The Forum

David Hegler
5 days ago
9 min read

Although the Showtime Lakers highlighted the venue's heyday, Inglewood's Forum held so much more history than just a decade-long era in the NBA. It not only oversaw the revitalization of the NBA, but it also bore witness to California's introduction to big time hockey as the NHL looked to expand. This is its story.

The Conception

The sleepy little town of Inglewood, California got a major boost in the early 1920's when oil was discovered. For several years thereafter, oil wells were popped up all over the 120 acres of real estate as barons struck it rich. By 1925, the oil had all but dried up and a large number of oil wells began to disappear as the Portero Country Club was built over the site.

Despite being located across the street from the Inglewood Park Cemetery and with unsightly oil wells still open for business in the background, the 18 hole golf course did well over the decades and grew into the city's main attraction. By the mid-1960's the owner of the plot of land that held all of the oil wells, the cemetery and the golf course decided to sell off all 120 acres. Over the span of a few years, he sold off the acres in chunks, with 33 of those acres going to Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Minneapolis Lakers, for the sum of $4 million.

The native Canadian desperately wanted to bring hockey to the Golden State and uniquely used the NBA as the driving force behind his ambition. Architect Charles Luckman once stated "I am firm in my belief that architecture is a business and not an art". While that statement might have rang true for much of his firm, the same could not be said of its sports venues. While Charles Luckman & Associates was busy planning the latest iteration of Madison Square Garden, his protigé Edward R. Jones was designing Inglewood's version of New York City's latest spectacle.

Almost by default, basketball arenas aren't supposed to be as artistic as outdoor venues. Still, that didn't stop Jones from designing an arena after the Roman Coliseum. Although initial estimates ran in the neighborhood of $7 million with the doors opening in December 1967, only one of those dreams became a reality and by December 30, 1967, the new arena had more than doubled in cost. It was worth every penny.

The grand white arches that adorned the out crest of the multipurpose venue melded well with the walls behind them that were colored a shade of red so distinct that it would soon be referred to as "Forum Red". Inside was just big enough to hold 17,500, with the fans squeezed in so tight that they were right on top of the action to make it a terrific home advantage.

Meanwhile, Jack Kent Cooke had been busy selling radio, television and naming rights. He ultimately sold those right for $12 million to the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) who promptly named the new arena "the Forum". However, Cooke immediately insisted that it be referred to as the "Fabulous Forum" and longtime announcer Chick Hearn saw to it that each of his listeners acknowledge it as such. Little did he know just how on the button his prophecy would become.

The Glory Years

The Fabulous Forum opened to much fanfare on the second to last day of 1967. Lorne Green, Bonanza's Ben Cartwright, was the master of ceremonies as the newly-formed Los Angeles Kings brought the NHL to Inglewood by losing to the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0. The next night, the Lakers also moved from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and into their new home by closing out the year with a convincing 147-118 victory over the San Diego Rockets. While many would forget the Lakers' Archie Clark's 31 points, an infinite more would remember the exploits of Jerry West (27 points) and Elgin Baylor (21 points, 12 rebounds).

While the Kings finished with a losing record, due to the fact that their entire league was an expansion of the NHL, they made the playoffs in their inaugural season, losing to the Minnesota North Stars in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the Lakers had already established themselves as a contender for the past decade and made yet another run at the NBA title against the mighty Boston Celtics in their inaugural season in Inglewood. But like their last five trips to the NBA Finals, the Lakers fell short to the Celtics, losing the decisive Game 6 at the Fabulous Forum 124-109.

The Lakers followed up that disappointment by signing the era's biggest star, center Wilt Chamberlain. Combined with an aging yet still effective Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Chamberlain added another dimension to the Lakers offensive attack. Again, Los Angeles made it back to the NBA Finals and again they took the Celtics a full seven games. At the Forum in Game 7, Cooke was so confident that his team would beat a Celtics dynasty on its last leg that he had balloons placed in the rafters and had an itinerary placed on each media member's seat breaking down exactly what would happen when the Lakers won it all.

This was all the material that Celtics coach/center Bill Russell needed to inspire his troops. In the moments before tipoff, he described to his teammates just how satisfying it would be to watch the Lakers take down the balloons one bye one from the rafters.

Back and forth the two teams went, neither willing to concede defeat. Late in the game, Wilt Chamberlain hurt his knee and sat down for a spell. During that stretch, Jerry West led a furious rally from 18 down and came within a basket of the lead. Chamberlain begged coach Butch van Breda Kolff to let him back in the game but the coach, having bickered with the big man all year long, declined. He even refused Cooke's order to let Chamberlain back in the game and watched as Bill Russell ended his legendary career with another championship. Infuriated with his insubordination in such a public setting, Cooke fired van Breda Kolff immediately after the game.

In their first four years at the Forum, the Lakers were always contenders but never could get over the hump. In Year Five, they finally won it all. Led by new coach Bill Sharman, the Lakers won a league record 33 straight games and clinched their long sought title at home, 114-100 against the New York Knicks. It was their last hurrah. Baylor had retired at the beginning of their championship season of 1971-1972 and both West and Chamberlain soon retired after their last Finals run.

