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Health & Fitness

Football's Graveyard is a Very Crowded Place

Peter Wilt writes about the dozens of professional football leagues that have come and gone over the last century.

 

As the Green Bay Packers prepare for their 2012 playoff run, football in Wisconsin and Packer Nation has never been more alive. So of course I’ve decided to write this week about dead football leagues, teams and programs. 

The American sports landscape is littered with at least a dozen dead pro football leagues and many more dead pro football teams and college programs. Here is a tour of America’s football graveyard.  

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XFL, 2001:  Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation’s joint venture with NBC was a spring league that only lasted one year, but its emphasis on sex and violence made a huge impression on people and even left a legacy to sports broadcasting of the cable suspended Skycam. It was well funded, well promoted and had great broadcast agreements with NBC, TNN and UPN. Tremendous advance publicity attracted a huge television audience for its opening broadcast with a 9.5 rating.  Poor quality of play and failure to live up to its hype halved the TV audience in week two. Viewership dropped to less than a 2.0 rating for most of the rest of the season dooming the league after one dramatic season. A decent player named He Hate Me (really Rod Smart) and a scramble to determine opening possession (which injured a player for the season in the first week) are the two lasting memories of this League that borrowed many rule changes from the WFL and other former leagues. 

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I had an opportunity to join the XFL during its start up.  My friend and former Major League Soccer colleague Billy Hicks was a top executive of the single entity XFL.  He asked me if I wanted to be a GM in the XFL.  I had been the GM of MLS’ Chicago Fire for three years at that point and was intrigued by McMahon’s vision.  I told him I would make the move if I could stay in Chicago.  Hicks told me the League had committed to former Chicago Bears executive Ken Valdiserri, but I could head up any of the League’s other seven teams.  While being GM of the Las Vegas Outlaws or NY/NJ Hitmen sounded exciting, I recognized the track record of start-up football leagues was not good and declined.  A good thing, because three months after its first game, the XFL was dead.     

 

AFL, 1960-69:  The most recent American Football League, one of eight to use that moniker, was by far the most successful league to challenge the NFL. Its death in 1969 was actually a merger that preserved the life of all ten of its members and expanded the footprint of the NFL. Legendary sports owner Lamar Hunt founded the League with several others who, like him, were denied purchase of the NFL Chicago Cardinals and purchase of NFL expansion franchises in the late 1950s.

The AFL outbid the NFL for half of its first round picks and 75% of all its draft picks in its first year. The nascent league also signed a five-year, $2.125 million per year broadcast contract with ABC in 1960.  Super Bowls matching the winners of the NFL and AFL during the AFL’s final four seasons cemented the junior league’s legitimacy as the New York Jets upset the Colts in 1969 and the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings in 1970.

 

AFL aka the Grange League, 1926: The first of the eight AFLs started its only season with nine teams, but ended it with only four.  The League was organized by University of Illinois legend Red Grange and his agent C.C. Pyle. The Chicago team was known as the Bulls and was owned by the brother of Chicago Bears co-owner Dutch Sternaman. The NFL and AFL had 31 teams combined at the start of 1926, but just a year later only 12 remained.

 

AFL, 1934:  This incarnation of the AFL was a secondary league and the first with teams in the south. It lasted one season and had only six teams (including the Louisville Bourbons  and Charlotte Bantams), but it had players on its All-League team named Popeye, Win, Homer, Frosty, Champ and Dutch!

 

AFL, 1936-37:  The second AFL had eight teams including the first pro football team on the west coast, the Los Angeles Bulldogs. The Bulldogs' average of 14,000 fans per game was double any other team in the league and they were the first pro football team to win the league with a perfect (8-0) record. Only the Cleveland (later Los Angeles and St. Louis) Rams survived this incarnation of the AFL to join the NFL.

 

AFL aka Midwest Football League and American Professional Football Association, 1935-40: This was mainly a minor league that disbanded after its major league aspirations led to its demise in 1940. Interesting team names included the Columbus Bullies, Louisville Tanks, Indianapolis Leons and Dayton Rosies. The Midwest League’s 1936 Cincinnati Tresslers were quarterbacked by Pete Rose, Sr., father of the Cincinnati Reds non-Hall of Famer.  A Milwaukee team was awarded a franchise for the 1940 season, but they changed to the third incarnation of the AFL when the league folded before they could play a game.

