Minnesota Buckskins
The Minnesota Buckskins were a charter franchise of World Team Tennis (WTT) founded by Lee Meade, Len Vannelli and John Finley.The Buckskins were founded by Lee Meade, Len Vannelli and John Finley as a charter member of WTT in 1973.Before the team even had a name, the Minnesota franchise made an aggressive play for Billie Jean King who was widely regarded as a player with the ability to generate much interest and ticket sales.[3][6] The team played its home matches at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota starting with WTT's inaugural 1974 season.[7] The Buckskins featured player-coach Owen Davidson,[8] Ann Haydon-Jones,[9][10] Bob Hewitt,[8] Shari Barman,[11] David Lloyd, Mona Schallau,[12] Wendy Turnbull[13] and Terry Holladay[14] The Buckskins finished the season with 27 wins and 17 losses and were the Gulf Plains Section Champions.[17] Following the division semifinal victory over the E-Z Riders, it was reported that WTT had taken over the Buckskins and paid players six weeks of back salaries.[4][15] Despite the Buckskins' success on the court and the large crowd for the match against the Freedoms, the team was unable to generate enough revenue for McGlynn to consider it viable.