It's been 30-years since Louisville celebrated a professional sports title. In 1975 the Kentucky Colonels captured the ABA championship and soon after that league faded into obscurity.

On Thursday the Colonels were back in town at a public reception, signing thousands of autographs and greeting adoring fans before riding down Broadway as they were honored as the Grand Marshals in the 2005 Pegasus Parade.

The Trio that powered the Colonels past the Indiana Pacers back in 1975 was Dan Issel, Louie Dampier and Artis Gilmore. Issel was thrilled with the reunion.

"For us after 30-years to get together and several of us have stayed in contact of course," Issel explained. "But some of these guys I haven't seen since that championship season and it was really important for us to come together that year and win a championship and I think that's why we feel this is so special to come back and have a reunion."

Dampier has been waiting a longtime for this moment.

"I've been looking forward to it for so long," Dampier said. "And I'm not disappointed a bit - I'm having a blast and it's great to see every one of these guys."

The ABA last nine seasons and the players and coaches are all proud of there ABA heritage.

Hubie Brown who was a member of the 2005 class for the Basketball Hall of Fame was the Colonel's coach in 1975 and he reflected on what the ABA meant to pro basketball.

"Everyone just thinks about the three-point line," Brown offered. "There were other adjustments, but the major thing is when we merged with the NBA the four teams that came in when they opened up the doors that year over 70 some odd guys from the ABA were playing in the NBA. Well, when we ended there were only 84 guys in the ABA - that was shocking.

"The biggest thing was the first All-Star game in Atlanta I was the coach of Atlanta so at that All-Star banquet of the 24 players in the game - 14 of them were ABA guys. Now that blew the minds of everyone. Dr. J was the number one vote getter for the All-Star game, which upset everyone in the NBA and then he won the MVP of the first All-Star game after the merger and 14 of the 24 guys were ABA guys - staggering."

Artis Gilmore says the 1975 Colonels could have competed with anybody.

"Absolutely, and I love that terminology the other league because we felt that we really could compete with anybody - we had the club and we had the talent. We had a combination of people and fortunately that was one of the things that enhanced a number of the other franchises the came in as expansion teams and that made them successful. The Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs had very talented teams. In fact the Spurs had an opportunity very quickly to excel and advanced in the first round of the playoffs and almost got to the championship round.

"This particular franchise the Kentucky Colonels with Dan Issel and myself we were very competitive and we could have competed with anyone."

Issel feels the Colonels and the ABA gave a lot to the NBA.

"About the only thing they didn't take was the Red, White and Blue basketball," Issel stated. "It was an exciting brand of basketball with the three-point shot. It was more wide open and certainly had more characters and at the end of the ABA we had more young talent because we were taking kids out of school when the NBA wasn't and I think we were getting the better talent coming out of school in the later years. That's why I've always said we were not only the best team in the ABA in 1975 I think we were the best team in basketball."

The team was pretty much intact - 10 members were in attendance - the only one not there was the late Jim Bradley who passed away in 1982 when he was shot to death in an apparent street robbery in Portland, OR. He was 29 years old.

The state of Kentucky has always been a great basketball state and Hubie Brown took time during the festivities to mention one of his protégés, U of L coach Rick Pitino.

"Rick was my assistant in New York," Brown explained. "He joined us from Boston University and the was our assistant for a couple of years before he became the Providence coach and the he came back to coach the Knicks before going to Kentucky.

"We're very proud of the fact that he has done so well, but he has always been a coach. We go way back to the Five Star basketball camp, which is one of the famous camps in the country and he was a high school player at the camp - came back every year as a coach and as a college coach for the younger league and really developed a lot of his style at the camp. Then has always remained faithful to the camp going back every year as a lecturer. So the Five Star family stretches out and covers a lot of bases."