 

AFL, 1940-41:  This version of the AFL was considered major league and featured the Milwaukee Chiefs who bolted the APFA along with the Cincinnati Bengals and Columbus Bullies.  The Chiefs were a good team that led the league in offense and defense but lost in the championship to the Bullies at the Chiefs home - Wisconsin’s largest venue, the 32,000 seat Dairy Bowl at State Fair Park.  The Dairy Bowl also served as the Packers' Milwaukee home from 1934 to 1951 where they won the 1939 NFL Championships. World War II put the league and Chiefs on hiatus, but when the war ended, neither the league nor the Chiefs returned.

 

AFL aka Northwest Industries Football League, 1942 and 1944:  This west coast minor pro league operated for two nonconsecutive years during the war.  Teams included the Hollywood Rangers, Los Angeles Mustangs and Los Angeles Wildcats.

 

Pacific Coast Professional Football League, 1940-48:  This was the top level pro league on the west coast from 1940 to 1946.  Number of teams ranged from four to nine.  The Hawaiian Warriors had 14 members of their 1947 championship team banned or suspended indefinitely for betting on their own team.  Nevertheless, the Warriors repeated in the League’s final season. Other teams in the PCPFL included the San Francisco Bay Packers and the Salt Lake Seagulls.

 

American Association aka AFL, 1936 to 1950:  This league played as the AA from 1936 through 1941 when WWII resulted in a four year hiatus.  The league returned in 1946 with a new” name, the…you guessed it…American Football League. They may not have been creative with their league names, but they did last five more seasons before folding with only two active teams at the end of the 1950 season. The Paterson (NJ) Panthers were the only team to play the first and last seasons in this league.

 

Dixie League aka South Atlantic Football Association, 1936-47:  This was a small yet relatively stable league that maintained six teams for most of its years, took a break through the war then came back in 1946.  1947 looked good with six committed teams until two dropped out a month before the season and one more after opening day. 

 

All-America Football Conference, 1946-49:  The AAFC challenged the NFL for the best players and in the end had three of its teams join the NFL: the Cleveland Browns (who won all four AAFC titles) the San Francisco 49ers and the first NFL incarnation of the Baltimore Colts who were not related to the Johnny Unitas Baltimore Colts (now the Peyton Manning and soon to be Andrew Luck Indianapolis Colts).

 

Atlantic Coast Football League, 1962 to 1964 aka Continental Football League, 1965 to 1971 and then ACFL again in 1973:  This minor league included the Indianapolis Capitols, which introduced Eddie DeBartolo to pro sports while serving on the Caps board, and featured one of pro football’s first black quarterbacks, Johnnie Walton, who played for 15 seasons.  The United Football League merged with the ACFL in 1965 and was renamed the Continental Football League.  The League folded in 1972 when most of the teams joined the Seaboard Football League, but they returned for one more year as the ACFL before folding due to the new presence of the WFL.  Two notes of interest about this league.  Their commissioner was a former New York Jets player named Cosmo Iacovazzi and the Orlando Panthers in 1970 signed husband and wife duo Steven and Patricia Palinkas as a kicker and place holder respectively…Steven did not make the team, but Patricia did making her the first female pro football player.  Not sure how that news was received in the Palinkas household, but Patricia’s publicity caused her to miss practices which resulted in her being suspended.

 

Seaboard Football league, 1971 to 1974:  The SFL was formed from teams formerly with the Interstate Football leaguer and the Mason-Dixon Football League.  One of the charter franchises was the Schuylkill County Coal Crackers based in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.  Future New York Jets star Joe Klecko played in the league under the assumed named of Jim Jones from fictional Poland University to maintain his college eligibility.

 

WFL, 1974-75: The brainchild of Gary Davidson who also started the ABA and WHA, didn’t even complete two seasons.  Conceived as a competitor of the NFL, the WFL ran out of money midway through the 1975 season and Birmingham was declared the champion.  Miami Dolphins stars Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick cashed in with a $3.5 million personal services contract with Toronto Northmen owner John Bassett…though by the time they started in 1975 the team and the trio were toiling in Memphis as the Southmen. Warfield was an outstanding receiver and Csonka and Kiick were a great backfield pictured infamously on a 1975 Sports Illustrated cover with Csonka flipping the bird.

