1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season

The 1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season was the first and only season of the Muskies in the newly created American Basketball Association. The team was created on February 2, 1967, for the price of $30,000 to L.P. Shields and Fred Jefferson. The team was named after a nickname for the Muskellunge, which is a fish found in Minnesota. The team did well on the court, finishing second to the Pittsburgh Pipers in the Eastern Division. In the playoffs, they made it to the Division Finals, but the Muskies lost in 5 games to the Pipers. However, this proved to be the only season for the Muskies due to them losing money (reportedly $400,000) with middling attendance in relation to minimal season tickets purchased. (In the five playoff games played in Minnesota, they averaged 3,511 in attendance, with the highest being 8,357 for Game 3 of the Division Finals and the lowest being 661 for Game 1 of the Semifinals.) A plan to play 9 games in their following season within other places around Minnesota and a television contract for them were both curtailed, and the Muskies moved to Miami on May 24, 1968 to become the Miami Floridians. However, basketball in Minnesota would not be curtailed for long, as the inaugural champion Pittsburgh Pipers moved to play in the same location in that same season the Muskies moved to Miami to become the Floridians going forward.