Spotlight

Pottstown Firebirds Atlantic Coast Football League

Pottstown Firebirds

May 17, 2017 5 Comments

Minor league football is – and always has been – so far off the radar in this country that it’s impossible to speak of there being any iconic teams.  The sport offers nothing like the Hershey Bears hockey team or Rochester Red Wings baseball club that have entertained locals for upwards of a century. To the extent that minor and semi-pro football at least has a cult favorite team – the sport’s answer to the Durham Bulls – it may well be Pennsylvania’s short-lived Pottstown Firebirds of the defunct Atlantic Coast Football League.

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historic Football

1979 Jacksonville Firebirds Program from the American Football Association

Jacksonville Firebirds

October 16, 2012 16 Comments

The Jacksonville Firebirds were a briefly popular entry in the American Football Association. The league, which played a spring/summer schedule, expanded across the Southeast in the late 1970’s and found a nice niche in Jacksonville, where the Firebirds began play in 1979. The Firebirds drew an astonishing 153,000 fans for 13 games at the Gator Bowl during their debut season, a campaign that capped off with a championship game victory over the Carolina Chargers.

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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

Birmingham Bulls WHA

Birmingham Bulls (1976-1981)

May 16, 2014 No Comments

The Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association were one of the first major pro hockey teams to make their home in the Deep South, sharing that distinction with the slightly older Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League. The Bulls never posted a winning record and made the playoffs only once in three WHA seasons. But the team did make news for its controversial “Baby Bulls” youth movement that saw the team sign a parade of teenage stars from the junior ranks who would later go on to NHL stardom, including Ken Linseman, Michel Goulet, Rick Vaive, Pat Riggin and others. Read more…

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baseball History

Houston Colt 45s Program

Houston Colt .45s (1962-1964)

May 9, 2025 3 Comments

Houston’s dreams of landing a Major League Baseball team go back at least as far as the 1950s. The threat of a third major league, the proposed Continental League, yielded Houston a National League expansion franchise that was known as the Houston Colt .45s for its first three seasons.

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Soccer Indoor and outdoor

Marinette Pichon on the cover of a 2004 New Jersey Wildcats program from the USL W-League

New Jersey Wildcats

March 21, 2022 No Comments

For a remarkable three-year period between 2004 and 2006 this amateur women’s soccer club that played in a 1,500-seat community college field in the Trenton suburbs managed to sign up a jaw-dropping roster of top players from all over the world. The Wildcats ran roughshod over the USL’s W-League during these years with only one North American women’s club – the Vancouver Whitecaps – able to stay on the field with them.

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Arena Football

Baltimore Brigade Arena Football League

Baltimore Brigade

November 28, 2019 1 Comment

The Baltimore Brigade were a late-era entry in the now-defunct Arena Football League. The Brigade played during one the league’s darkest eras, when the once sprawling national league was reduced to a tiny cluster of survivors in the northeastern U.S. In 2018, the Brigade played in Arena Bowl XXXI, a bizarre spectacle that somehow saw the Brigade lose the championship game to the Washington Valor, the league’s last place team that went 2-10 in the regular season.

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Pro Basketball

1970-71 Sporting News American Basketball Association Guide

American Basketball Association (1967-1976)

March 25, 2012 1 Comment

The American Basketball Association (ABA) was formed in 1967 as a competitor to the established National Basketball Association (NBA). It started with 11 teams, and within a few years was angling for a merger with the older league. In 1976, the NBA took in four ABA teams, while three other surviving teams disbanded.

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Canadian Football League

Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian Football League

Ottawa Rough Riders

July 3, 2020 6 Comments

The history of the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian football team stretches back to 1876 with the formation of an amateur rugby side known as the Ottawa Football Club. The team folded in 1996 after 120 years.

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HISTORIC UNIFORMS

Southern California Sun magenta jersey

Jersey of the Week

July 16, 2026 No Comments

Fun While it Lasted presents the Jersey of the Week, brought to you by Royal Retros. Each week, we feature a historic uniform. Click to learn more about the team that wore this classic gear.

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