 WFL official logo | |
| Sport | American football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1973; 52 years ago (1973) |
| First season | 1974 |
| Ceased | 1975; 50 years ago (1975) |
| No. of teams | 13 (all) |
| Country | United States |
| Last champion | Birmingham Americans |
TheWorld Football League (WFL) was anAmerican football league that played one full season in1974 and most of its second in1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, only one team –the Hawaiians inHonolulu, Hawaii – was headquartered outside of continental North America. The league folded in 1975 midway through its second season.
Gary Davidson, a California lawyer and businessman, was the driving force behind the World Football League.[1] He had helped start the moderately successfulAmerican Basketball Association andWorld Hockey Association,[1] some of whose teams survived long enough to enter the more establishedNational Basketball Association andNational Hockey League, respectively. Unlike his two previous efforts, the World Football League did not bring any surviving teams into theNational Football League.
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".[2] These men wereRobert Schmertz, who owned the WHA'sNew England Whalers and NBA'sBoston Celtics; a former hockey prospect namedHoward Baldwin (future owner of the NHL'sPittsburgh Penguins), who ran the Boston Bulls charter; Ben Hatskin, who owned the WHA'sWinnipeg Jets; and R. Steve Arnold, another WHA associate.
Perhaps one of the biggest of the "founding fathers" was a Canadian movie producer,John F. Bassett. A former tennis prodigy and owner of the WHA'sToronto Toros, Bassett came from a wealthy Canadian family. The family owned (among other entities) theToronto Argonauts of theCanadian Football League, 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 went on to own a team in another alternative football league, theUSFL'sTampa Bay Bandits in the mid-1980s.
Along with the original founding fathers, the rest of the owners soon fell into place, including a man whose own dreams of playing football were ended by a heart ailment, Thomas Origer, who later ran theChicago Fire.[2]
Several prospective owners were forced to drop out. Davidson was willing to sell his Philadelphia team to investor Harry Jay Katz, before learning that Katz didn't have the strong resources that he claimed, and was in fact the target of several lawsuits, and rescinded his offer to sell the rights to Philadelphia.[2] 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.[3]
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. In the spring of 1974, players were threatening to go on strike in both the NFL and CFL, which could have delayed the start of their seasons and/or caused the quality of their product to deteriorate if owners attempted to bring in replacement players.
The possibility of being the only major professional football league in operation (or, at least, the possibility that the quality of WFL football might be compared favorably with that of established league rosters filled with "scab" players) appeared to be too good an opportunity to pass up – combined with rumors of another upstart league, it persuaded Davidson to advance the new league's planned debut to 1974.
One team went through several identities. The team slated to play in Maryland was to be called the Washington Capitals, but theexpansion NHL team had already trademarked the rights to the nickname. A contest held to name the team came up with the name Ambassadors. The team then became the Baltimore-Washington Ambassadors, and then the Baltimore name was dropped, and the team simply became known as the Washington Ambassadors.[2] In order to boost ticket sales, Washington owner Joe Wheeler offered former Baltimore Colts quarterbackJohnny Unitas a contract as head coach and general manager of the team, but Unitas declined as he was already under contract with the San Diego Chargers; he retired at the end of the 1973 season. Wheeler then made the same offer toRedskins linebackerJack Pardee, who quickly signed with the new league.
In the meantime, Wheeler had engaged in a war for territory with Pardee's old boss, Redskins ownerEdward Bennett Williams. Wheeler wanted the Ambassadors to play atRFK Stadium, but Williams refused to allow it, and the Ambassadors were on the move. Without ever stepping on the field, the team went through their third relocation, starting off as the Baltimore-Washington Ambassadors, then becoming the Washington Ambassadors, and finally the Virginia Ambassadors.[2]
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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 theNational Football League Players Association and theCanadian Football League Players Association 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 was not 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 theToronto Northmen, led by John F. Bassett, signed three Miami Dolphins players, fullbackLarry Csonka,[1] halfbackJim Kiick, and wide receiverPaul Warfield[4] 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. TheOakland Raiders nearly lost both their quarterbacks.Ken Stabler[1] signed with theBirmingham Americans, andDaryle Lamonica penned a contract to play for theSouthern California Sun starting in 1975.John Wilbur leftthe Over-the-Hill Gang as aWashington Redskin to invest, coach special teams, and play forthe Hawaiians. TheDallas Cowboys also took roster hits when WFL teams in Hawaii and Houston signed running backCalvin Hill and quarterbackCraig Morton respectively. The Hawaiians also signedMinnesota Vikings Pro Bowl WRJohn Gilliam andSan Francisco 49ers All-Pro TETed Kwalick; however, Gilliam ended up with theChicago Winds and Kwalick signed with thePhiladelphia Bell prior to the 1975 season.
