The San Diego Conquistadors were members of the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1972 to 1975, and were the league’s only expansion team. They rebranded as the San Diego Sails in 1975, but only lasted 11 games before folding.
The San Antonio Gunslingers were a gritty, hard-nosed team in the short-lived United States Football League. Although they posted losing records in both of their spring campaigns, they competed harder under adverse conditions than just about any USFL observers at the time anticipated.
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 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.
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.
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.
Arena Football League (2001-2008) Born: November 1, 2000 – The Iowa Barnstormers relocate to Long Island, NY Folded: 2009 First Game: April 21, 2001 (L 68-58 vs. Toronto Phantoms) Last Game: July 5, 2008 (L 49-48 @ Philadelphia Soul) Arena Bowl Championships: None Nassau Coliseum (11,965) Opened: 1972 Team Colors: Red, Black, Orange
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 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.
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