Although the Lakers remained competitive, they wandered around aimlessly for the rest of the decade. Not even trading for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 helped matters. They needed a player who oozed the identity that they lacked. The Lakers found that player when they drafted Earvin "Magic" Johnson first overall in 1979.

Combined with Paul Westhead's fastbreak, Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar took the NBA by storm and soon, celebrities flocked to the Forum in droves. to watch the beginning of "Showtime". At year's end, Kareem had won his sixth and final league MVP award and the Lakers were squaring off against the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals.

Towards the end of the fifth game at the Forum, Abdul-Jabbar twisted his ankle and gutted through the final minutes of the 108-103 victory as his team took a 3-2 series lead. Knowing that their captain wasn't going to be joining them for their cross-country flight, the team plane was desolate until Johnson sat in the great center's seat and told the squad to not fear, Magic was there. The rookie sensation led the Lakers to a resounding victory over the 76ers at the Spectrum, scoring 42 and collecting 15 rebounds as his team triumphed 123-107. It was the beginning of a dynasty.

Two years later, after a slow start, Westhead was fired and assistant coach Pat Riley took over and the Lakers again beat the 76ers for the NBA title. The Lakers would spend the rest of the decade battling the Boston Celtics for supremacy, bringing credibility to a league that was on the brink of insolvency at the beginning of the decade. It seemed like every summer the two teams would meet at the Forum in Inglewood and the Boston Garden to wage a war of attrition that was only decided when the final whistle blew. It was very much due to the public spectacle of Magic Johnson vs the Celtics' Larry Bird that the NBA was able to survive the 1980's and thrive in the 1990s. The two rivals met three times on their sport's biggest stage over the decade, with Johnson's Lakers winning twice.

In those days, the Forum was truly the place to be in the City of Angels. Not only were the Lakers winning, but they boasted one of the most star-studded celebrity fan lineups in sports history. Night after starry night, celebrities such as Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon would flock to the Forum's sidelines, hoping to be invited to the fabled Forum Club, a rambunctious room in the bowels of the arena that invited all sorts of characters and seedy choices that were sure to reflect poorly later on in life.

No two patrons frequented the Forum Club as much as Magic Johnson and Lakers owner Jerry Buss. While he wasn't busy tending to his vast empire of sports franchises that populated the Forum, Buss was one of Los Angeles's biggest playboys, eschewing the upstanding and uptight characters of his sports owner brethren and adopting a personality that was all to comfortable with the limelight and the starlets that accompanied the spotlight.

Jerry Buss's ideologies all came crumbling down in November 1991. With eight Finals appearances and five Finals claimed in hand, Magic Johnson announced to the world that he was HIV-positive. Suddenly, the Showtime era was over.

Two years later, the Kings made a run at the Stanley Cup. Ever since they were born, the Kings had never really won over the heart of Los Angeles. In 1982, they stunned the powerful Edmonton Oilers by coming back from five0down in the third period to ultimately win Game 3 in overtime 6-5 before embarrassing the Oilers 7-4 on their home ice two games later. Game 3 was forever dubbed as "the Miracle on Manchester" and remained a small turning point in the franchise. However, that one night did little to sway the Inglewood crowd as they would remain virtually oblivious to the sport of hockey for the next six years.

That mindset changed dramatically when the Kings traded for Wayne Gretzky in 1988. Fresh off another championship with the Oilers, everyone in the Kings organization hoped that Gretzky could save the franchise. They had no idea what kind of cultural shakeup they had invited into the Golden State. Before long, the Kings began to attract the same sort of celebrity clientele that the Lakers did as everyone wanted to watch "the Great One" work his magic night after night.

The year before Gretzky arrived, the Kings drew just 11,667 fans a night. In his first year in Los Angeles, the Kings attracted 14,875 fans a night, ultimately topping off at 16,005 in 1991-1992. Like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had done for the NBA, Wayne Gretzky sparked a similarly culturally shifting interest in hockey in California and beyond.

It was an incredibly lucrative opportunity for the NHL and the league hasn't been the same since. In the years to come, the NHL would set up shop in places like Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix and Seattle, each city owing a debt of gratitude to the Great One. It didn't matter that the Kings lost to the Canadiens in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, the league had finally gotten enough attention from the Golden State to justify expansion. It was a gusher of good fortune that the NHL couldn't miss.

The End of an Era

The end of the Lakers and Kings time at the Forum drew near as a new stadium was being built downtown. The Kings were the first to go, finishing their stay in the Forum on March 18, 1999 by losing to the St. Louis Blues 3-2 to complete a forgettable 32-45-5 season. The Lakers finished their run at the Forum by being swept by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the 1999 playoffs.

In the midst of their painful 118-107 loss on May 23, 1999 was a glimpse of the future as Shaquille O'Neill scored 36 and collected 14 rebounds while Kobe Bryant contributed 16 points. Led by those two dynamic players and coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers won it all the next year while beginning their stay in their new home: Staples Center.

The Forum still stands to this day, often hosting concerts and other events. With SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome lined up right down South Prairie Avenue, the Forum now stands as both a relic of a bygone era and the keeper of the flame that once made Inglewood, California the hub of entertainment in greater Los Angeles.

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