By early June 1974, the WFL claimed they had some 60 NFL players under contract.[5] 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 planned to stay with the Raiders through 1975, then would have joined Birmingham in 1976 had the team and league survived that long.
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 scheduled to begin on Wednesday, July 10 and end on Wednesday, November 13. 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.David Jaynes, 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 theCanadian Football Act never passed, the mere threat of it prompted Bassett to move the team to Memphis, where it became theMemphis Southmen. 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 thecurrent NBA team of the same name). 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 theWorld Bowl on Friday, November 29 (the night after Thanksgiving) at theGator Bowl Stadium inJacksonville, Florida. 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 theAmerican Football League 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 scale virtually unprecedented in major league sports. ThePhiladelphia Bell's first two home games totaled 120,253 fans. However, when they paid city taxes on those gates, they admitted that 100,198 of the tickets had been given away for free or sold at significantly reduced prices. WFL officials subsequently admitted they not only knew the Bell were inflating their attendance, but that Davidson himself had approved the scheme.[6]TheJacksonville Sharks admitted that out of the 105,892 fans who attended their first two games, 30,000 had gotten in for free. The giveaways were intended in part to pique the public's curiosity and interest, and in the Bell's case were done to keep their crowds from being swallowed up in the cavernous environment of 100,000-seatJohn F. Kennedy Stadium. However, they ended up seriously eroding the credibility of both the teams and the league.
Six games into the first season, a number of WFL franchises were in serious trouble. TheDetroit Wheels were looking to move toCharlotte, and theFlorida Blazers made overtures of bringing the first place club toAtlanta. In September, two franchises relocated in mid-season. TheHouston Texans moved toShreveport, Louisiana, as theShreveport Steamer, and they were followed a week later by theNew York Stars, who relocated to Charlotte and became theCharlotte Hornets (also not to be confused with the present-dayNBA franchise of the same name; they played one road game after the official move still under the "Stars" name). On top of this, the Wheels moved one game toLondon, Ontario 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. Additionally, league officials had conducted little to nodue diligence. 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, thePortland Storm's players were reportedly being fed by sympathetic local fans. The Hornets had their uniforms impounded for not paying a laundry bill from the time the team was located in New York and were not paid regularly after the third week in October. TheBirmingham Americans were not paid for the last two months of the season, the Florida Blazers went three months without pay (and reportedly survived onMcDonald's 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. 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 owners refused to provide filming equipment for the coaches.
The Wheels seemingly bottomed out when they arrived in Philadelphia to face the Bell. The players discovered that there were no medical supplies or tape available, and initially refused to take the field. When it looked like the Wheels would have to forfeit, a salesman at the game donated enough tape to allow them to play.[3] 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 endJohn Matuszak, who had jumped from the NFL'sHouston Oilers to play for the WFL'sHouston Texans. While Matuszak worked out on the field prior to a game against theNew York Stars, attorneys for the Oilers and federal marshals arrived at the stadium: five minutes into the first quarter, shortly after sacking Stars quarterback Tom Sherman for a 13-yard loss, Matuszak was benched—the Texans had been served with a restraining order that barred Matuszak from playing another down for the Texans until his Oilers contract expired at the end of the 1977 NFL season. Afterwards, Matuszak waved the document to show the stunned home crowd why he was sitting on the bench,[2] while the Oilers, who were angered at this debacle, subsequently traded Matuszak to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The league seemingly bottomed out in October when it shut down the Wheels and the Sharks after 14 games. The collapse of the Sharks meant that theGator Bowl did not host World Bowl I; coincidentally, Jacksonville was also slated to be the host of the 1986USFL Championship Game, but the USFL folded before that season began. It was not until February 2005 that the city hosted its first championship pro football game,Super Bowl XXXIX.
Davidson was forced to resign in October 1974, and Hawaiians ownerChristopher Hemmeter 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 postseason. 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 Southern California was to host the Hawaiians.
