Early era of the Indiana Pacers: encore

<p dir="ltr">To mark the start of the new season for the <strong><a href="https://www.nba.com/pacers/">Indiana Pacers</a></strong> , we will time travel more than 50 years back to explore the history that led up to their debut game against the Kentucky Colonels in the <strong><a href= "https://www.indianastatefair.com/p/indiana-farmers-coliseum">Coliseum</a></strong> at the <strong><a href="https://www.indianastatefair.com/">State Fairgrounds</a></strong> in Indianapolis. The new team was part of an upstart professional league, the colorful <strong><a href= "http://www.remembertheaba.com/">American Basketball Association</a></strong> (ABA), and before any of the players had even scored a point, much civic, social and sports history already had been made.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Mark-Montieth-2014.png" alt= "Mark Montieth" width="185" height="252" align="right" />Two previous pro basketball teams based in <strong>Indianapolis</strong> had died. One of them, the <strong><a href= "https://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/Xdefunct/IndianapolisOlympians/index.html">Indianapolis Olympians</a></strong>, <strong><a href= "https://sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/indianapolis/olympians.html#:~:text=1951%2F52%3A%20The%20Kentucky%20point,appear%20in%20another%20NBA%20game.">went down in scandal</a></strong>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Efforts at putting together the Pacers team had met a variety of challenges. Unsuccessful attempts had been made to woo household names in Indiana - including former high school basketball sensations <strong><a href= "https://www.nba.com/history/legends/profiles/oscar-robertson">Oscar Robertson</a></strong> and identical twins <strong><a href= "https://www.nba.com/suns/history/suns-throwback-dick-and-tom-van-arsdale/">Tom and Dick Van Arsdale</a></strong> - to be part of the Pacers organization. And some of the African-American players who had been signed to the team encountered challenges finding housing in the Hoosier capital due to the racial discrimination that was unfortun