WFL official logoSportFounded1973Inaugural season1974Ceased1975No. Of teams13 (all)CountryUnited StatesLastchampion(s)The World Football League ( WFL) was a short-lived league that played one full season in and most of its second in.
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Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – – in. The league folded midway through its second season, in 1975. A new minor football league began play as the in 2008 after acquiring the rights to its trademarks and intellectual property; it folded in 2011. Contents.History , a California lawyer and businessman, was the driving force behind the World Football League.
World Football League Standings. Eastern Division. Florida Blazers. NY Stars-Charlotte Hornets.
He had helped start the moderately successful and, some of whose teams survived long enough to enter the established. Unlike his previous efforts, the World Football League did not bring any surviving teams into the.To get the league off the ground, Davidson knew that he needed investors. At a press conference held in Chicago on October 2, 1973, Davidson announced his core of investors, a group of men he called the 'founding fathers'.
These men were, who owned the WHA's and NBA's; a former hockey prospect named (future owner of the NHL's ), who ran the Boston Bulls charter; Ben Hatskin, who owned the WHA's; and R. Steve Arnold, another WHA associate.Perhaps one of the biggest of the 'founding fathers' was a Canadian movie producer,.
A former tennis prodigy and owner of the WHA's, Bassett came from a wealthy Canadian family. The family owned (among other entities) the of the, two Toronto newspapers and interests in television stations. The younger Bassett had been mulling over starting his own professional football league when he happened to meet Davidson and he was given a franchise for Toronto. Bassett would later go on to own a team in another alternative football league, the 's in the mid-1980s.Along with the original founding fathers, the rest of the owners would soon fall into place, including a man whose own dreams of playing football were ended by a heart ailment, Thomas Origer, who would run the.Several prospective owners were forced to drop out.
Davidson was willing to sell his Philadelphia team to investor Harry Jay Katz. Alas, Davidson would learn that Katz didn't have the strong resources that he claimed, and was in fact the target of several lawsuits.
Davidson pulled back his offer to sell the rights to Philadelphia. He nearly sold the Detroit franchise to Bud Huchul, but it was later discovered Huchul had been arrested 30 times and faced 27 lawsuits related to his previous business dealings.Davidson had initially planned for his league to commence play in 1975. However, the league came under pressure to accelerate its timetable, largely on account of strained labor relations affecting both established professional leagues. This section needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: – ( August 2016) The fledgling WFL did succeed in raising stagnant salaries in the NFL. Average salaries in professional football were among the lowest in the four major North American sports, and the and the had both gone on strike prior to their leagues' respective 1974 seasons in an effort to lift many of the rules suppressing free agency and player salaries.
In addition, the NFL did not have a free agency system in place then (and one would not be established until 1993).With the uncertain labor situation, the WFL had the opportunity to provide players with a better deal than the established leagues would give them, along with the promise of employment. Davidson's league garnered major publicity when the, led by John F. Bassett, signed three Miami Dolphins players, fullback, halfback, and wide receiver to what was then the richest three-player deal in sports, an astounding US$3.5 million to start in 1975. The pact was a guaranteed, personal-services contract, so the trio would be paid even if the WFL did not survive its first season.The NFL took notice, as did their players when they were approached to jump leagues. The nearly lost both their quarterbacks.
Signed with the, and penned a contract to play for the starting in 1975. Left as a to invest, coach special teams, and play for. The also took roster hits when WFL teams in Hawaii and Houston signed running back and quarterback respectively. The Hawaiians also signed Pro Bowl WR and All-Pro TE: however, Gilliam ended up with the and Kwalick signed with the prior to the 1975 season.By early June 1974, the WFL claimed they had some 60 NFL players under contract. Many of these defections came in the form of futures contracts.
