Pensacola Tornados
The Pensacola Tornados was a basketball team that played in Pensacola, Florida in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) from 1985–1991. 1985–1986 season Ted Stepien bought a CBA franchise for Toronto in 1983 after threatening to move the Cleveland Cavaliers to that city. The Toronto Tornados played in the 1983–84 and 1984–85 seasons and started off the 1985–86 season in Toronto before declining attendance prompted Stepien to move the team to Pensacola mid-season. At the time, the CBA comprised fourteen teams. The newly relocated Tornados' first home game, on January 3, 1986, against the Florida Suncoast Stingers, drew 3,611 to the Pensacola Civic Center, and averaged 1,651 per game for the year. In fact, on January 25, 1986, the Tornados drew 8,417 in a win against the Detroit Spirits, at that time the second-largest crowd to ever attend a CBA contest. Guard Billy Goodwin was the only CBA player to finish in the Top-10 in both scoring and assists that season. Ronnie Williams, a power forward, averaged 23.3 points per game. Despite all this, the Tornados suffered through a 15–33 season. During the off-season, Stepien moved the team to Jacksonville, Florida and renamed them the Jets. It was a turbulent off-season