plymouth raiders' origins can be traced back to the mid-1970s with the original national league team plymouth panasonic, coached by future raiders co-founder frank pocock, who entered national competition for the first and only time in 1979. panasonic achieved a respectable 7th-place finish in division two before withdrawing during the close season due to a lack of finances, after which they were renamed plymouth kanaries and entered into the regional leagues in 1980. deciding to have another attempt at establishing a national league club, pocock along with local basketball figures bob karruck, keith mollard and businessman les palmer (of the wrigley's company) formed a consortium in 1983 and merged the kanaries with local rivals plympton to form a new club. a sponsorship deal was arranged with pharmaceutical producer glucodin and the team adopted their brand colours of red and yellow for their inaugural season in national league division 2. raiders played their first game on 1 october 1983 at the mayflower centre, losing by one point, 75–76 to the visiting merseyside mustangs. after an inconsistent start to the campaign, coach graham nicholls stepped down from his position and was replaced by his assistant karruck who led the team to lowly 10th-placed finished in their rookie season.