My local team was the Chicago Fire, whose name later inspired the Major League Soccer team I helped found 23 years later.  Both played at Soldier Field.  The WFL used color coded pants on players to indicate their position.  The league also introduced the Dickerod as a more efficient way to measure first downs.

 

WFL, 2007-2010:  This league had six teams for its four seasons.  The Oklahoma Thunder managed to go undefeated, 40-0, throughout this minor league’s existence.  After 2010, this new WFL merged with another minor league to form the Alliance League.

 

American Football Association, 1979-82:  This minor league bridged the chronological gap between the WFL and the USFL. They paid players 1% of gross gate revenues, which amounted to slave wages for most. Former Washington Redskins quarterback Billy Kilmer served as its first commissioner.

 

United States Football League, 1983-1985:  The USFL only played three years on the field, but was conceived in 1965 and didn’t truly end until it defeated the NFL in court in 1987.  The anti-trust victory garnered the USFL $1 in damages (trebled to $3 due to anti-trust).  The USFL was conceived to compliment the NFL as a high level pro football league playing in the spring and summer when the NFL was dormant.  The league signed three straight Heisman Trophy winners: Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and Mike Rozier.  Six of its alumni are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame including late Packer great Reggie White and both Chicago Blitz coaches Marv Levy and George Allen.

 

World League of American Football, 1991-92 and 1995 as World League and NFL Europe 1998-2006 aka NFL Europa 2007:  There are some acronyms that should serve as a warning.  The WLAF was one.  It had the funding and credibility of the NFL, but to its European audience it was mainly a curiosity.  There were also teams in the US and Canada.  The league tested rules and equipment for the NFL, claimed to be a development league and famously had quarterback Kurt Warner with the Amsterdam Admirals before he later starred in the NFL. 

ABC broadcast some games including ABC’s first broadcast featuring the New York/New Jersey Knights at the Barcelona Dragons.  As a sad side note, North Carolina State basketball coach, for some reason, was handling sideline reporting duties for this game.  Valvano experienced pain while golfing the previous day.  His ensuing doctor’s appointment led to tests that revealed what turned out to be terminal cancer.

After averaging about 18,000 fans per game and losing about $30 million per year, the NFL ceased operations of this league after the 2007 season.

 

Professional Indoor Football League, 1998: This was the first pro indoor league to form after the Arena Football League.  The AFL patented the gameplay of “Arena Football” in 1990, mainly the end zone nets, so the PIFL simply went without the nets.  The PIFL’s Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs helped form the Indoor Football League in 1999.  The remaining teams formed the Indoor Professional Football League.

 

Indoor Football League, 1999-2000:  Pro Football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow Sr. was the commissioner of this league that merged with the Indoor Professional League in 2001.

 

Indoor Professional Football League, 1999-2001:  Serial commissioner Mike Storen was the first commissioner of the IPFL.  He earlier served as commissioner of the ABA and the CBA, but his more lasting legacy may be his daughter, veteran ESPN reporter Hannah Storm.  IPFL used a white football to contrast with the green turf.  They also used the slogan “Great football, no gimmicks”.  The IPFL’s Omaha Beef, who have existed for an amazing 13 years, apparently didn’t get the memo and featured the 2009 Dance Team of the Year the “Prime Dancers” and a men’s dance team “The Rump Roasters”.

 

National Indoor Football League, 2001 to 2007:  The NIFL was a minor indoor circuit that absorbed teams from the folded IFL and IPFL.  It peaked in 2003 with 24 teams and has a list of former franchises that reads like a Greyhound bus schedule.

 

I also want to pay tribute to two individual football teams that are no longer with us, but are near and dear to my heart – the Chicago Cardinals and the Marquette University Division 1 football program.

 

Chicago Cardinals 1898 to 1959:  By birth and heritage, the Chicago Cardinals are my team.  They are the team my father supported on the south side of Chicago before they moved to St. Louis and in his eyes – and mine - died a week before I was born in March, 1960.  The Cards played at Comiskey Park, while the north side rival Chicago Bears played at Wrigley Field.  This rivalry established a firm Schedenfreude in my south side family passed down through generations who enjoyed the misery suffered by north side Chicago Cubs and Bears fans.  My dad cheered so hard against the Bears, while I was growing up in the 1960s that I thought he was a Packers fan.  I was 13 before I realized he didn’t really like Green Bay…he just hated the Bears! 

