Spotlight

1987 Arena Football League Media Guide

Arena Football League (1987-2019)

March 25, 2012 2 Comments

The original Arena Football League was a patented 50-yard indoor football game system developed by a former NFL employee named Jim Foster. Foster first came up with the idea while watching a Major Indoor Soccer League match at Madison Square Garden in 1981.  It took six years for Foster to fully develop the concept and launch the league in 1987. The league went on to have a modest but very loyal following. It’s spirit lives on in the arena leagues that are playing today.

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historic Football

Defensive tackle Kit Lathrop of the Arizona Outlaws on the cover of a 1985 United States Football League program

Arizona Outlaws

February 8, 2015 1 Comment

The Arizona Outlaws were a pro football team that competed in the third and final season of the United States Football League in the spring of 1985.  The team emerged from the merger of the USFL’s Arizona Wranglers and Oklahoma Outlaws franchises in December 1984.

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Honoring the Negro Leagues

Seattle Steelheads barnstorming poster

Seattle Steelheads

April 21, 2025 No Comments

The Seattle Steelheads were members of the West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCNBA) in that circuit’s only season, 1946. The team was actually the Harlem Globetrotters baseball club and returned to barnstorming when the WCNBA ceased operations.

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Retro Hockey

Salt Lake Golden Eagles International Hockey League

Salt Lake Golden Eagles

May 15, 2018 7 Comments

The Salt Lake Golden Eagles hockey team was a popular mainstay on the Utah pro sports scene for a quarter century. That Eagles endured despite the shocking and untimely deaths of two team owners, the collapse of two hockey leagues of which they were members, and several 11th hour rescues from financial calamity.

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baseball History

1983 Omaha Royals baseball program from the American Association

Omaha Royals / Omaha Golden Spikes

March 23, 2018 1 Comment

Omaha, Nebraska has hosted the top farm club of the Kansas City Royals since the Major League club’s inception in 1969. Initially known as the Omaha Royals, the Class AAA club won four league championships of the American Association, including back-to-back titles in their first two seasons in 1969 and 1970. The Royals survived the closure of the American Association, joining the Pacific Coast League in 1998. From 1999 until 2001, the team was briefly known as the “Golden Spikes” before returning to the Royals nickname. In 2011, the club re-branded as the Omaha Storm Chasers while simultaneously moving into the new $36M Werner Park.

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Soccer Indoor and outdoor

Lehigh Valley Steam logo larger

Lehigh Valley Steam

March 26, 2021 No Comments

This doomed 2nd division men’s club was part of the disastrous Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Stadium project, intended to bring minor league baseball and pro soccer to the Easton/Allentown region of Pennsylvania during the late 1990’s. The Steam would be the region’s first outdoor pro soccer team since the Pennsylvania Stoners, who played out of Allentown and Bethlehem, folded in 1984. When the stadium project failed to come to fruition, the Steam embarked on a single, futile season in the USL A-League during the summer of 1999, cobbling together a schedule of “home” matches in various sites around Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Steam officially disbanded in December 1999.

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Arena Football

2000 Carolina Cobras Media Guide from the Arena Football League

Carolina Cobras (2000-2004)

August 3, 2020 2 Comments

The original Carolina Cobras were an Arena Football League franchise that split their time between Raleigh (2000-2002) and Charlotte (2003-2004).The Cobras never finished better than .500 in five seasons of competition, but did manage to make the playoffs in 2001 and 2002. The hapless 0-16 Cobras squad of 2003 demands consideration as the worst in the 32-season history of the Arena Football League.

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Pro Basketball

Oakland Oaks Media Guide 1968

Oakland Oaks (1967-1969)

March 26, 2026 No Comments

The Oakland Oaks were charter members of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and were introduced, along with the rest of the new league, on February 2, 1967. The franchise’s initial investors were league co-founder Dennis Murphy, along with Los Angeles-based insurance executive S. Kenneth Davidson. The latter pulled in entertainer  Pat Boone, an avid basketball fan.

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Canadian Football League

1994 Sacramento Gold Miners media guide from the Canadian Football League

Sacramento Gold Miners

March 5, 2019 1 Comment

The Sacramento Gold Miners were the first U.S.-based franchise admitted into the Canadian Football League during the CFL’s short-lived American expansion adventure from 1993 to 1995. The Gold Miners weren’t a brand new operation though. Owner Fred Anderson’s team previously played in the NFL-sponsored World League of American Football (WLAF) as the Sacramento Surge in 1991 and 1992. After NFL owners pulled the plug on the WLAF in September 1992, Anderson applied for entry to the CFL. The team retained its color scheme, Head Coach Kay Stephenson and a number of players from the WLAF era, but changed its name upon joining the CFL.

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