Grand Rapids Tackers
The Grand Rapids Tackers, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, were a minor-league team that played in three regional leagues over about a dozen years. They began in the Midwest Professional Basketball League, which ran from 1961 to 1964. In the second of those leagues, the North American Basketball League (1964 to 1968), the Tackers won three of the four championships, in 1965, 1966 and 1968.
After that league folded, the Tackers joined a new Continental Basketball Association, which started in 1969 with six teams in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. This was a small Midwest circuit and has no connection to the better-known CBA of 1978 to 2009. Grand Rapids won its championships in 1973 and 1974. The 1973 title game was a 140-134 win over the Lake County Lakers at Godwin Fieldhouse. Steve Mix averaged 31.1 points a game for the 1972-73 team and later played in the big leagues.
The league folded after the 1973-74 season, and the Tackers appear to have ended with it. The record for the final years is thin, and no source found explains the end in detail.
