The Kentucky Colonels posted the best regular-season record in ABA history, drafted future Hall of Famers, ran a ten-woman board of directors, won the 1975 championship, and beat the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors in an exhibition game. Then the franchise ceased to exist. This episode follows the Colonels from their 1967 founding in Louisville, complete with chartreuse uniforms, lowercase jersey names, a Brussels Griffon mascot named Ziggy, and the one-second appearance of jockey Penny Ann Early, through the ownership overhaul led by Wendell Cherry and John Y. Brown Jr.

We break down the financial arms race that landed Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore on ten-year contracts structured under the deferred-compensation Dolgoff plan, the 68-16 season, the I-65 rivalry with the Indiana Pacers, and Ellie Brown’s grassroots, district-by-district ticket campaign. Finally we examine why the Colonels were excluded from the 1976 merger, the Chicago Bulls’ interest in acquiring Gilmore through a dispersal draft, Brown’s flat $3 million buyout, and the contrasting Spirits of St. Louis deal that paid roughly $300 million in perpetual television revenue before the NBA bought it out in 2014.

• The attention-economy stunts of the early ABA and why novelty alone could not sustain a franchise
• How deferred compensation let the Colonels outbid the NBA for top college talent
• The 1975 title run, Gilmore’s 28-point, 31-rebound deciding game, and the $1 million challenge to the Warriors
• Why on-court dominance did not protect the team when merger negotiations turned on corporate leverage
• Short-term cash versus long-term compounding: the $3 million buyout versus a one-seventh share of broadcast revenue