The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional football team based in Northeast Philadelphia that played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1924 to 1931. The team predates the city’s current NFL team, the Eagles.
The Richmond Roadrunners played in the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1968 and 1969. The team moved up from the United American Football League, where they played their inaugural season as the Richmond Mustangs. In 1970, the team re-branded as the Saints, reflecting their affiliation with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.
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 Thrashers were Atlanta’s second foray into the National Hockey League and were established 17 years after the city’s former NHL team, the Flames, had departed for Calgary. The Thrashers spent 12 seasons in Georgia before moving to Canada, just as their predecessors did.
Fun fact: despite its misleading name, this five-season entry in the Class AA Texas League during the mid-1970’s was not really a farm club of the Milwaukee Brewers. OK, so that’s not quite 100% true. San Antonio was a Milwaukee farm team for one season during the summer of 1972. To commemorate the new Player Development Contract with Milwaukee, San Antonio dropped its long-time local nickname – the ‘Missions’ – to become the Brewers that year. But Milwaukee pulled out after just one season and the team’s local owners didn’t bother to update the name … for the next four years!
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.
The Tallahassee Thunder were a short-lived Arena Football team that played at the Leon County Civic Center from 2000 through 2002. The team played in Arena Football 2, which was a small market developmental circuit for the larger Arena Football League at the time.
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.
Canadian Football League (1994) Born: July 26, 1993 – CFL expansion franchise Folded: April 1995 First Game: July 8, 1994 (W 32-26 @ Sacramento Gold Miners) Last Game: November 5, 1994 (L 51-10 @ Edmonton Eskimos) Grey Cup Championships: None Sam Boyd Stadium (31,000) Opened: 1971 Team Colors: Desert Sand, Black & White Owner: Nick
Fun While it Lasted presents the Jersey of the Week, brought to you by Royal Retros. Each week, we feature a historic uniform. Click to learn more about the team that wore this classic gear.
