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TheCharlotte Hornets were anAmerican football team in the short-lived professionalWorld Football League. Despite their brief existence, the Hornets were North Carolina's first attempt at a major league football team, predating theCarolina Panthers by two decades. They were relocated toCharlotte, North Carolina, fromNew York City in the middle of the 1974 season.

The Charlotte Hornets franchise began in 1973 inBoston as theBoston Bulldogs, which was also the name of the relocatedPottsville Maroons, Boston's first professional football franchise. The name was shortened in October to Bulls. They were owned byHoward Baldwin, president and minority owner of theNew England Whalers of theWorld Hockey Association. Unlike most other WFL owners, he didn't have to pay a franchise fee because of his close ties to WFL founder and Commissioner Gary Davidson. He hiredVito "Babe" Parilli, who had been a backup toNew York Jets quarterbackJoe Namath inSuper Bowl III, as head coach.

Baldwin was unable to find more investors, or even a suitable place to play. Realizing that he had no hope of putting together a viable product in Boston, Baldwin opted to merge with the WFL's as-yet-unnamed New York franchise on January 26, 1974. That team was owned by Whalers andBoston Celtics majority ownerBob Schmertz and three of his New York-based limited business partners; Henry Fujawski, John Lander and Steven Cohen who together made up the core of the Stars ownership and like Baldwin hadn't had to pay a franchise fee. The two teams had already worked together very closely in the draft. The merged team took the name New York Stars.

Finding a home field for the fledgling team in New York also proved difficult, partly due to bad timing.Yankee Stadium was closed for renovations right after theYankees finished the 1973 season in October; it would not reopen until 1976.Shea Stadium was fully booked as the Yankees shared the park with theMets as well as theNFL'sJets andGiants. (Giants Stadium, future home of both New York football teams, wouldn't open its doors until 1976.) The Stars had only two other options in the city proper:Downing Stadium, a 22,000-seat facility built during the Depression as a WPA Project onRandall's Island near theEast River, orBaker Field, the 32,000-seat wooden stadium that served as the home of Columbia University's teams. Unable to come to terms with Columbia, Downing Stadium was ultimately chosen. The legendaryBob Sheppard, longtime voice of theNew York Yankees, handled public address duties for the Stars.^[1]

Parilli signed a number of formerSuper Bowl III Jets including wide receiverGeorge Sauer, who was coming out of retirement after three years, and former All-Pro defensive menGerry Philbin, as well asJohn Elliott.

The WFL needed New York in order to have a presence in the largest U.S. media market. The Stars sold between 5,500 and 8,000 season tickets. After losing 14–7 atJacksonville in front of a league high crowd of 59,112 at theGator Bowl, the Stars' first home game against theBirmingham Americans attracted 17,943 New Yorkers. After leading 29–3 at halftime, the Stars were toppled by the efforts of Americans quarterbackGeorge Mira, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another as Birmingham pulled out a 32-29 comeback win. The Stars achieved their first win as kicker Moses Lajterman kicked the winning field goal for a 17–15 win atPhiladelphia. The Stars and Bell performed in front of the largest-ever WFL crowd, with 64,179 on hand; it later came out that most of the tickets were sold at large discounts or were given away free, to make the league appear more successful than it was.

New York then went on a tear, winning five in a row. Among the victims were theJacksonville Sharks,Southern California Sun,Portland Storm, andHouston Texans. Coincidentally, the team's winning streak was stopped by those same Texans a week later, with a surprise addition to the Houston roster:John Matuszak, who had been AWOL from the NFL'sHouston Oilers just 48 hours earlier. The Stars had mixed results in the next few weeks, beating Portland again, but losing toFlorida in the rain andThe Hawaiians in the sun. To improve the roster, New York picked up several NFL players from the waiver wire, including cornerbackJohn Dockery (who played with Parilli for the Jets) andDon Highsmith, a running back released by Oakland who turned out to be a great addition to the Stars running attack.

The Stars could have been a real alternative to the NFL'sGiants andJets, both of whom were at historic low-points on the field.^[2] But despite their on-field success (and cheaper ticket prices), the Stars were dragged down by serious off-field financial problems; like most WFL teams, they were badly under-capitalized. The Stars opening-night crowd was the largest of the season; by September, they were drawing barely 5,000 per contest (ultimately, they drew just 74,692 total to their seven home games, an average of 10,670 per game, second-worst in the WFL.) Their fiscal structure began to founder when Schmertz's construction company ran into trouble. He was also involved in a nasty divorce, as well as a legal dispute over his ownership of the Celtics.

The Stars' biggest problem was Downing Stadium. Located on an island in the East River and accessible primarily on foot, it was nearly inaccessible from most parts of the city, and it had not been well-maintained in at least twenty years. (Indeed, it had hosted little football in that time, most notably a partial season of the oldContinental Football League in 1966.) Schmertz pumped over $200,000 into renovations, but it wasn't enough to bring it to anything even approaching professional standards. The field was mostly sand and dirt, and amenities for fans, players and the press were virtually nonexistent. The toilets in the locker room frequently overflowed. During the home opener, the Stars' radio announcersJohn Sterling andMatt Snell had to sit on orange crates because there were no chairs in the press box; their Birmingham counterparts had to stand. Lighting was provided by four-decade-old light towers fromEbbets Field that were not nearly strong enough to completely illuminate the field. The lights were so dim that WFL's national television broadcaster,TVS, pronounced them unfit for broadcast and refused to air any games from the stadium.