The players would play out their existing deals with the NFL, then jump to the WFL when those deals expired. Thus, Stabler would stay with the Raiders through 1975, then would have joined Birmingham in 1976 had the team and league survived that long.The top minor leagues in the United States at the time, the and, were also tremendously affected as it caused them to fold. The ACFL had survived a suspension of operations in 1972 to return to play in 1973, only to have the WFL lure away most of the ACFL's and SFL's players with the prospect of playing in a 'major' league. Both leagues were forced to fold; the ACFL and half the SFL folded immediately, with two teams joining the four remaining SFL teams to play in 1974; the SFL folded after an abbreviated 1974 season.1974 season. Main article:Playing a 20-game regular season schedule in 1974 – six games longer than the NFL's then 14-game slate – the WFL staged no exhibition games (although their teams did participate in preseason scrimmages).The season was to begin on Wednesday, July 10 and end on Wednesday, November 13.
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This was a 20-game season in 19 weeks – a schedule accomplished by having double games (primarily Monday and Friday) on Labor Day weekend. Some complained that the schedule was poorly drafted: although most teams played on Wednesday nights with a national TV game slated for Thursday nights, the Hawaiians played their home games on Sunday afternoons, meaning when the Hawaiians had a home game, they played an opponent who flew to Honolulu after having played just four days earlier. In addition, back-to-back meetings between two teams were common.The WFL held a college draft. The first six rounds were held on January 22, 1974, with the remaining 30 rounds held on February 5., quarterback from Kansas, was the first player selected in the draft by the original Memphis franchise that became the Houston Texans by the time the season started.As was common with many upstart leagues, the WFL's intended lineup of teams changed several times before they even played a down. Most notably, Bassett's Toronto Northmen were forced to find a new home after the Canadian government threatened to ban any American football team from competing with the CFL.
Though the never passed, the mere threat of it prompted Bassett to move the team to Memphis, where it became the. It was generally referred to by fans, local media, and even some official team materials as the Grizzlies, which they officially renamed themselves to the following season (not to be confused with the ). The WFL suffered an even more serious blow when the CFL and NFL reached agreements with their striking players that ensured that the upstart league would be forced to compete with both of their established rivals.The original schedule called for a four-team playoff, with semifinal games held on Wednesday-Thursday November 20-November 21, and the on Friday, November 29 (the night after Thanksgiving) at the in. League officials also boldly discussed plans for expansion teams in Europe and Asia.In the first few weeks, the WFL looked to be a resounding success.
Attendance outpaced the first week of the in 1960, averaging just under 43,000 a game. The box office numbers proved to be the beginning of the WFL's undoing when two teams admitted to inflating their gates on a grand scale: the admitted that out of the 105,892 fans who attended their first two games, 30,000 had gotten in for free, and the, whose first two home games totaled 120,253 fans, admitted that 100,198 of the tickets had been given away for free or sold at significantly reduced prices. Presumably, the giveaways were intended in part to pique the public's curiosity and interest, but they ended up seriously eroding the league's credibility.Six games into the first season, WFL franchises were in serious trouble. The were looking to move to, and the made overtures of bringing the first place club to. The league seemed to bottom out in September, when two franchises relocated in mid-season: The moved to as the, and they were followed a week later by the, who relocated to Charlotte and became the (though they played one road game after the official move still under the 'Stars' name). On top of this, the Wheels moved one game to due to poor ticket sales, this time without any complaints from Canadian officials.It was discovered that in the rush to commence play in 1974, several WFL teams had paid less than the original $120,000 franchise fee in order to meet Davidson's target of 12 teams, and that league officials had conducted little to no.
As a result, most of the league's teams were badly undercapitalized: by most accounts, the only reasonably well-financed teams were Memphis, Philadelphia, the Hawaiians and Southern California.In many cases, WFL teams were unable to meet the most basic team expenses. For instance, the 's players were reportedly being fed by sympathetic local fans, while the Hornets had their uniforms impounded for not paying a laundry bill from the time the team was located in New York.
The were not paid for the last two months of the season, the Florida Blazers went three months without pay (and reportedly survived on meal vouchers), and the Sharks were not paid for what turned out to be their last six games. The other teams' finances were not much better, as the Southmen, Bell and Hawaiians were the only teams who met payroll for every week of the season.The most dire situation, however, was that of the Detroit Wheels. The team's original 33 owners appeared to pay for team expenses out of pocket as they arose, resulting in what amounted to a club football team playing at the professional level. On several occasions, the team was left without uniforms when they did not pay the cleaning bill, forcing them to cancel practices. After several hotels and airlines went unpaid, the Wheels were also unable to fly to games or get a place for the players to stay without paying in advance, and one player was forced to pay a hospital bill for his son out of pocket after being informed the team's insurance policy had been cancelled for non-payment of premiums.The Wheels coaches were unable to film games, and before a game in Philadelphia against the Bell, the players discovered that there were no medical supplies or tape available.
