Pistol Pete, Back in the Day - NBAE/Getty Images

My wife and I went to the 76ers preseason game and, it reminded me of when the Jazz first came to town back in 1979. There was so much green (unoccupied seats) that a sniper, if he could get past Hot Rod telling us to take our weapons back to the car and the security check, would be hard pressed to find targets. You could have walked from the top row to court side and found empty seats. Which is exactly what we used to do when the Jazz first came to town.

We went to a few games in ‘79, but it wasn’’t until 1980 that we got some season tickets. You’d get a complimentary oxygen tank and a hanky, in case of nose bleeds, with your top row seats. Somewhere in the 1^st quarter, we’d wander down and sit behind the Jazz bench. It was great! You could talk to the players and scream at the refs. What was even better was, the refs would yell back at you. It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere. The ushers only helped people find their seats and didn’t have to police the arena.

That first year here in Salt Lake, Sam Battistone brought in Frank Layden as general manager and Tom Nissalke as the coach. Of course, we all wanted to see Pistol Pete play, but Tom wouldn’’t play him much, because he’’d been injured and was at the tail end of his career.

Tom would sit him on the bench, probably to provoke the eventual trade to the Celtics, in order to try to develop his new players, like AD, who came from the Lakers and became an All-Star with the Jazz. They only won 24 games that year, about the same as they had been winning before the move, but that gave them the number 2 overall pick and the Golden Griff to start their climb into the playoffs.

Back then, there was really no security. Our boys would wait in the hallway outside the locker room to get their player cards signed. We’d frequently walk with, and talk to, the players as they walked out of the Salt Palace, on the way to their hotel or car. The Jazz would have wine and cheese parties to start the season. Ricky Green would come in his full leather suit. Darrell’s wife would stun the crowd with a sexy outfit and AD would hide in the corner. Sam would come out with some new ticket scheme each year to sell more tickets. Buy a season ticket; get 4 or so nose bleed seats etc.

But everything changed. Frank fired Tom, appointed himself coach, they started winning, Larry bought into the team, the playoffs became a permanent fixture, they drafted John and Karl, moved to the Delta Center and pumped up the security. Now the only time you can walk down and sit courtside is at a preseason game, the players are guarded like royalty and the refs are so uptight, they’ll eject you for yelling at them.

Jazzaholic, aka, J R Stewart