However, after being informed only 1,000 advance tickets had been sold for the Hornets' matchup against the Blazers, league officials feared attendance would have been too small for the financially strapped Hornets to meet their travel expenses. The Hornet players would have been lucky to get $100 for the game, nowhere near enough to justify the trip to Orlando. The Hornets were forced to pull out of the playoffs and allow the Bell to advance in their place. Despite the fallout from "Papergate," the Bell were slightly more robustly funded and could cover their travel costs.[7]
Despite the various 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—theWorld Bowl, 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, theInternal Revenue Service 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. Blazers running backTommy Reamon 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 atouchback 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.[2] After the game, the Americans' jerseys were seized to satisfy team debts, andSports Illustrated prophetically referred to the game as "The first, and possiblyonly World Bowl".[8]
As if losing a championship game in a squeaker was not bad enough, things got much worse. Florida head coach Jack Pardee bolted back to the NFL to take over theChicago Bears, and the Blazers' franchise was sold off at a court-ordered auction after it was discovered that Blazers part-ownerRommie Loudd had financed the team through selling cocaine and a tax evasion scheme, for which he was arrested shortly after the season (and later convicted).[9][10]
The champions did not fare muchbetter—only days after the World Bowl, the Americans' office furniture was repossessed by sheriff's deputies.[2]
The financial losses were tremendous: the Hawaiians had lost $3.2 million, while the New York Stars/
Many NFL stars who had been attracted to the league quickly sought to get out of their contracts. QuarterbackKen Stabler (Raiders), defensive endL. C. Greenwood (Steelers), and quarterbackCraig Morton (Giants) all were able to get courts to nullify their contracts with WFL teams, while former NFL veterans likeGeorge Sauer Jr.,Charley Harraway,Leroy Kelly, andDon Maynard all retired.
Home-grown talent, like quarterbacksTony Adams,Danny White, and wideoutAlfred Jenkins quickly bolted for the NFL, with Adams landing with theKansas City Chiefs, White with theDallas Cowboys, and Jenkins with theAtlanta Falcons; Florida head coach Jack Pardee also got star Blazers' tight endGreg Latta to jump ship with him to the NFL's Bears.[2]
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 ofJacksonville came back as the 'Express.' The Portland Storm became the Portland Thunder, the Birmingham Americans were replaced by theVulcans, and theChicago Fire became theWinds. The World Bowl runner-upFlorida Blazers folded, and their franchise rights were relocated toSan Antonio, Texas, as theSan Antonio Wings.Akron, Ohio was briefly mentioned as a location for the twelfth WFL team (the replacement for the Wheels), but this never materialized, and only 11 teams played in the 1975 season.[11] 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.[12]
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.[2]
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, includingCalvin Hill andTed Kwalick, 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.
TheChicago Winds made an offer to agingSuper Bowl IIIMVPJoe Namath, who seriously considered the offer, before refusing and re-signing with theNew York Jets. 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.[13]
On Wednesday, October 22, a few days before the start of week 13, the WFL ceased operations.[14][15][16] 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.[17] The Birmingham Vulcans, by virtue of their league-best record of 9–3 at the time of the shutdown,[18] were proclaimed league champions.[19]
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 ananti-trust suit against the NFL. Their case was ultimately dismissed on May 30, 1984,[20] by which time the owners had already established theTampa Bay Bandits in the next professional league, theUnited States Football League (then in the midst of its second season; that league 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.[2]
The league's struggles led to endless sarcastic comments (starting with the league's own abbreviation, which was often pronounced "Wiffle"). Chicago Fire offensive linemanSteve Wright 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 theNew York Giants 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 championPittsburgh Steelers, 17–0, in a preseason match that year.[21]
The WFL, for all its embarrassing miscues, produced a number of coaches who found success in the NFL, notablyJack Pardee,Lindy Infante, andMarty Schottenheimer.Jim Fassel, a quarterback for the Hawaiians, became a head coach in theNFL andUFL, taking theNew York Giants toSuper Bowl XXXV in 2001 and theLas Vegas Locomotives to a win in the2009 UFL Championship Game. 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 theSan Francisco 49ers during the 1980sdynasty years. Several players, most notablyPat Haden,Danny White,Alfred Jenkins,Greg Latta, andVince Papale, later found success in the NFL as well.
