The original Macon Whoopees were charter members of the Southern Hockey League in 1973. The team only lasted one season. In the 1990s, a new team in the Central Hockey League (CHL) revived the name, though they dropped the “S” at the end. That team skated for five seasons, the last as members of the ECHL.
The New Orleans Breakers were a relatively popular entry in the United States Football League during the spring of 1984. The team gained national attention by signing teenage Marcus Dupree to a $6 million contract after the ex-University of Oklahoma star dropped out of college. The Breakers got off to a hot start 5-0 start in league play that spring and brought in crowds of over 30,000 to the Superdome. But the USFL’s sudden lurch to move to a fall season in 1986 doomed the franchise in the Big Easy.
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.
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…
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.
The sport of indoor soccer spread across the country during the 1980’s and into the early 1990’s. Thanks to organizations like the Major Indoor Soccer League, National Professional Soccer League and the Continental Indoor Soccer League, practically every Major League city in the country had seen one or more indoor soccer teams come through town by 1999. Salt Lake City, Utah was an exception until the upstart World Indoor Soccer League (WISL) rolled into town at the E Center in West Valley in 1999.
The Pittsburgh Gladiators were one of four founding members of the Arena Football League in 1987. The novelty of 50-yard indoor football caught some traction in the Steel City in the summer of ’87. All four of the Glads’ home games in the summer of 1987 drew strong crowds, culminating when Pittsburgh hosted Arena Bowl I at the Civic Arena before 13,232 and an ESPN national TV audience on August 1, 1987.
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 Birmingham Barracudas were the final American expansion team awarded during the Canadian Football League’s failed incursion into the United States during the mid-1990’s.
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.
