United States Football League (1983)
Tombstone
Born: May 11, 1982 – USFL founding franchise
Moved: October 18, 1983 (New Orleans Breakers)11984 New Orleans Breakers Media Guide
First Game: March 6, 1983 (L 21-17 @ Tampa Bay Bandits)
Final Game: July 3, 1983 (W 34-10 vs. New Jersey Generals)
USFL Championships: None
Stadium
Marketing
Team Colors:
Cheerleaders: The Heartbreakers
Ownership
Owners: George Matthews & Randy Vataha
Attendance
Boston Breakers attendance ranked last in the 12-team USFL in 1983. Boston University’s Nickerson Field also offered (by far) the smallest seating capacity of any stadium in the league.
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Sources:
- 1984 New Orleans Breakers Media Guide (1983 Breakers figures)
- Oates, Bob. “USFL Shrinks, but Still Has a Large Problem: It’s Not Lack of Money or Quality of Its Players, It’s Convincing Television That There Are Fans”. The Times (Los Angeles, CA). February 4, 1985 (1983 USFL league-wide attendance figure)
Trophy Case
USFL Coach of the Year
- 1983: Dick Coury
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Background
The Boston Breakers were one of twelve original franchises in the springtime United States Football League (1983-1985). Expectations were low for Head Coach Dick Coury’s club, which failed to sign virtually all of its draft picks and fielded a team of low budget, no-name NFL training camp cuts, Canadian Football League castoffs and prison parolees.
Starting quarterback Johnnie Walton hadn’t worn a football uniform since 1979. But the 35-year old flourished in Coury’s pass-happy offense, finishing second in the USFL with 3,772 passing yards. Former CFL All-Pro tailback Richard Crump rushed for nearly a 1,000 yards to supplement the passing game. Although the college draft was a near washout for the Breakers, the team hit big with 9th round linebacker Marcus Marek, the all-time tackling leader out of Ohio State University. Marek racked up 240 tackles and assisted tackles and earned 1st Team All-USFL honors.
More controversially, the Breakers started former UCLA prize recruit Billy Don Jackson at defensive end. Jackson served 8 months in prison for manslaughter in the 1980 death of a marijuana dealer. He was paroled five months before the USFL opened play in March 1983.
To nearly everyone’s surprise, the Breakers finished 11- 7 and narrowly missed the final playoff spot. Coury was named the USFL’s Coach of the Year.
Departure for New Orleans
The Breakers were saddled with an unfortunate stadium situation in Boston, playing in tiny Nickerson Field, which all lacked modern amenities such as luxury suites or convenient parking. With no suitable alternatives in the region, owners George Matthews and Randy Vataha sold the club for a reported $8.0 million to New Orleans developer Joseph Canizaro.
Canizaro moved the Boston Breakers USFL franchise to New Orleans for the spring of 1984. After a season in New Orleans, Canizaro moved the club again, this time to Portland, Oregon. Each version of the Breakers – Boston, New Orleans and Portland – lasted just one season in their respective city. The USFL folded after the 1985 season.
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Editor's Pick
Football For A Buck
The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL
By Jeff Pearlman
The United States Football League—known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL—did not merely challenge the NFL, but cause its owners and executives to collectively shudder. In its three seasons from 1983-85, it secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans and launched the careers of legends such as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and Reggie White. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic team owner—a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump.
In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to airplane brawls and player-coach punch outs, to backroom business deals and some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes and how, forty years ago, Trump was already a scoundrel and a spoiler.
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Boston Breakers Video
Philadelphia Stars at Boston Breakers in the most fantastic finish of the 1983 USFL season. Nickerson Field, May 29, 1983.
In Memoriam
Offensive tackle Louis Bullard, who played for the Breakers in Boston, New Orleans and Portland, passed away from cancer on April 18, 2010 at age 53. Bullard was one of the Breakers’ player representatives and the spokesperson for dozens of Portland Breakers in their long fight to collect unpaid wages from team owner Joe Canizaro.
Linebacker Gary Gibson died in September 2019 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. The former University of Arizona star and 1982 San Francisco 49ers draft pick was 60 years old.
Head Coach Dick Coury passed on August 15th, 2020 at the age of 90. Los Angeles Times obituary.
Downloads
1983 Boston Breakers USFL Results & Attendance
1983 Boston Breakers Results & Attendance
Links
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4 Responses
To put things in perspective, a part of Nickerson Field was home to the National League Boston Braves who left for Milwaukee in 1952.
I watched the first half of that USFL game, and was tickled that there was a player named “Woodrow Wilson.”
Kenn,
Don’t forget Breakers nose tackle Oudious Lee!
Nickerson Field was also the original home of the Boston Patriots of the American Football League (from 1960 to 1962).