The

1967–68 ABA season The 1967–68 ABA season was the first season for the American Basketball Association. The ABA was challenging the National Basketball Association. The ABA introduced a red, white and blue basketball. They used a 30-second shot clock as opposed to ...

marked the inaugural season of both the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

and the

Denver Rockets Denver ( ) is a consolidated city and county, the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Western United States, in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains east of ...

. Initially, the team was meant to play in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

out in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, but was able to relocate themselves to Denver in time for the start of the 1967 ABA draft due to a lack of suitable playing arenas; they then also considered the ideas of Denver Larks and Denver Lark Buntings as team names for the franchise at first before an eleventh hour purchase by Bill Ringsby and his son Don Ringsby (who had owned the local Ringsby Rocket Truck Lines business at that point in time) that helped save the franchise before they even had a chance to play a single game caused the team to change their team name to the Denver Rockets (primarily as a promotion to the Ringsby Rocket Truck Lines business at hand) before the season officially began. This was the first time that professional basketball was officially played in the city of

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

since the original Denver Nuggets left the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

in 1950 after the season it was created through the merger of the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (United States), National Basketball Lea ...

and National Basketball League (which the original Nuggets were first a part of) and then since the rebranded Denver Refiners of the short-lived National Professional Basketball League left Denver in January 1951 to briefly become the

Evansville Agogans :''Also see: Sports in Evansville''. The Evansville Agogans were a professional basketball team who played in Evansville, Indiana, in 1951 and were a member of the Western Division of the National Professional Basketball League. History The Na ...

. The Rockets finished the season with a 45–33 record, which was good enough to qualify for a playoff spot as the third seed out of four playoff teams in the Western Division. However, they would lose to the

New Orleans Buccaneers The New Orleans Buccaneers were a charter member of the American Basketball Association. After three seasons in New Orleans, Louisiana, the franchise moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where it became the Memphis Pros, Pros, Memphis Tams, Tams, and Me ...

in the first round, with the Buccaneers later reaching the first ABA Finals in league history before losing the championship match-up to the

Pittsburgh Pipers Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the 67th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 302,9 ...

. Still, this was their first of three consecutive playoff appearances and first of ten playoff appearances in the franchise's first twelve years of existence.

Roster

Season standings

Eastern Division

Western Division

Record vs. opponents

Playoffs

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New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

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Wayne Hightower Wayne A. Hightower (January 14, 1940 – April 18, 2002) was an American professional basketball player who had a long and productive career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1962 to 1972. ...

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Loyola Field House Loyola Field House was an indoor arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosted the ABA's New Orleans Buccaneers for two seasons (1967–68 and 1968–69), and the NBA's New Orleans Jazz (1974–1975). It was also the home venue for L ...

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Willie Murrell Willie Vernon Murrell (September 13, 1941 – December 6, 2018) was an American professional basketball player. Murrell was born in Taft, Oklahoma. A 6'6" forward, he played at Kansas State University from 1962 to 1964. He averaged 20.6 points an ...

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Byron Beck Byron Beck (born January 25, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6 foot 9 inch forward/ center from the University of Denver, Beck was one of six players (along with Louie Dampier, Gerald Govan, Bob Netolicky, St ...

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Denver Auditorium Arena Denver Auditorium Arena was an indoor arena located at the corner of 13th and Champa Streets in Denver, Colorado. It was constructed as the Denver Municipal Auditorium in 1908 during the administration of Mayor Robert W. Speer. The building was o ...

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Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

Hammond Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in Sout ...

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Game log

1967-68 Denver Rockets Schedule and Results , Basketball-Reference.com

Statistics

Awards and records

* ABA All-Star: Larry Jones * ABA All-League Team: Larry JonesRemember the ABA: Year-to-Year Postseason Awards

Transactions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1967-68 Denver Rockets Season Denver Nuggets seasons