong was seeded third at Wimbledon, while Rosewall was seeded ninth.
Evonne lost to Kerry Melville in the semifinals, while Rosewall got to the final, where he lost to Connors, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4. Goolagong and Michel did win the women's doubles.
In the first two matches after the break, the Pittsburgh singles stars were unable to avenge their defeats. On July 8, Melville beat Goolagong, 7-5, but the Triangles beat the Lobsters at the Civic Arena, 29-27. Two nights later, Connors, who had spent a lot of time in Europe before rejoining the Baltimore Banners, beat Rosewall, 7-5, but the Triangles pulled out a 24-23 win in front of 6,648, the largest crowd in Baltimore to that point. "I had quite a few chances to win the set, but it just wasn't there," Rosewall said. "At least it was closer than Wimbledon."
The Triangles then lost both ends of a home-and-home series with the Denver Racquets. The match in Denver ended when Michel double-faulted, giving the Racquets a 27-26 win before 3,790, their largest crowd of the season at that point.
On July 25, Cleveland came into Pittsburgh with only one healthy woman available, so they had to forfeit the women's doubles.
Toronto-Buffalo averaged 4,048 fans as July ended, tops in the league.
On August 3, Philadelphia rode an 18-match winning streak into Pittsburgh. The Triangles won, 28-24, in front of their largest crowd of the season, 8,132. Goolagong and Michel beat King and Julie Anthony in the women's doubles, 7-5, snapping the Freedoms' duo's 21-set win streak.
Philadelphia got some revenge three nights later, when they extended their home winning streak to 19 with a 25-21 victory over the Triangles. Goolagong and Michel did hand King and Anthony their second loss.
In the next match, on August 8, the Triangles interrupted the proceedings so the crowd could listen to Richard Nixon's resignation speech. (The crowd of 3,107 booed the interruption.) Detroit won the match, 26-20, taking a firm grip on first place in the Central Section. It was the Loves' fifth match in seven days, so they let Kerry Harris and Allan Stone play singles instead of Casals and Phil Dent; both lost, but the doubles teams carried them.
Three nights later, in Houston, the Triangles once again drew a city's largest crowd, as 3,883 watched Pittsburgh beat the E-Z Riders, 30-21. That was the second of seven matches for the Triangles in nine days to close out the season.
So, in New York on Aug. 13, Rosewall shuffled his lineup. Michel defeated Virginia Wade in singles, 7-5, and Vitas Gerulaitis, who rarely appeared if a match wasn't clinched, lost to Nikki Pilic, 6-4. Goolagong and Fernandez lost the women's doubles, 6-2, but Rosewall and Gerulaitis won the men's, and Goolagong and Battrick won the mixed to give Pittsburgh a 25-22 win.
They used a different lineup in Chicago the next night, with Fernandez and Battrick playing singles, and still won, 27-24.
The Triangles won their last seven regular season matches. They and Detroit finished with identical 30-14 records, but the Loves got the first seed in the Central because they'd won more games during the season. And Gerulaitis played well enough to be inserted into the doubles lineup instead of Battrick, to the delight of "Vitas' G-Men."
Goolagong was 31-10 in singles sets, and she and Michel were 28-5 in doubles.
The Triangles' average home attendance was 3,140.
On Aug. 19, they began a two-match total-game playoff series in Detroit. The headline in the next day's Post-Gazette was "Triangles Devastate Loves In First-Round Playoff." The final score was 31-10.
Goolagong started by beating Rosie Casals, 6-1. "I never thought I'd win 6-1. I felt confident but not that confident. But I knew the big win would help the team and that made me happiest of all."
In the men's singles, Rosewall won the first game. He and Phil Dent were tied 2-2 in the second game when Dent fell to the floor clutching his back. Butch Seewagen replaced him, but Rosewall won the set, 6-1.
After falling behind, 5-4, Goolagong and Michel came back to defeat Casals and Kerry Harris, 7-5, in the only close set.
Rosewall and Gerulaitis beat Seewagen and Allan Stone, 6-1, and Gerulaitis and Fernandez beat Stone and Harris to close the match out. 1,622 watched in Cobo Hall.
