The Carolina Cougars played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1969 to 1974. The team was established as the Houston Mavericks and spent two seasons in Texas before being purchased by North Carolina syndicate. The team was sold and moved to Missouri and became the Spirits of St. Louis in 1974.
The Memphis Southmen, known colloquially as the “Grizzlies”, were a short-lived member of the World Football League (WFL) that played at the Liberty Bowl for parts of two seasons in 1974 and 1975. In an era when the NFL offered no free agency, the threat of jumping to the WFL offered a brief window of leverage for NFL stars seeking better contracts. The Southmen garnered national headlines (and the cover of Sports Illustrated) when they successfully lured the trio of Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield and Jim Kiick away from the Miami Dolphins for the 1975 season. All three stars suited up for Memphis that fall, but by that time the WFL was already on its last legs. The league disbanded that October without completing its regular season schedule.
The Kanas City Monarchs are perhaps the best known Negro Leagues baseball team of all time. They played from the inception of the first Negro league in 1920 until finishing up as a barnstorming team in 1965.
The Las Vegas Thunder were a six-year entry in the International Hockey League during that organization’s gold rush era of nationwide expansion in the mid-1990’s. Minor league baseball investors Hank Stickney and his son Ken paid a $2.0 million expansion fee for the Thunder in 1993. The Stickneys also owned the Las Vegas Stars Class AAA baseball team.
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.
Throughout the 1990’s and into the early 2000’s, Milwaukee, Wisconsin was one of the most stable pro soccer scenes in the U.S. In late 2002, Milwaukee boasted both the reigning 2nd Division outdoor champions, the 10-year old Rampage, and the country’s longest running indoor soccer franchise, the Wave, about to enter their 19th season of competition. But in January 2003 the Rampage went out of business, foregoing the opportunity to defend their 2002 A-League title. The ownership of the Milwaukee Wave quickly stepped into the void, forming an expansion team known as Wave United to replace the Rampage in the outdoor A-League during the summer of 2003.
This long-gone Arena Football League entry was notable mainly for its celebrity ownership and and its naming rights agreement with a briefly popular beer of the late 1990’s, Miller Brewing Company’s Red Dog lager. Former NFL 1st round draft pick Tommy Maddox started at quarterback for the Red Dogs during their final season in 2000. Maddox would later return to the NFL for five more seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2001-2005) and earned that league’s Comeback Player-of-the-Year Award in 2002 along with a Super Bowl championship ring.
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.
The San Antonio Texans were a One-Year Wonder in the Canadian Football League, playing a single season at the Alamodome in the autumn of 1995. The franchise had a twisty backstory, dating back to the formation of the NFL-backed World League of American Football (WLAF) in 1990.
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