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 Tri-City Apollos were a minor league football team that represented Bay City, Midland and Saginaw, Michigan. The team lasted just one season in the Continental Football League in the autumn of 1969. The team folded along with the rest of the Continental League during the winter of 1969-70.
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 San Jose Grizzlies were a short-lived indoor soccer entry that competed in the summer-season Continental Indoor Soccer League in 1994 and 1995.
Two decades earlier, Grizzlies owner Milan Mandaric founded the Bay Area’s popular San Jose Earthquakes soccer team in the North American Soccer League. Serbian-American indoor star Preki arrived for the Grizzlies’ second and final season and won the CISL’s MVP award in 1995. It was the future Soccer Hall of Famer’s final season of indoor soccer before embarking on his equally legendary outdoor career with the U.S. Men’s National Team and in Major League Soccer in 1996.
The Kansas City Command was a short-lived revival, after a two-year absence, of an earlier and far more popular Arena Football League franchise known as the Kansas City Brigade.
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.
In the spring of 1982, the Canadian Football League’s venerable Montreal Alouettes franchise collapsed under a mountain of debt. Seeking a clean slate for new ownership, league officials folded the Alouettes on May 13, 1982 and awarded a new Montreal expansion club to Seagram’s liquor baron and Montreal Expos founder Charles Bronfman the next day. The club embarked on a star-crossed four year voyage under the new name “Concordes”, drawing inspiration from the iconic supersonic transatlantic jets of the era.
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.