The Cards continue in Arizona as the oldest pro football team in the world, but I can’t support the team and family ownership that abandoned Chicago.  The Cardinals actually began play as the Racine Cardinals – named after the Racine Avenue neighborhood they played, not Racine, Wisconsin.

 

Marquette University, 1892 to 1960:  Nine months after football died on the south side of Chicago, it died a more complete death on the Marquette University campus.  University President Reverend Edward J. O’Donnell S.J. shocked everyone including the athletic director Moon Mullins and football coach Lisle Blackbourn and Sports Information Director Bob Harlan (yes, that Bob Harlan) December 9, 1960 when he made the announcement that the football and track and cross country programs were being shut down to save expenses. Harlan believes the decision years earlier to move from cozy and nearby Marquette Stadium to cavernous and more distant Milwaukee County Stadium was a critical mistake that led to the program’s downfall.

Marquette now has a club football team that plays in the Midwest Club Football Conference.  My first assignment as a freshman sports reporter for the Marquette Tribune was the Marquette club football homecoming game.  I recall a few things about the assignment at Marquette field (formerly Marquette Stadium):

  • Pillsbury Baptist Bible College beat us sixty something to less than ten.
  • I spent a good portion of the game listening to Marquette football legend Johnny Sisk, Sr. telling me stories about the old days of Division One football at Marquette and the Chicago Bears 1933 NFL Championship team he played on.
  • Marquette lineman Timothy John, great grandson of Miller Brewing Company founder Fred Miller and a 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate, was very quotable after the game.
  • The homecoming parade arrived during the game and drove onto the field DURING THE GAME with the homecoming queen candidates (men in drag) standing in the beds of the parades pickup trucks.

Football had a rich history at Marquette including playing in the first Cotton Bowl in 1937 when they lost to TCU who was led by legendary quarterback Slingin’ Sammy Baugh.  The Marquette football team was known as the Golden Avalanche and inspired the name of a legendary Wells Street bar famous for naked beer slides.  

Packers in Milwaukee, 1922, 1933-1994:  The Green Bay Packers spent more than 60 years as a true statewide team by splitting their schedule between Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  That tradition began on December 3, 1922 when the Packers played the Racine Legions in Milwaukee.  Eleven years later the Packers began a 62 year tradition with at least one game at Borchert Field, home of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers.  The next year the Packers moved their Milwaukee home games to the Dairy Bowl at Wisconsin State Fair Park.  After 18 seasons at the 32,000 seat venue the Packers moved their Milwaukee games to the 15,000 seat Marquette Stadium in 1952 and finally Milwaukee County Stadium in 1953 where they played games for 42 seasons.  

My first Packers home game was there against the Minnesota Vikings November 21, 1976.  I worked as an usher for the Packers Milwaukee home games from 1979 through 1983.  The team abandoned Milwaukee after 1994…though the Milwaukee season ticket series continues with three games per year at Lambeau Field.  Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig and Packers President Bob Harlan later supported each other’s stadium efforts and some believe part of the support included Miller Park being designed specifically, so it could not physically accommodate a football field thereby keeping the Packers in Green Bay for all games.

There are still many living pro football leagues besides the NFL.  The Canadian Football League, founded in 1958 had a failed expansion to the US in the mid 1990s, but will be playing for the 100th  Grey Cup this year.   The Arena Football League started in 1987, spawned the minor league AFL2, had a lost season in 2009, but has returned the last two years.  And there are now plenty of minor indoor and outdoor leagues and women’s leagues including of course, the Lingerie Football League, billing themselves as “True Fantasy Football”.

So when you sit down to watch the Packers begin their playoff defense of the Super Bowl this Sunday, take a moment and remember all of the football leagues, teams and college programs that have laid down their lives over the last century.  And remember not to take the NFL as a living, breathing entity for granted.  Sure the Lambeaus, Lombardis, Rozelles and Rooneys have formed the solidest of foundations.  But also there have also been hundreds, if not thousands, of Johnny Sisks, Cosmo Iacovazzis, Patricia Palinkas and Rump Roasters that have persevered to promote, play and propagate the great game of American football.

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