On this day in 1974: The New Orleans Jazz play their first game — four years to the night after Pete Maravich’s NBA debut

Fifty-two years ago this Saturday, the franchise now known as the Utah Jazz played its first game. On October 17, 1974, the expansion New Orleans Jazz walked into Madison Square Garden and lost to the New York Knicks 89-74 in front of 15,883 fans. Pete Maravich, the star the new team had built itself around, scored 15 points.

The date was not new to Maravich. Four years earlier, on October 17, 1970, he had played his first NBA game, coming off the Atlanta Hawks bench against Milwaukee. Two openers on the same date, both losses, both quiet nights by his standards — and one future Hall of Fame center on the floor for both of them.

• Result: Knicks 89, Jazz 74 — Thursday, October 17, 1974, Madison Square Garden, New York. First game in Jazz franchise history.
• By quarter: New Orleans 19-22-18-15; New York 19-25-25-20. The game was tied after one quarter and the Knicks pulled away from there.
• Pete Maravich (New Orleans): 15 points (4-16 FG, 7-9 FT), 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals in 35 minutes.
• Other New Orleans scorers: Bud Stallworth 11, Jim Barnett 11, Stu Lantz 10, Toby Kimball 8, Walt Bellamy 6; E.C. Coleman 10 rebounds, Lamar Green 9.
• New York leaders: Earl Monroe 20 points, Phil Jackson 17, Henry Bibby 15, John Gianelli 11 points and 18 rebounds, Bill Bradley 10 points and 8 assists, Harthorne Wingo 10.
• Shooting: New Orleans 27-74 from the field (.365), New York 34-85 (.400). The Knicks won the boards 50-40.

Building a team around one player

The NBA awarded New Orleans its 18th franchise on March 7, 1974, to an ownership group that paid $6.15 million. A name-the-team contest drew more than 6,500 entries, and the winner fit the city: Jazz. The colors — purple, green and gold — came straight from Mardi Gras.

An expansion roster needed a reason for fans to buy tickets, and the new front office decided there was one obvious answer. On May 20, 1974, the same day as the expansion draft, New Orleans traded for Maravich, the former LSU scoring machine who had averaged 27.7 points for Atlanta the season before. The price was steep: Dean Meminger, Bob Kauffman and a bundle of draft picks, including two first-rounders. One of them, the 1975 first-round pick, became the No. 1 overall selection that Atlanta used on David Thompson — who signed with the ABA’s Denver Nuggets instead.

Maravich was coming home, in a sense. He had become a college legend a little over an hour up the road in Baton Rouge, and the Jazz were betting that Louisiana would turn out to see him.

Walt Bellamy’s last night

The most curious line in the box score belongs to Walt Bellamy. The 35-year-old center, the No. 1 pick in the 1961 draft and the 1961-62 Rookie of the Year, had been taken by New Orleans from Atlanta in the expansion draft. He started the franchise’s first game, made both of his shots and both of his free throws, and finished with 6 points and 5 rebounds in 14 minutes.

The next day, October 18, 1974, the Jazz waived him. It was the last of Bellamy’s 1,043 NBA games — a career that included 20.1 points per game and a Hall of Fame induction in 1993.

Bellamy also links the two October 17 openers. On the night of Maravich’s NBA debut in 1970, Bellamy was Atlanta’s center, playing all 48 minutes with 21 points and 12 rebounds. He and Maravich are the only two players who appeared in both games.

October 17, 1970: the first time

Maravich’s NBA debut came at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, where the Milwaukee Bucks won 107-98. The rookie, the third overall pick in the 1970 draft, did not start. He shot 3-for-13 in 22 minutes and finished with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

It was a hard first assignment. Milwaukee had added Oscar Robertson to a lineup built around Lew Alcindor, the future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had 32 points and 17 rebounds that night. Bob Dandridge scored 21. Lou Hudson led Atlanta with 27 and Bill Bridges grabbed 24 rebounds. The Bucks went on to win the 1971 championship. Maravich settled in fine, too: he averaged 23.2 points as a rookie and made the All-Rookie team.

What came next

The Jazz lost their first 11 games. The first win in franchise history finally came on November 10, 1974, a 102-101 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. New Orleans finished 23-59 and went through three coaches — Scotty Robertson (1-14), Elgin Baylor (0-1) and Butch van Breda Kolff (22-44). They played at the fastest pace in the league that season while waiting for the Louisiana Superdome to open, and spent most of the year in Municipal Auditorium.

Maravich averaged 21.5 points in that first season, and the best was still ahead of him. He made the All-NBA First Team in 1975-76 and 1976-77, and in 1976-77 he won the scoring title at 31.1 points per game. On February 25, 1977, at the Superdome, he scored 68 points against the Knicks — the same team that had spoiled the Jazz’s first night — shooting 26-for-43 from the field and 16-for-19 from the line in a 124-107 win.

The franchise moved to Salt Lake City in 1979 and kept the name. Utah waived Maravich in January 1980, and he finished his career with the Boston Celtics. In 10 seasons he averaged 24.2 points. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987 and died on January 5, 1988, at 40. The Utah Jazz retired his No. 7 on December 14, 1985, the first number the franchise retired. New Orleans’ current NBA team also honors that No. 7, a nod to the player who made the city’s first NBA team worth watching.

For a team about to start its 53rd season, it all began with a 15-point loss in New York. Box score and season figures above come from Basketball-Reference.