The Loves weren't terribly happy with the crowd, since the players got 50 percent of the net receipts, with two-thirds going to the winning team.
"The big win certainly puts us in a great situation for tomorrow night," Rosewall said. "But I certainly wouldn't want to lose coming off this situation."
They didn't. Once again, the Triangles won all five sets as they beat the Loves, 32-17, and moved on to face Philadelphia in the semifinals. A crowd of 3,685 watched with the roof one-quarter open, a compromise between the two teams.
Goolagong started by once again dominating Casals, 6-2. "I know I have to be up for the match," said Evonne, "because I know she is a top competitor." At this point, Detroit was officially eliminated.
Rosewall then defeated Allan Stone, 6-1.
Goolagong and Michel once again beat Casals and Harris by a 7-5 score.
Rosewall and Gerulaitis had to go a tie-breaker, which they won, 5-2, to defeat Stone and Seewagen. Gerulaitis and Fernandez had a much easier time with Seewagen and Mary Ann Beattie, 6-2.
There were several different opinions about what the Triangles would need to do to beat the Freedoms. Rosewall warned, though, that "It has got to be a good team effort all the way down the line. We can't have any lopsided sets."
Philadelphia had a much more difficult time with Cleveland, winning their series, 49-44, but their 39-5 regular season record demanded a lot of respect.
On Aug. 22, before a Civic Arena crowd of 5,582, the Freedoms grabbed a commanding lead in the two-match series with a 31-21 victory.
King started with a 6-2 victory over Goolagong.
Rosewall battled against Buster Mottram, and won the set, 7-6, with a 5-4 tie-breaker. During the set, player-coach King filed a protest on grounds of "incompetent and partisan officiating."
King and Anthony dominated Goolagong and Michel, 6-2.
Rosewall was involved in another 7-6 set, but this time he and Gerulaitis lost to Brian Fairlie and Fred Stolle, with a 5-3 score in the tie-breaker.
Anthony and Stolle won the mixed from Gerulaitis and Fernandez, 6-4.
Rosewall sipped on a beer after the match and said, "First of all, we'll have to play a lot better tomorrow night and hope they don't play as well. The have the advantage, similar to the one we had over Detroit, now the shoe's on the other foot. It was disappointing to see the girls lose like that after they did so well all year."
When he was asked about the Freedoms' conduct, Rosewall said, "Philadelphia's bench jumps up like idiots."
For her part, King was asked if she thought line calls went her way after the protest. "I think they changed after that. They started calling them all for us."
So the series headed to the Spectrum, where the Freedoms were 23-0.
The Triangles actually won the match, 24-21, but lost the series in front of 7,122 fans.
King beat Goolagong, 7-6, winning the tie-breaker, 5-0.
Rosewall defeated Fairlie, 6-4.
After King and Anthony won the first two games in women's doubles, Goolagong and Michel roared back to win the next six.
Rosewall and Gerulaitis took a 5-2 lead over Fairlie and Stolle to make the series interesting, but the Freedoms won the next three games and ended up winning the set with a 5-3 tie-breaker.
"I thought the bubble might break when the Triangles led 5-2 in men's doubles," said King. "That was the pivot set."
So Philadelphia just needed one game in the mixed doubles to clinch the series, and when Gerulaitis returned a Stolle serve into the net, the Freedoms' 1-0 lead was enough for the match to officially be over.
"Our plan was to try to win all the sets by 6-4 and take a chance on a tie," explained Rosewall, "but we fell a little short, didn't we?" If the series had ended tied, it would have been decided with a nine-point mixed-doubles tie-breaker.
So the Freedoms went on to play the Denver Racquets in a best-of-three series. Denver swept the series, 27-21 and 28-24. (In 1975, the Racquets had moved to Phoenix. After the original Boston Lobsters folded, a group that included Bob Kraft bought the Freedoms, moved them to Boston and reclaimed the Lobsters name.)
The Triangles stayed put in Pittsburgh. Rosewall retired. Frank Fuhrer took control of the franchise, and they had a great 1975. But that's a story for another time.
(All quotes are from the original newspaper coverage. My thanks to Rick Pearson for his assistance.)