Stint with ABA's Minnesota Muskies opened doors for Erv Inniger

Coach Jim Pollard and the Muskies spent the 1967-68 season in Minnesota. In front, third from left was future Hall of Famer Mel Daniels. Erv Inniger, back far right, would go on to coach at Augsburg and North Dakota State.In the spring of 1967, Erv Inniger, a kid from Berne, Ind., who had gone on to play for the Hoosiers, thought his basketball career had ended. He was a senior on an Indiana team that, tied for last in the Big Ten the year before, was about to finish tied for first.

Then, with a few games to go, Inniger, a 6-3 guard, injured his wrist. He wanted to play with a cast. But, as he remembers it, the Big Ten — having watched former Gophers great Lou Hudson play with a cast the…