Today in Sports History: April 28th

4/28/1960 - Lakers move to Los Angeles

On this day in 1960, the winningest franchise in the NBA announced that it was moving out west.

Since Hall of Fame center George Mikan retired, the Minneapolis Lakers simply hadn’t been drawing the numbers that they used to (even though they had won a league-high five titles). Team owner Bob Short took stock in the success of the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers -- who were drawing huge numbers since they migrated out of New York. Towards the end of the 1960 season, Short was openly professing his intention to move the team to a bigger market -- preferably to Los Angeles, California.

“If Minneapolis can’t support the club, I’d like to move it to another city,” he had said in February. “I have in mind Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore and Cleveland. But I’d say my least likely choice would be Brooklyn.”

He added, “My remark about Brooklyn was mostly intended facetiously.”

That spring, the NBA’s board of governors unanimously approved the Lakers transition to Los Angeles. In L.A., the Lakers became the hottest the ticket in town and joined the likes of the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Dallas Cowboys as one of the most instantly recognizable sports franchises in the United States. And despite the change of scenery, the team kept the name “Lakers,” even though they were no longer in “the land of 10,000 lakes.”

Minnesota did not reclaim an NBA franchise until 1989, when the Minnesota Timberwolves made their debut.

(On a side note, can you imagine how different the league would be if the Lakers were in Brooklyn, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington, San Francisco or Baltimore? The Cleveland Lakers? Crazy.)

Further reading:

What’s in a nickname? [TIME]