Texas Football League (1968, 1970)
Continental Football League (1969)
Trans-American Football League (1971)
Tombstone
Born: 1968 – The Fort Worth Texans re-brand as the Fort Worth Braves
Folded: Postseason 1971
First Game: August 24, 1968 (L 24-6 @ San Antonio Toros)
Last Game: June 12, 1971 (L 49-14 @ Texarkana Titans)
Continental Football League Championships: None
Texas Football League Championships:
Trans-American Football League Championships: None
Stadia
1968-1970: Farrington Field (18,000)
1971: Scarborough-Handley Field
Marketing
Team Colors: Scarlet & Gold
Ownership
Owners: Tommy Mercer
Our Favorite Stuff
Fort Worth Braves
Logo T-Shirt
The Braves football team enjoyed a short, weird history at the end of the 1960’s. At their peak, Braves owner Tommy Mercer, who also owned the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs minor league baseball team of the era, actually poached a college draft pick from the American Football League by outbidding the New York Jets! But the Braves could never find a stable league to play in and they quietly went out of business in the middle of their fourth season in 1971.
This design is available from American Retro Apparel in white or sport grey and in sizes small through XXXL today!
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Background
The Fort Worth Braves were a minor league football team that played for four seasons in a trio of leagues between 1968 and 1971. Club owner Tommy Mercer also owned the city’s minor league baseball team, the Dallas-Forth Worth Spurs, during the same era. He co-owned the baseball team with Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, but Hunt was not involved with the Braves.
In 1968, the Braves had the second best record in the Texas Football League, but were left out of the title game because of the league’s divisional structure. Their divisional rivals the San Antonio Toros finished 11-1 and nudged the Braves out of the postseason.
In 1969, the Texas Football League merged itself into the nationwide Continental Football League. The Continental League made noises about becoming a third major league of professional football just beneath the NFL and the AFL. In reality it operated just like the rickety minor league that it was. Although the CoFL had a nationwide footprint, the Braves still played 9 of their 12 regular season games in the state of Texas, supplemented with road trips to Nevada, Oklahoma and Oregon.
Bidding War with New York Jets
The Braves did make a few national headlines in 1969 when they weirdly outbid the AFL’s New York Jets for the services of Chris Gilbert, the All-American running back from the University of Texas and the Jets’ 5th round draft pick. At the time, Gilbert was the Southwestern Conference’s all-time leading rusher and the only college running back ever to rush for 1,000 in three different seasons. Gilbert represented himself in negotiations with Weeb Ewbank and felt the Jets Head Coach was lowballing him with an offer in the low $20,000’s. That opened the door for Tommy Mercer, who plucked away the ex-Longhorns star in July 1969.
Gilbert ended up playing second banana to featured back James Walker, who led the 23-team Continental League with 1,035 rushing yards. But the Braves struggled to a 5-7 finish.
Final Seasons & Demise
The Continental League folded after the 1969 season. The Braves and five of their local rivals took back the Texas Football League name and soldiered as a regional minor league in 1970. The Braves finished 6-4 in the autumn of 1970. They lost the Texas League title game to the San Antonio Toros 21-17.
The league re-organized yet again in the winter of 1970-71, dropping the Texas Football League name and becoming the Trans-American Football League. The bigger change was a shift to a spring schedule with an April 1971 kickoff. The spring experiment died a quick death and the league cut short its schedule after only five weeks of play. The Braves finished 1-4 in their final season of operation.
When the Southwestern Football League formed in 1972 to replace the defunct Trans-American League, the city of Fort Worth was represented by the Dallas-Fort Worth Rockets and the Toros were no more.
Fort Worth Braves Shop
Our Favorite Stuff
Continental Football League
Logo T-Shirt
Variously described as everything from “semi-pro” football to the “third Major League” behind the NFL and AFL during the late 1960’s, the Continental Football briefly established a sprawling network of pro football clubs that stretched from Florida to Mexico City to British Columbia. The Continental League helped launch the careers of Hall-of-Famers Bill Walsh and Ken Stabler and other NFL stars of the 1970’s including Otis Sistrunk, Bob Kuechenberg and Coy Bacon.
Our friends at Old School Shirts make the only Continental League shirt we’ve found and like all of their retro Americana tees, it’s soft and fits great!
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In Memoriam
Offensive guard Frank Goodish (Braves ’70), AKA Bruiser Brody, was stabbed to death by fellow pro wrestler Jose Huertas Gonzalez in his locker room prior to a wrestling promotion in Bayamon, Puerto Rico on July 18th, 1988. He was 42 years old. Los Angeles Times coverage.
Linebacker Bub Deerinwater (Braves ’70-’71) passed away on November 22, 2014 at the age of 67.
Downloads
1969 Texas Football League Standard Player Contract
1969 Texas Football League Standard Players Contract
Links
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12 Responses
I am looking for 1968 programs of the Fort Worth Braves. Mainly the programs with my name in them.
Should you not have them Please direct me to the right person. Thank you!
If you are the Jerry Holley from Ralls, a tight end wearing # 81 for the Fort Worth Braves football team in 1968, I have a program with a picture of yourself in it. I wondered upon a website that you are interested in these programs. This is a program Fort Worth Braves vs. El Paso Jets played at Farrington Field.
Mr. Holley were you able to find that program?
I’m pretty sure my father, Luckey Wright Sr, played for the Braves but can’t find any info about it. Dates? Position? Pictures? He passed away about eight years ago. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Bill McKinley played for the forth worth Braves 1968/1969 season or before that ,cannot find him,I am his brother
I have a 30 gram gold pendant given to Royce Womble by Tommy Mercer.it has the Indian head logo and has Braves at the top and 1968 at the bottom of the front.on the back it has to Royce Womble says wins and loss ratio and good luck inscribed and Tommy Mercers signature.
I have a Fort Worth Braves Program vs Barlesville at Farrington Field circa 1968. Its in fair condition with a tear in the top corner of the cover and one page out of the binding. Orange and yellow covers with the Indian Brave drawing on the front. Says Continental Football League Texas Division on the front.
What did the Fort Worth Texans use as a logo 🙂
My name is Phil Luebbehusen I played for the Braves for a couple of years along with Ronnie Patterson, Bill Sweeney, Ronnie Nixon, Ronnie Steadman, Joe Brown, Jerry Jack Terrell, Joe O’brien, Fred and Ted Polser, Chris Gilbert, Danny Abbot, Obert Logan,etc. Where are they now??
Phil,
Would you contact me. I’m writing a story about the Braves for Fort Worth Magazine.
Hey Phil,
Ronnie Steadman here.
Give me a call 940-594-0541.
My email address is [email protected].