Four WFL alumni made it to thePro Football Hall of Fame:Larry Csonka,Paul Warfield,Leroy Kelly andDon Maynard; all four were already established stars in the NFL before joining the WFL.
The league's most severe impact was on theMiami Dolphins, who had just won consecutiveSuper Bowls before the WFL's snagging of three of their star players. This changed the course of NFL history, by opening the door to dominance by two other AFC teams, the Steelers and the Raiders, during the second half of the 1970s.
While by no means the pioneer of "singular" team nicknames, which had been used by some college and professional sports teams since the 19th century, the high quantity of them in a single league ("Fire", "Sun", "Bell", "Storm", "Steamer", "Thunder", "Express") was rare in professional sports at the time, and was a distinguishing mark of the league.
The WFL also arguably affected locations of other professional football teams: from the NFL, Hawaii hosted thePro Bowl from 1980 through 2009 and again from 2011 to 2016, Jacksonville got theJacksonville Jaguars in 1995, Charlotte received theCarolina Panthers in the same year, and Houston's expansion franchise, theTexans, revived the name of the WFL team in 2002. Though the WFL's Toronto establishment failed due to Canadian resistance, theBuffalo Bills (with Canadian backing and special conditions) played onehome game in Toronto a season from 2008 to 2013, and the league's original intent to expand the game globally is being partially fulfilled by theNFL International Series. Other cities became regular stops for franchises in other leagues:
The NFL'sHouston Texans revived the name of the WFL'sfranchise for thatcity when it began play in2002. ("Texans" had been used by anNFL Dallas team in 1952—after it folded, the remnants were taken over by the expansionBaltimore Colts—and by an AFL Dallas team in the early 1960s, which became theKansas City Chiefs.) The moniker was also used by anarena football team in Dallas in the early 1990s, and by aCFL San Antonio team for one year in the 1990s.
There is also aMajor League Soccer team called theChicago Fire, and there are/were alsoNBA teams called theMemphis Grizzlies (2001–present) andCharlotte Hornets (1988–2002, 2014–present) (the nickname "Hornets" was used for minor league baseball teams in Charlotte long before the WFL entry; also, the "Grizzlies" name for the Memphis NBA team was in use when the franchise was still inVancouver). TheJacksonville Sharks andPortland Thunder names were later revived for teams in the 2010 revival of theArena Football League, with the indoor Sharks (outlasting its namesake by several years) having since moved to theNational Arena League.
TheAmerican Football Association was conceived as a successor to the WFL, and in some newspapers was even referred to as the "New WFL". Many of the AFA teams revived, with slight alterations, the names of WFL teams that had resided in its respective cities, and several of the AFA's key personnel had previously served in similar capacities with WFL teams; the league operated from 1977 to 1983.
The league also caused significant problems for the lower levels of professional football. Its arrival resulted in the end of theACFL andSFL, effectively killing minor-league professional football in the United States until the AFA's formation in 1979.
Several NFL players signed contracts, or in some cases, future contracts with teams in the World Football League. In the case of a future contract, this was when a player entering the final years of a contract with an NFL team would sign a contract with a WFL team that goes into effect the moment the player's obligation with his NFL club is finished. Each signing is broken down by team, said players previous NFL club, and year player signed a contract. Just because a player signed does not mean he ever played for that team. L. C. Greenwood, for instance, never played a down of football for Birmingham.[2] No one shown with a date after 1975 ever actually played for the WFL team listed due to the league's insolvency as of that year.
