The World Football League (WFL) was a disastrous attempt to set up a fall-season rival to the National Football League (NFL) in the mid-1970’s. It opened to much fanfare in July of 1974, but was soon undone by scandal and financial issues.
The New Jersey Generals were one of the original USFL franchises. Originally owned by J. Walter Duncan, the Oklahoma oilman sold the team in 1983 after one season. The Generals new owner, real estate developer Donald Trump, built the team into a winner, while simultaneously sowing the seeds of the league’s destruction.
The Baltimore Elite Giants got their start in Nashville, before moving to Columbus, Ohio for one year, then to Washington, D.C. They moved down the road in Baltimore in 1938 and played there until 1950, before spending their final season back in Tennessee.
The original Winnipeg Jets were charter members of the WHA in 1972. They moved to the NHL in 1979, along with three other WHA squads. In 1995, they were sold and moved to Phoenix for the 1996-97 hockey season. The name was revived when the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Manitoba in 2011 and assumed the Jets name but not their history.
The Atlantic City Surf were one of the six original franchises in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. The Atlantic League was (and remains) the most ambitious league to arise out of the independent baseball boom of the 1990’s. The Surf played at the Sandcastle, a 5,900-seat ballpark built on the grounds of Atlantic City’s municipal airport, Bader Field. The stadium was built with $11.5 million in Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funds and $3 million in taxpayer bonds.
The New Jersey Stallions are a long-time youth club soccer program operating out of Clifton, New Jersey. But during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s the organization also operated men’s – and, briefly, women’s – pro & amateur teams in the United Soccer Leagues. The Stallions debuted in 1996 and the Lady Stallions women’s club joined the USL in 2003. Following the 2004 season, the Stallions shuttered both their men’s and women’s USL adult clubs.
This brief entry in the Arena Football League shared Portland, Oregon’s 19,000-seat Rose Garden arena with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Largely undistinguished in competition, the Dragons did help to jumpstart the NFL career of wide receiver Oronde Gadsden, who went on to a solid 6-year stint with the Miami Dolphins after excelling in Portland.
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.
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.