When it looked like the Wheels would have to forfeit, a salesman at the game donated enough tape to allow them to play. The league was forced to take over the team after complaints from the players.Perhaps one of the most bizarre incidents for the WFL in 1974 involved defensive end, who had left the NFL's to play for the WFL's. While Matuszak worked out on the field, attorneys for the Oilers and federal marshals arrived at the stadium. Shortly after sacking quarterback Tom Sherman, Matuszak was lifted from the game. The Texans had been served with a restraining order barring Matuszak from playing another down for the Texans until his Oilers contract expired at the end of the 1977 NFL season.
After being benched, Matuszak waved the document for the stunned home crowd to see to indicate why he was sitting on the bench. The Oilers were angered by this situation and traded Matuszak to the Kansas City Chiefs after this incident.The league seemingly bottomed out in October when it shut down the Wheels and the Sharks after 14 games.
The euthanization of the Sharks meant that the would not host World Bowl I. (Coincidentally, Jacksonville was also slated to be the host of the 1986 Championship Game, but that game was never played as the USFL folded. It would not be until February 2005 that the city would host its first championship pro football game,.)Davidson was forced to resign in October 1974, and Hawaiians owner was named the new commissioner a month later.Late in the year, the league announced that it would award its Most Valuable Player a prize of $10,000 at the World Bowl. Rather than endure the embarrassment of media sneers about whether a WFL check would clear, the league neatly stacked $10,000 in cash high upon a table in the middle of the field.
The MVP award was a three-way split, and the players involved split the cash.The playoff format itself was also chaotic. Numerous playoff formats were tossed around, including brackets ranging from three to eight teams, with one owner proposing the World Bowl be canceled and the championship handed to the regular-season champion Memphis Southmen. Eventually, six teams were chosen for the tournament. The two teams with the best regular-season records, Memphis and Birmingham, were awarded first-round byes. The other two division winners would play in first-round games against the runners-up in their division. Originally, Florida was to host Charlotte, while and Southern California was to host the Hawaiians.
However, league officials forced the Hornets to back out of the playoffs after only 1,000 advance tickets were sold for their matchup against the Blazers–nowhere near enough for the Hornets to justify the trip to Orlando. League officials arranged for the Bell to advance in their place, as they were slightly more robustly funded and could cover their travel costs.Despite the disasters, many thought the WFL performed fairly well, though below NFL standards. Many games were tight, decided by seven points or less, and the Action Point, the one-point conversion run or pass attempt after a touchdown, was favored among WFL coaches and critics. The league championship – the, or 'World Bowl I' – was staged in Birmingham between the hometown Birmingham Americans and the Florida Blazers.Not even the World Bowl could go off without a hitch. For a time, it appeared that the game would not take place because the Americans owed $237,000 in back federal taxes. However, the agreed to let the game go ahead in return for a portion of the gate.
Both teams were owed several weeks' back pay; the Americans only agreed to play when their owner promised them championship rings if they won. Aside from the money woes the league was having, the players did not hold back in complaining about the officiating during the game.Florida Blazers running back scored what he thought was a touchdown, but the officials on the field ruled that he fumbled the ball out of the end zone before he hit the ground, resulting in a touchback that gave the ball to Birmingham. Replays clearly showed that the ball had broken the plane of the end zone before slipping out of Reamon's hands. While the phantom turnover did not account for any Birmingham points, it did serve to break the spirits of the Blazers. Birmingham led 15–0, with Birmingham quarterback Matthew Reed scoring an action point.
