The Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association (ABA) began as the Oakland Oaks. After two seasons they were sold and moved to Washington, D.C., for one year, before moving to the Tidewater region of Eastern Virginia. They folded in 1976, just a month shy of the NBA-ABA merger.
The Houston Texans were a blink-and-you-missed-’em franchise in the World Football League during the summer of 1974. The Texans played only five home games at the Astrodome before abruptly moving to Shreveport, Louisiana in mid-season. The Texans’ great notoriety came from briefly luring away the NFL’s #1 overall draft pick in 1973, Houston Oilers defensive end John Matuszak. The Tooz played just a handful of snaps for the Texans before sherrif’s deputies served him with a restraining order on the sideline, ending his WFL adventure after only one weird evening.
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 New York Americans hockey team played in the National Hocky League from 1925 until 1941. Just before the start of the 1941-42 season, they were renamed the Brooklyn Americans in name only, still playing their games in Manhattan, at Madison Square Garden. They folded in 1942.
Today we look at the original Portland Beavers baseball team of 1906-1972, the first and most enduring of three clubs to play under the Bevos name in the storied Pacific Coast League. When the team finally moved away to Spokane, Washington in early 1973, Portland became the last of the original six PCL cities of 1903 to lose its minor league baseball franchise. The second version of the Beavers would return to Portland’s Civic Stadium in 1978.
For a remarkable three-year period between 2004 and 2006 this amateur women’s soccer club that played in a 1,500-seat community college field in the Trenton suburbs managed to sign up a jaw-dropping roster of top players from all over the world. The Wildcats ran roughshod over the USL’s W-League during these years with only one North American women’s club – the Vancouver Whitecaps – able to stay on the field with them.
Arena Football League (1992-1993) Born: October 11, 1991 – AFL expansion franchise Folded: October 28, 1993 First Game: May 30, 1992 (W 37-34 vs. Detroit Drive) Last Game: July 31, 1993 (W 50-43 vs. Dallas Texans) Arena Bowl Championships: None Riverfront Coliseum (15,500) Opened: 1975 Team Colors: Green, Yellow & White Owner: Ted Gregory
The New Jersey Americans were charter members of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967. After one year in Teaneck, New Jersey, the team moved to Long Island to become the New York Nets.
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.
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