Chicago Rush
January 27, 2020
Arena Football League (2001-2008 & 2010-2013) Born: June 28, 1999 – AFL expansion franchise Folded: 2013 First Game: April 21, 2001 (L 45-44 @ Oklahoma
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Chicago Horizons
April 15, 2018
All-but-forgotten indoor soccer club that played a single season in suburban Chicago during the winter of 1980-81. The Chicago Horizons were an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League that season. In truly boring fashion, the team named itself after its home arena, the 16,000-seat Rosemont Horizon that opened earlier that year. It didn’t help matters that Chicago’s established outdoor team, the Sting, also began playing an indoor soccer schedule that same winter in a rival league at Chicago Stadium downtown.
Chicago Power
July 1, 2015
The Chicago Power were an indoor soccer club formed in 1988. The Power were a lower-budget successor to the Chicago Sting, the city’s popular and long-running pro side that went out of business in July of that same year. Several weeks after the Sting closed their doors, a former Sting investor named Lou Weisbach purchased an expansion franchise in the American Indoor Soccer Association (AISA). Karl-Heinz Granitza, Pato Margetic, Batata, Bret Hall, and other former Sting stars suited up for the Power over the years, who played mostly at the suburban Rosemont Horizon. The franchise moved to Edmonton in 1996 after years of behind-the-scenes turmoil.
Chicago Express
January 1, 2014
Can you launch a minor league basketball franchise in Chicago on the shoulders of Michael Jordan’s big brother Larry? Apparently not, as the Chicago Express of the World Basketball League learned during the summer of 1988, playing to acres of empty seats at the suburban Rosemont Horizon.
Chicago Sting
July 20, 2013
The Chicago Sting were an accomplished pro soccer club that enjoyed success both outdoors and indoors during a thirteen-year run from 1975 through 1988. The Sting formed as an outdoor club in 1975 in the North American Soccer League. Early seasons saw mediocrity on the pitch and pitiful crowds as the club constantly rotated matches between Comiskey Park, Soldier Field and Wrigley Field. The Sting peaked in the early 1980’s, capturing the NASL’s Soccer Bowl ’81 championship and beginning to play indoor soccer during the winters, where Sting matches were a popular attraction at Chicago Stadium. The NASL folded in 1984 bringing the Sting’s outdoor era to an end, but the team went on to play four more indoor seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League before disbanding in 1988.