National Basketball Association

This Week in Phoenix Suns History: The Birth of the Phoenix Suns

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:37 p.m. ET

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Credit: Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns are one of the most historic organizations in the NBA. How they’ve become this storied franchise is something that takes years to breakdown. Here is this week in Phoenix Suns’ history.

Previous Weeks: Sept. 19 – 25; Sept. 26 – Oct. 2; Oct. 3 – Oct. 9; Oct. 10 – 16.

October 17 – 23

October 18, 1968 – Phoenix Suns Begin Their History Undefeated – Following a 2-7 inaugural preseason, the Suns opened their franchise’s history with a home regular season win in front of 7,112 eager on-lookers, over the second-year Seattle SuperSonics.

Arizona’s first major league professional club, the Suns were led by 28-year old General Manager Jerry Colangelo, and Head Coach Johnny “Red” Kerr. On the court, the inaugural Suns boasted a backcourt of future Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich and future Ring of Honor member Dick Van Arsdale, both all-stars in 1968-69.

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Coming out of the gates hot, the Suns rushed to a 25-4 lead in the first six minutes ending the period with a 41-21 lead. Seattle held tough in the second, but the Suns still rolled into halftime with a 67-49 advantage and showed no interest in looking back.

Holding off a furious Sonics rally in the third quarter, the Suns pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 116-107 earning their first victory in franchise history.

Following the win Coach Kerr remarked that “everything (went) right,” a description that looks accurately so in the score book. Finishing a single rebound away from recording a triple-double, Gail Goodrich led the Suns with 27 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds.

Fourth year pro Dick Van Arsdale scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, while Dick Snyder tallied 20 and 7 himself. 6-foot-8 center George Wilson finished with 16 points and a game high-tying, 19 rebounds.

Seattle’s offense was paced by a game high 34 points and 11 rebounds from sophomore center Bob Rule, and 10 points and 19 rebounds from power forward Tom Meschery.

The Suns would host the Baltimore Bullets two nights later for their second game in franchise history.

October 20, 1968 – Phoenix Suns Suffer First Loss in Franchise History

An expansion team with very little size and depth, the Suns were sorely outmatched by the much bigger Washington Bullets who handed the Suns their first loss in franchise history.

With two future Hall of Famers on their roster – Earl “the Pearl” Monroe and Wes Unseld – the Bullets pulled away late for a 134-122 victory in front of 3,474 fans at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum.

After 11 ties and 12 lead changes, the Suns found themselves down only two, 98-96, early in the fourth quarter. From that point, the Bullets’ overwhelming talent helped their eastern conference foe pull away, preventing the Suns from remaining unbeaten.

Dick Van Arsdale, Duke Snyder, and Gail Goodrich led the Suns offense with 26, 25, and 22 points respectively, while center George Wilson paced the front-court with 17 points and 16 rebounds.

The Bullets had six players finish with double-digit scoring, including Earl the Pearl’s game high 30. Rookie Wes Unseld finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds, while Leroy Ellis and Gus Johnson too finished with double-doubles.

Believe it or not, the Suns’ inaugural season – in which they finished 16-66 – began fairly well. Winning their first regular season game, after seven they were 4-3, and after ten, 5-5. From that point though the season took a turn for the worst.

Losing their next twelve consecutive (a losing record tied in the 1976-77 season and then broken at the start of the 1996-97 season) and outside of a brief three game winning streak in January 29 – February 4, the inaugural Suns would not win more than a single game in a row from November 10, forward.

October 21 – 1969 – Phoenix Suns Score 116 Points in Three Consecutive Games – When a team begins a season, the head coach is apt to preach consistency. Beginning their second season in franchise history, after three games, offensively the Suns were the very definition of the term. Though they would lose two out of three, the Suns scored 116 points in each game finishing with a 116-140 loss to the New York Knickerbockers.

The Suns have finished with the same score in three consecutive games on four other occasions in their history, and the 1969 anomaly was not even their first:

12/11/68 – 12/14/68 – 123 1/11/69 – 1/17/69 – 107
10/16/69 – 10/21/69 – 116
3/5/03 – 3/11/03 – 98
3/8/04 – 3/13/04 – 90

Information gathered for this piece was collected from:

Hicks, D. (1968, October 18). Suns’ Opener Here Tonight Versus Sonics. The Arizona Republic, p. D-1.
—– (1968, October 19). Summer Still Here, Just Look at Suns. The Arizona Republic, p. 59.
—– (1968, October 21). Hefty Bullets Pound Suns. The Arizona Republic, p. 28.

Fie, Julie (Exec. Ed.). (2015). 2015-16 Phoenix Suns Media Guide. Phoenix, AZ: Phoenix Suns.

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