Birmingham led 22–0, and thought they had the game wrapped up. However, Florida managed a small comeback, trailing 22-21 as the gun went off in the fourth quarter. After the game, the Americans' jerseys were seized to satisfy team debts. ( referred to the game, prophetically, as 'The first, and possibly only World Bowl'.)As if losing a championship game in a squeaker was not bad enough, things got much worse. Florida head coach bolted back to the NFL to take over the. Shortly afterward, pieces of the Blazers' franchise were sold off at a court-ordered auction after it was revealed that Blazers owner had financed the team through selling cocaine, a crime for which he would be charged during the following offseason. The champions did not fare much better; only days after the World Bowl, the Americans' office furniture was repossessed by sheriff's deputies.The financial losses were tremendous: The Hawaiians had lost $3.2 million, while the New York Stars/Charlotte Hornets had over $2 million of debt, and just $94,000 in assets.
The Jacksonville Sharks and Detroit Wheels were liquidated owing nearly $4 million, and Detroit had 122 creditors looking to recoup losses. Florida's owner was arrested and later convicted of drug trafficking and tax evasion charges shortly after the 1974 seasonMany NFL stars who had been attracted to the league quickly sought to get out of their contracts. Quarterback (Raiders), defensive end (Steelers), and quarterback (Giants) all were able to get courts to nullify their contracts with WFL teams, while former NFL veterans like, and all limped off into retirement. Home-grown talent, like quarterbacks and, quickly bolted for the NFL, with Adams landing with the and White with the, and Florida head coach got star Blazers' tight end to jump ship with him to the NFL's Bears. 1975 season. Main article:Though many predicted the WFL was dead, the league returned for the 1975 season. During the offseason, Hemmeter developed a plan to restore a measure of financial sanity to the league by paying players and coaches based on a percentage of revenues, while imposing strict capitalization requirements on the teams.
Several markets from 1974 returned under new team names and new ownership. The deceased Sharks of came back as the 'Express.' The Portland Storm became the Portland Thunder, the Birmingham Americans were replaced by the, and the became the.
The World Bowl runner-up folded, and their franchise rights were relocated to, as the. Was briefly mentioned as a location for the twelfth WFL team (the replacement for the Wheels), but this never materialized, and only 11 teams would play in the 1975 season. Only two teams, Memphis and Philadelphia, returned with the same ownership from the prior season. Sports Illustrated, in its postmortem, noted that the change between 1974 and 1975 was so drastic that for all intents and purposes, the WFL of 1975 was a nearly completely different entity than its predecessor. The WFL of 1974 was described as a bombastic credit risk, while the WFL of 1975 was a safer but much quieter entity that failed because it was ignored.An idea produced by the league was to have players wear different colors of pants based on their position. Offensive linemen were to wear purple pants, running backs green pants, receivers blue pants, linebackers red, and defensive backs yellow.
Quarterbacks and kickers were to wear white pants. In addition to the colors, the pants were also adorned with items such as pinstripes (for the offensive linemen) or large stars (for quarterbacks) for those not watching on color television. After a test run in preseason games, this idea was scrapped.The league changed the scheduling format from 20 games without exhibitions to 18 games (played in 20 weeks due to the odd number of teams) with exhibitions. Gone were weeknight games; the new schedule had games on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. But there were still problems, as although the original plan called for a July 5 preseason opener and August 2 regular season openers, the regular season had to open a week earlier, with a single game on Saturday, July 26, due to a stadium conflict. This meant that a single regular season game was played in the midst of the last weekend of preseason play (with some preseason games being played the next night).Several more NFL free agents, including and, signed on with the struggling WFL.
Memphis had secured three top-line, but fading Dolphins stars in Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and Paul Warfield. The Southern California Sun secured the services of former AFL and NFL quarterback Daryle Lamonica.The made an offer to aging, who seriously considered the offer, before refusing and re-signing with the. The Winds invested considerable money and time in the effort to sign Namath (the team even designed its uniform to emulate the Jets'), and all but promised he was coming to Chicago.
