Spotlight

Karl-Heinz Granitza of the Chicago Sting on the cover of a 1984 Sting program

Chicago Sting

July 20, 2013 1 Comment

The Chicago Sting were an accomplished pro soccer club that enjoyed success both outdoors and indoors during a thirteen-year run from 1975 through 1988. The Sting formed as an outdoor club in 1975 in the North American Soccer League. Early seasons saw mediocrity on the pitch and pitiful crowds as the club constantly rotated matches between Comiskey Park, Soldier Field and Wrigley Field. The Sting peaked in the early 1980’s, capturing the NASL’s Soccer Bowl ’81 championship and beginning to play indoor soccer during the winters, where Sting matches were a popular attraction at Chicago Stadium. The NASL folded in 1984 bringing the Sting’s outdoor era to an end, but the team went on to play four more indoor seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League before disbanding in 1988.

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historic Football

AAFC Rockets v Dons program

Chicago Rockets (1946-1949)

September 2, 2025 No Comments

The Chicago Rockets were charter members of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a league that attempted to rival the National Football League for pro football supremacy in the post-WWII years of 1946-1949. The Rockets were the city’s third pro football team, joining the NFL’s Bears and Cardinals. In 1949, the team was sold and renamed the Hornets. They folded when the NFL absorbed three AAFC, the Hornets not being one of them.

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Honoring the Negro Leagues

Cleveland Buckeyes

Baltimore Elite Giants (1938-1951)

February 27, 2026 No Comments

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.

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Retro Hockey

Winnipeg Jets program

Winnipeg Jets (1972-1996)

March 6, 2025 2 Comments

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.

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baseball History

1998 Atlantic City Surf baseball program from the Atlantic League

Atlantic City Surf

December 31, 2017 2 Comments

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.

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Soccer Indoor and outdoor

Lehigh Valley Steam logo larger

Lehigh Valley Steam

March 26, 2021 No Comments

This doomed 2nd division men’s club was part of the disastrous Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Stadium project, intended to bring minor league baseball and pro soccer to the Easton/Allentown region of Pennsylvania during the late 1990’s. The Steam would be the region’s first outdoor pro soccer team since the Pennsylvania Stoners, who played out of Allentown and Bethlehem, folded in 1984. When the stadium project failed to come to fruition, the Steam embarked on a single, futile season in the USL A-League during the summer of 1999, cobbling together a schedule of “home” matches in various sites around Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Steam officially disbanded in December 1999.

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Arena Football

Kansas City Command Arena Football League

Kansas City Command

August 28, 2012 1 Comment

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.

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Pro Basketball

1970-71 Sporting News American Basketball Association Guide

American Basketball Association (1967-1976)

March 25, 2012 No Comments

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.

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Canadian Football League

Shreveport Pirates Canadian Football League

Shreveport Pirates

September 27, 2019 4 Comments

Yes, strange as it sounds, but the small, poverty-stricken city of Shreveport, Louisiana once had its very own Canadian Football League franchise: the Shreveport Pirates. The Pirates’ shambolic leadership made a series of head-scratching personnel moves, including the signings of troubled over-the-hill NFL stars Dexter Manley and Mark Duper, and fired the team’s first head coach before taking a regular season snap. Meanwhile the team staggered to a two-year record of 8-28 in the CFL before going out of business at the end of the 1995 season.

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