It soon became obvious that Schmertz and Baldwin were in no position to finish the season. With the Stars over a million dollars in debt and a stadium that was inadequate even for temporary use, the WFL resigned itself to abandoning the nation's biggest market.

September 24, 1974 was their final game at New York, against theDetroit Wheels (the game was moved from Wednesday because ofYom Kippur). Coincidentally, that same day, the Wheels' 33 owners filed for bankruptcy, leading reporters to call the game the "Bankrupt Bowl." The Stars blew out the destitute Wheels, 37–7, in front of 4,220 fans. The game was originally scheduled to be carried nationally by TVS, but the network begged off. Even without Downing's inadequate lighting, it was clear by this time that both teams were headed for extinction.

While they were packing up for the next night's game against theChicago Fire, Parilli announced the team was moving to Charlotte for the rest of the season as the Charlotte Stars. Part-owner Bob Keating told reporters that poor attendance and Downing Stadium's substandard playing conditions made it impossible for the team to go on in New York.

The league had found a buyer inUpton Bell, the son and heir of former NFL commissionerBert Bell and himself a former executive with theNew England Patriots, after Charlotte mayorJohn M. Belk helped engineer a deal that made the move feasible. Forced to find a new logo literally at the last minute, the equipment man simply stuck theChicago Bears' "C" logo over the old New York logo. Despite everything, the Stars—renamed the Hornets a few days later—put out the Fire, 41–30. Shortly after they arrived in Charlotte, however, their uniforms were impounded due to an unpaid laundry bill from New York; the Hornets had to practice in shorts and T-shirts until Bell posted a bond for the equipment. The team's first home game at Charlotte (the city's first-ever "big league" franchise) was a rousing success, selling out all 25,133 tickets atAmerican Legion Memorial Stadium, leaving some 5,000 out of luck. The visitingMemphis Southmen ruined their debut, winning 27–23. In four games at Charlotte, the Hornets sold over 80,000 tickets compared to just 75,000 in seven games at Downing Stadium.

Toward the end of the season, the Hornets struggled on the field, losing their last four games. Off the field, things were not much better, as Bell was still scrambling to get more financing; a public offering hadn't attracted any investors. After their penultimate game, a federal judge ordered the seizure of most of the team's equipment (again) to compensate creditors back in New York.^[3]

Despite their late-season slump, the Hornets finished second in the Eastern Division behind theFlorida Blazers, earning them a playoff spot and a date against the Blazers in Orlando. Unfortunately, by November 16, six days before the game, Florida had only sold 1,000 advance tickets (the final attendance was reported as 9,712), leading to concerns that the Hornets' cut of the gate would not even begin to meet their travel expenses. The players would have been lucky to get $100 for the game, nowhere near enough to justify the trip. League executive committee chairman andMemphis Southmen ownerJohn F. Bassett called Bell and told him that the game was off.^[4] Bell had little choice but to agree. The players hadn't been paid since the third week of October, and he still hadn't been able to attract enough financing to field a team for 1975. Additionally, he was still paying Schmertz for buying the team.^[5] ThePhiladelphia Bell, who finished one game behind the Hornets (and with a losing record) but had somewhat more robust finances, replaced the Hornets as the second Eastern qualifier.

The Hornets returned for the1975 campaign. Meanwhile, the reconstitutedChicago Winds franchise looked to sign quarterbackJoe Namath, offering him a multi-million dollar contract to jump leagues. (Part of the deal called for Namath's eventual ownership of a WFL franchise in New York, which apparently would have involved moving the Hornets back to the Big Apple, perhaps playing in the refurbishedYankee Stadium.) But when Namath said no, league television partnerTVS tore up its contract. The Hornets, like the rest of the league, felt the loss of TV coverage and revenue very hard. Despite fielding a competitive team (winning four in a row at one point), the Hornets didn't come close to selling out any of their contests in '75, drawing 43,761 fans for their four home games, less than half of capacity. Finally, the WFL ceased operations in mid-season, and the Hornets finished with a 6–5 record.

Source:^[6]

† first game after announcing move to Charlotte

‡ first home game in Charlotte

Source:^[7]

• 1974 World Football League season
• 1975 World Football League season

• New York Stars on FunWhileItLasted.net
• http://www.charlottehornetswfl.com/
• http://wfl.charlottehornetswfl.com/team_pages_1974/09.php
• 1974 New York Stars / Charlotte Hornets stats & results at ultimate70s.com

• Charlotte Hornets (WFL)
• Defunct American football teams
• American football teams in Boston
• American football teams in New York City
• American football teams in Charlotte, North Carolina
• American football teams in North Carolina
• Boston Bulls
• New York Stars
• Charlotte Stars

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