The New England Whalers, later known as the Hartford Whalers, were one of the last two teams to join the brand-new World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1971, but they ended up being one of the most successful clubs in the league, on the ice and at the gate.
The Indianapolis Capitols (1968-1970) were a short-lived effort in professional minor league football, a form of entertainment which largely ceased to exist by the mid-1970’s. The Caps were one of the first pro football franchises to put their team in the hands of a black quarterback. They were also one of the first dabblings in pro sports by future NFL and NHL power broker Edward DeBartolo.
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.
Throughout the 1990’s and into the early 2000’s, Milwaukee, Wisconsin was one of the most stable pro soccer scenes in the U.S. In late 2002, Milwaukee boasted both the reigning 2nd Division outdoor champions, the 10-year old Rampage, and the country’s longest running indoor soccer franchise, the Wave, about to enter their 19th season of competition. But in January 2003 the Rampage went out of business, foregoing the opportunity to defend their 2002 A-League title. The ownership of the Milwaukee Wave quickly stepped into the void, forming an expansion team known as Wave United to replace the Rampage in the outdoor A-League during the summer of 2003.
The Oklahoma Wranglers were a well-traveled Arena Football League franchise that settled in Oklahoma City in the spring of 2000 following brief runs in Memphis (1995-1996) and Portland, Oregon (1997-1999). The Wranglers played their two seasons at the 28-year old Myriad Convention Center downtown. The team intended to move into the $89 million Ford Center upon its opening in the spring of 2002. But owner Ed Gatlin removed his financial support of the money-losing franchise during the summer of 2001. The AFL dissolved the franchise in November 2001.
A detailed history of the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-1970) a founding member of the ABA that played three seasons in the Big Easy and later moved to Memphis.
The Memphis Mad Dogs were a short-lived chapter in the Canadian Football League’s expansion misadventure into the United States between 1993 and 1995. The Mad Dogs arrived at the Liberty Bowl just in time for the final season of the CFL’s three-year American experiment in the fall of 1995. The ‘Dogs featured an outstanding defense and CFL legend Damon Allen at quarterback but never quite put it all together and finished their only season at 9-9. The team did make a star out of unheralded community college wide receiver Joe Horn, who leapt from the Mad Dogs to a 12-year career in the NFL and four Pro Bowl nods. The team folded after the 1995 season.