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Many other players jumped as well. Dallas running back Duane Thomas signed with the Hawaiians in 1975 after being released by the Washington Redskins. Longtime Cleveland Browns running back Leroy Kelly signed with Chicago. Other players joined the WFL despite being drafted by NFL squads, such as quarterback Danny White, who signed with Memphis before eventually joining the NFL's Dallas Cowboys.[2]
The league's only national television contract was with theTVS Television Network,[23] asyndicator of American sports programming.Merle Harmon andAlex Hawkins announced TVS' Thursday Night Game.[24] Guest announcers were often brought into the booth includingPaul Hornung,[25]George Plimpton,[26]Alex Karras, andMcLean Stevenson.[27]
According to TVS presidentEddie Einhorn, the games actually got decent ratings at first. However, affiliates started bailing out after the Philadelphia and Jacksonville gate-inflation scandals. The trickle became a flood after two teams moved in the middle of the season and two more folded altogether. New York's midseason relocation came in part because the lights at Downing Stadium were nowhere near bright enough to illuminate the entire field, leading TVS to deem them inadequate for broadcast. This limited the Stars' national television exposure to away games. By the time of the World Bowl, the games were struggling to achieve Nielsen ratings above 2.0, and TVS found it nearly impossible to sell advertising. Despite the losses, Einhorn was actually willing to stick it out until Hemmeter announced the Winds were going to try to sign Namath. Einhorn told Hemmeter that the league had effectively bet its whole credibility on Namath coming to Chicago, and none of TVS' affiliates would commit to broadcasting the 1975 season unless Namath signed with the Winds. When he didn't, the WFL was left without a national television contract.[12] The loss of such a critical revenue stream was a factor in the league's collapse midway through the season.
Recordings from a few WFL telecasts survive, including two games involving the Jacksonville Sharks: one includes approximately one hour of footage from the July 10, 1974 match between the Sharks and the New York Stars, and the second includes ten minutes of footage from the Sharks hosting the Chicago Fire on July 17.NFL Films included clips from the Sharks-Stars game, including an animated introduction, in their television documentary seriesLost Treasures of NFL Films in 2001.[28] In it, hostSteve Sabol describes the damaged video tape as"a fourth generation copy of a copy" and as"TV history"; Sabol also noted that much of the WFL footage waslost or destroyed, and that much of what remained was home-recordedkinescopes far below broadcast quality. Lewis Bice, who shot promotional film for Birmingham to be used for highlight reels, preserved some of his work, which NFL Films used in the special along with the surviving telecast footage; NFL Films was pleasantly surprised at the caliber of Bice's surviving footage, which was remarkably close to NFL Films's own work, with Sabol commenting that if he'd known of Bice back then, "we would've hired him in a second."[29] Twenty-one minutes of the TVS broadcast of the1974 World Bowl - including the pre-game show, player introductions, and opening kick off - was uploaded to YouTube in 2018.[30]
One complete game on radio in audio form also survives - the 1974 WFL Playoff Game involving the California Sun and the Hawaiians, recorded from Hawaiians flagship stationKGMB.[31] A mostly complete recording of the Chicago Fire's radio broadcast onWJJD-FM of their game against the Philadelphia Bell also survives[32] as do fragments of other WFL radio broadcasts.[33]
Local affiliates provided most of the television and radio coverage throughout the WFL existence. Notable local announcers includeJohn Sterling (New York Stars/Charlotte Hornets television),[34]Spencer Ross (New York Stars radio),[35]Bob Sheppard (New York Stars PA),Mike Patrick (Jacksonville Sharks),Larry King (Shreveport Steamer),Larry Matson (Birmingham Americans/Birmingham Vulcans),[36]Fred Sington (Birmingham Americans/Birmingham Vulcans)[36] andEddie Doucette andVince Lloyd (Chicago Fire radio and TV respectively).
While the Boston Bulls franchise never made it onto the field; the team's preparations for the 1974 season had gone along far enough for the team to have signed contracts that January, shortly before the plug was pulled, withWLVI to televise the club's away games (as well as agreeing to pick-up the TVS package) andWEEI-AM to carry the team's entire schedule on radio. Although the franchise would be folded into the New York Stars, WLVI nevertheless honored their agreement to be the TVS/WFL outlet for Boston.
The league predated the vast expansion of cable television and sports networks spearheaded by the birth ofESPN in 1979, which severely limited the options the WFL had to televise. At the time, theAFL–NFL merger, coupled with the launch ofMonday Night Football, had spread theNFL broadcast rights over all three of theBig Three television networks. The NFL, in a 1973 memo, noted that if the NFL had left one of the Big Three networks without NFL rights, it would have left an opening for the WFL. This memo was later used as evidence when theUnited States Football League (which included Einhorn as one of its team owners) filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, hoping to break its television contracts; the lawsuit, although it acknowledged the monopoly, did not succeed in voiding the contracts.
Same franchises are shown on the same line.
The WFL had several important rules differences from theNational Football League of that era, and many were eventually adopted by the older league:
Although he could have sold 22000 season tickets for that ill-fated '75 season, he folded the team [...]
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