Spotlight

1987 Arena Football League Media Guide

Arena Football League (1987-2019)

March 25, 2012 2 Comments

The original Arena Football League was a patented 50-yard indoor football game system developed by a former NFL employee named Jim Foster. Foster first came up with the idea while watching a Major Indoor Soccer League match at Madison Square Garden in 1981.  It took six years for Foster to fully develop the concept and launch the league in 1987. The league went on to have a modest but very loyal following. It’s spirit lives on in the arena leagues that are playing today.

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historic Football

1985 Portland Breakers United States Football League Poster

Portland Breakers

March 8, 2013 3 Comments

The Breakers of the United States Football League landed in Portland, Oregon in November 1984.  This nomadic franchise drifted through three different cities during the USFL’s three-year existence as a springtime football league from 1983 to 1985.  The club started out in Boston, Massachusetts in 1983, played at New Orleans’ Louisiana Superdome in the spring of 1984 and finished up at Portland’s Civic Stadium.

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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

Salt Lake Golden Eagles International Hockey League

Salt Lake Golden Eagles

May 15, 2018 7 Comments

The Salt Lake Golden Eagles hockey team was a popular mainstay on the Utah pro sports scene for a quarter century. That Eagles endured despite the shocking and untimely deaths of two team owners, the collapse of two hockey leagues of which they were members, and several 11th hour rescues from financial calamity.

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baseball History

1983 Omaha Royals baseball program from the American Association

Omaha Royals / Omaha Golden Spikes

March 23, 2018 1 Comment

Omaha, Nebraska has hosted the top farm club of the Kansas City Royals since the Major League club’s inception in 1969. Initially known as the Omaha Royals, the Class AAA club won four league championships of the American Association, including back-to-back titles in their first two seasons in 1969 and 1970. The Royals survived the closure of the American Association, joining the Pacific Coast League in 1998. From 1999 until 2001, the team was briefly known as the “Golden Spikes” before returning to the Royals nickname. In 2011, the club re-branded as the Omaha Storm Chasers while simultaneously moving into the new $36M Werner Park.

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Soccer Indoor and outdoor

Pro Soccer

Houston Pro Soccer…Then & Now

April 13, 2012 2 Comments

Houston Pro Soccer Yesterday The Houston Chronicle published photos of the nearly complete $95 million BBVA Compass Stadium in downtown Houston.  BBVA opens on May 12th when its primary tenant, the Houston Dynamo, plays D.C. United in a Major League Soccer match.  BBVA is simply the latest in a string of increasingly

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Arena Football

Leroy Thompson on the cover of a 2005 New Orleans Voodoo program from the Arena Football League

New Orleans Voodoo (2004-2008)

March 1, 2013 No Comments

The (original) New Orleans Voodoo were a tremendously popular Arena Football League team that played in the city from 2004-2005 and 2007-2008.  The team went on hiatus for the 2006 season in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and saw its roster dispersed.  But the Voodoo returned to New Orleans Arena in 2007 and were more popular than ever, setting an all-time league record with the reported sale of over 13,000 season tickets.

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Pro Basketball

Oakland Oaks Media Guide 1968

Oakland Oaks (1967-1969)

March 26, 2026 No Comments

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.

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Canadian Football League

1994 Sacramento Gold Miners media guide from the Canadian Football League

Sacramento Gold Miners

March 5, 2019 1 Comment

The Sacramento Gold Miners were the first U.S.-based franchise admitted into the Canadian Football League during the CFL’s short-lived American expansion adventure from 1993 to 1995. The Gold Miners weren’t a brand new operation though. Owner Fred Anderson’s team previously played in the NFL-sponsored World League of American Football (WLAF) as the Sacramento Surge in 1991 and 1992. After NFL owners pulled the plug on the WLAF in September 1992, Anderson applied for entry to the CFL. The team retained its color scheme, Head Coach Kay Stephenson and a number of players from the WLAF era, but changed its name upon joining the CFL.

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