The Chicago Condors were a very short-lived member of the American Basketball League (ABL). Their hometown was much larger than usual for the ABL, which mainly targeted mid-market cities, and initial team merchandising was successful. The team appeared to have a solid base. General manager Allison Hodges was the wife of former

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

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Craig Hodges Craig Anthony Hodges (born June 27, 1960)
''basketball-reference.com''. Retrieved March 19, 2011 is an ...

, and former Bulls assistant

Jim Cleamons James Mitchell Cleamons (born September 13, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and current coach. Playing career He played collegiately at the Ohio State University, and was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 1 ...

was head coach.Former Team Official Recounts the A.B.L.'s Dizzying Descent
/ref> In the ABL expansion draft leading up to the team's first season, the Condors selected

Tausha Mills NarTausha Annette "Tausha" Mills (born February 29, 1976) is a former professional basketball player who played on multiple teams in the WNBA. She played a total of 99 games. Career statistics College Regular season , - , style="text-alig ...

, Ashley Berggren,

Ryneldi Becenti Ryneldi Becenti (born August 11, 1971) is a retired American professional basketball player. She became the first Native American to play in the WNBA when she played for the Phoenix Mercury in 1997. High school Becenti attended Window Rock Hi ...

, Cathy Boswell, E.C. Hill, Anita Kaplan, Dana Wilkerson, they later added Joanne McCarthy and Beverly Williams to their roster.Association for Professional Basketball Research; History of the ABL
/ref> The team's existence almost ended before it began. According to Hodges, she was about to announce the team's name when she got a call that the ABL was about to fold. Minutes later, she got another call saying that the season was back on. Only 12 games into their first season, the team was forced to disband when, on December 22, 1998, the ABL suddenly went bankrupt and folded, though Hodges told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that she believed the league was on its last legs before then.

Team Record

{, class="wikitable" , - ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" , Season ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" , W ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" , L ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" , Win % ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" , Result , - , align=center , 1998 , , align=center , 4 , , align=center , 8 , , align=center , .333 , , align=center , 3rd Place, Eastern Conference

References

American Basketball League (1996–1998) teams Defunct basketball teams in the United States Basketball teams established in 1998 Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1998 Basketball teams in Chicago 1998 establishments in Illinois 1998 disestablishments in Illinois Women's sports in Illinois