exchange for Sandy Mayer. In March 1978, the Golden Gaters acquired Virginia Wade in a three-way trade with the Apples and the Seattle Cascades. Under the deal, Wade went from the Apples to the Golden Gaters, JoAnne Russell went from the Cascades to the Apples and Marita Redondo went from the Golden Gaters to the Cascades. Redondo did not play in WTT in 1977. After the 1977 season, she had been drafted by the Golden Gaters but not signed. Tom Okker did not return to WTT for the 1978 season. He played clay-court tournaments in Europe which conflict with the WTT schedule. Player-coach Frew McMillan was the only Golden Gaters returning player in 1978. In addition to newcomers Mayer and Wade, Ilana Kloss returned to the league and the team after a two-year absence, and the Golden Gaters signed Michael Wayman and Marise Kruger. In June, the Golden Gaters hired Tom Dietrich as assistant coach replacing Henry Schneidman who remained with the organization. Just before the start of the playoffs, the Golden Gaters signed Tom Leonard who was a regular member of the playoff lineup. The Golden Gaters suffered through their first (and only) losing season in 1978, finishing with 21 wins and 23 losses, third place in the Western Division. They met the Los Angeles Strings in the WTT Quarterfinals. McMillan repeated as WTT Male Most Valuable Player. The first match of the best-of-three series was at the Forum in Inglewood, California on August 15. The Strings dominated the match, 29–17, winning four of the five sets. The only set won by the Golden Gaters was a 6–4 women's singles victory by Wade over Chris Evert. The Strings went on to win the series and end the Golden Gaters' season. Following the 1978 season, eight of the 10 WTT franchises folded leaving only the Golden Gaters and the Racquets prepared to participate in the 1979 season. A few weeks after most of the franchises announced they were folding, WTT announced the creating of three new expansion franchises in Dallas, Los Angeles and San Diego and said that there would be five more expansion franchises chosen from a pool of candidates. WTT suspended operations of the league in March 1979, ending the Golden Gaters existence. Season-by-season records The following table shows regular season records, playoff results and titles won by the San Francisco Golden Gaters. Home courts The following table