After his death in 1968, Louis Jacob's sons took over the ownership of the team. The first move of the young Jacobses was to hire in Kansas City sports manager
Joe Axelson, a relative unknown in NBA circles who had befriended the ownership family. Axelson replaced the outgoing
GM,
Pepper Wilson, who had served with the franchise since it arrived in Cincinnati in 1957. The three then were able to draw in former
Boston College coach and
Boston Celtics legend
Bob Cousy for the then-very high salary of $100,000 per season to replace Cincinnati favorite
Ed Jucker as coach. Cousy arrived to considerable press to his new team. Cousy wanted a young running team and began shipping out veterans who did not follow his new program.
Jerry Lucas, a three-time First Team All-Pro with Cincinnati, was traded to the
San Francisco Warriors in exchange for
guard Jim King and
forward Bill Turner. King and Turner combined to average ten points per game that season, then left the following season. Turner in fact joined Lucas in San Francisco. Lucas played four more NBA seasons and was a San Francisco NBA All-Star in 1971. Cousy also sent long-time Cincinnati favorite
Adrian Smith to San Francisco. Cousy attempted to trade
Oscar Robertson to the
Baltimore Bullets for
Gus Johnson. Robertson exercised his right to veto the trade. The team was known as "the Running Royals". Cincinnati topped the 110-point mark in each of the campaign's final 21 contests, and during a six-game span in mid-February, the team averaged 127 points. Cousy spoke often of a youth movement for the team that year, but ended up starting 36-year-old
Johnny Green, 33-year-old
Connie Dierking and 30-year-old Oscar Robertson.
Tom Van Arsdale joined Robertson as NBA All-Stars. He then took the ball out of the hands of Robertson, the NBA's all-time point guard, and gave it to rookie
Norm Van Lier, who did turn in an impressive season. Adding still more to the story was Bob Cousy's decision to play at age 41. In order to be activated, the Royals had to trade solid reserve Bill Dinwiddie to the Boston Celtics so that Red Auerbach could release him from the Boston retired list. Cousy played seven games in November, and played poorly, having not played in the NBA for five seasons. Despite the hype and changes, the team was clearly worse than it had been the previous season. But the Jacobses and Axelson were already looking to sell the team anyway. This season marked the beginning of the end of the Cincinnati Royals as a result. The Royals failed to qualify for the playoffs. The Royals finished in 5th place with a 36–46 record. Following the season, Robertson was traded to the
Milwaukee Bucks for
Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk. In 10 seasons with the Royals, Robertson averaged 29.3 points, 10.3 assists, and 8.5 rebounds per game. ==Roster==