DAZZLING DECADE

Business People, Jan 01, 2001 by Ell, Larry

For the man, this slice of history will always be his. For the team, the fact that there even is a history is testament to a collective fortitude and perseverance. Fort Wayne's Fury turns 10 years old this season.

Over many a rough sea and with many a different skipper, it's a team that has managed to successfully navigate the sometimes fickle and always uncertain minor league sports vista. This year is unique, though, because the man, first year head coach Kent Davison, and the team will be forever linked in this exceptional milestone.

"No other coach in the history of Fort Wayne's franchise has ever been the coach when it was the 10th anniversary," Davison says. "That's a special thing. It's special to me because I know the heartache that all the coaches, all the players, all of our management and especially the people that started this franchise 10 years ago went through to get to this point. I'm fortunate to be that person who's going to lead us for this 10th year. I hope that I don't let all those people down."

In the fast-paced, lead-follow-or-get-out-of-the-way world of professional sports, a decade might seem like a blink, but when survival is a daily struggle, 10 years of existence is an accomplishment as remarkable to insiders as those on the outside.

"It seems like 100," jokes General Manager Rich Coffey. "It has really gone quickly. It'd be nice to say we figured we'd be here in 10 years. I think we knew going in that we'd be here a while, but as you get involved in minor league sports you always know there's a lot going on from a league standpoint that could undermine what you're trying to do. I was always very confident about Fort Wayne having a professional basketball team, but after you've been in it a couple years, it becomes a year-to-year thing. It has flown by, though, because it's been a lot of fun."

"We certainly planned on being around a while," adds CEO Scott Sproat.

"I don't think the guys who brought this franchise to town looked at it as a short term commitment. It's been a pretty amazing journey."

The journey began in 1990 with a clean slate and a lot of plans-that initially fell through. The Continental Basketball Association first came to Fort Wayne with the Kemper Insurance Group to explore putting in an expansion team. They took a tour of Fort Wayne before choosing to expand to Sioux Falls, S.D.

"That was kind of the catalyst," Coffey says. "It just angered the people in Fort Wayne and that was the incentive to form the Fort Wayne Sports Corporation. We had the demographics, we knew this was a good location, that basketball was popular in this town and if we could convince people that pro basketball was just an extension of high school and college, then we'd be all right. So Mac Parker, Denny Sutton and Jay Frye decided to get involved in bringing a team here."

"It appealed to me because I have such a love for basketball," Frye says. "I played in college and missed being around sports. I thought, and still think, the CBA is one of the best kept secrets in sports. It didn't frighten me because I thought, if you did it right and did it consistently right, you could make it work."

With that, building the franchise commenced. Both Sproat and Coffey were part of that initial thrust into the CBA. Sproat was still in school when he started as an intern. Coffey was the general manager and embarked on the challenge of starting from scratch by going on a concert-like tour of the CBA. He visited every team in the league to watch their product and pick their brains.

Like first-time parents, the Fury creators wanted to minimize the obstacles to a glorious beginning while paving the way to a long and happy life-which meant work. This baby was as much a labor of love as it was just plain labor. It was also a process that would not be rushed. More than a year after conception, the Fury was ready to greet the world. On Nov. 11, 1991, the Fury's first coach, Gerald Oliver, led the Fury's first team into its first game on its home floor.

"The thing that I felt good about," Coffey says, "was that there were three owners who gave me the wherewithal, the responsibility and the authority to go put together their dream. Well, their dream became my dream and, by and large, everything we envisioned for that opening night we achieved. Nobody walked out of there unsatisfied."

No matter what the scoreboard showed, and it did show a 99-89 loss, it was an historical night. Three games later, the Fury captured its first-ever victory. That inaugural campaign ended with two-straight wins to close the book on a 21-35 season. Eighteen of those wins were at home, where the Fury led the league in attendance.

Memories were imprinted on the minds of the fans, not because of victory parades or championship rings, but in spite of them. The culture of sport can be cynical. Enjoyment has its price and that price is usually success. Without winning, there can be no pleasure, or so the prevailing sentiment goes. Fortunately not everyone subscribes to that skewed view of the sports world. Even though the Fury has had only one winning season in franchise history, enthusiasm and fans still fill Memorial Coliseum on game nights.