The embarrassing rejection by Namath crippled the Winds, who were shut down five weeks into the season. It also resulted in the loss of the WFL's national television deal (see below), rendering the league all but invisible.Despite Hemmeter's efforts, several teams soon ran into financial difficulties, in part due to alarmingly low attendance figures. (The WFL averaged 21,423 fans per game in 1974, but only 13,931 per contest in '75.) The Winds were shut down five games into the season after dropping below league capitalization requirements, leaving the league with ten teams (which itself was a convenience, because it eliminated the mandatory bye week). It was not enough to stem the tide; by late October rumors abounded that four of the remaining teams were on the verge of folding.On October 22, just a few days before the start of week 13, the WFL went out of business. Hemmeter said that the league would have needed to spend as much as $40 million over two years to be successful, a bill that the league's directors, seven of whom sat on the boards of banks, did not feel could be justified.
The, by virtue of their league-best record of 9–3 at the time of the shutdown, were proclaimed league champions.With the relative financial stability of the Birmingham and Memphis clubs, both attempted to join the NFL but were refused. In 1979, the Memphis club owners filed an against the NFL. Their case was ultimately dismissed on May 30, 1984, by which time the owners had already established the in the next professional league, the (which incidentally filed their own, more famous antitrust suit against the NFL in 1986).
Although the NFL expanded by two teams in 1976, that expansion had been planned before the WFL's first season, and neither city (Tampa and Seattle) had hosted a WFL franchise.One of the issues facing the WFL going into 1975 was how to hold a draft. The owners of the WFL teams collectively agreed they did not have the money to seek out the top college prospects. Instead, the league came up with a different plan. Instead of drafting a certain player, a WFL team would draft an entire NFL or CFL team. This gave that team the rights to negotiate with players under contract for that team.
For example, only the Charlotte Hornets had the right to offer contracts to players from the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Colts, and Detroit Lions, and only the Chicago Winds could offer contracts to players from the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, and Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. Legacy The league's struggles led to endless sarcastic comments (starting with the league's own abbreviation, which was often pronounced '). Chicago Fire offensive lineman quipped that he had been offered a million dollar contract: 'A dollar a year for a million years!' In the 1976 season, Memphis Southmen coach John McVay joined the staff of the and brought with him nine players from the Southmen. In what has been described as 'the closest approximation to a meeting between the champions of the WFL and the NFL' (even though the Southmen never won a WFL title), the Southmen-reinforced Giants upset the defending Super Bowl champion 17–0 in a preseason match that year.The WFL, for all its embarrassing miscues, produced a number of coaches who found success in the NFL, notably, and., a quarterback for the Hawaiians, became a head coach in the and, taking the to in 2001 and the to a win in the.
McVay worked his way up the Giants organization and eventually became the team's head coach; he had even more success as general manager of the during the 1980s years. Several players, most notably, and, later found success in the NFL as well.Three WFL alumni made it to the:, and; all three were already established stars in the NFL before joining the WFL.The league's most severe impact was on the, who had just won consecutive before the WFL's snagging of three of their star players. Sports Business journal. American City Business Journals, Inc. January 29, 2018.
Retrieved December 10, 2018. ^. Retrieved 2017-12-27. ^ Speck, Mark., 1997. Reineking, Jim (April 3, 2019). Retrieved May 24, 2019. Speck, Mark (1998).
Coffin Corner. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
Marshall, Joe., 1974-12-16. Spokane Daily Chronicle.
December 23, 1974. Retrieved June 13, 2009. March 11, 1975.
Retrieved June 12, 2009. 'A Century of Sports: The Mahoning and Shenango Valleys'. The Vindicator. November 14, 1999. P. 4.
^ Johnson, William Oscar., 1975-12-01. Cady, Steve (October 23, 1975). Talley, Rick (July 16, 1978). Retrieved April 28, 2010. Although he could have sold 22000 season tickets for that ill-fated '75 season, he folded the team. New, The.
Retrieved 2010-07-29. Ford, Mark L. The Coffin Corner. Pro Football Researchers Association. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
Note: The PFRA erroneously refers to this matchup as the last such contest. Radio-Info.com Discussion BoardsNATIONAL TELEVISION TOPICSClassic TV. 28 January 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2012. Retrieved 2010-07-29. Retrieved 2010-07-29. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
Retrieved 2010-07-29. Retrieved 2018-08-03. Darrin Oliphant (2017-01-12), retrieved 2018-08-03. Darrin Oliphant (2018-01-28), retrieved 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
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Retrieved 2017-12-27.External links. at.
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