Shreveport Steamer (1978-1981)

American Football Association (1978-1981)

Background

This second incarnation of the Shreveport Steamer was a minor league re-boot of the original Shreveport Steamer (1974-1975) of the defunct World Football League. The team was part of the American Football Association, a  dysfunctional and ever-shifting collective of semi-pro teams based primarily in Texas and the southeastern U.S. from 1977 to 1983.

The man behind the revival was a Texas football coach and promoter named Harry Lander. Lander served not only  owner, GM and Head Coach of the Shreveport franchise but President of the AFA itself in 1978. He secured rights to the old Steamer name and logo from the former WFL ownership group. He purchased what remained of the WFL team’s uniforms and equipment from a storage warehouse for $3,000.

Welcome to the King (or Hong) Kong Bowl!

The 1978 edition of the Steamer was an outstanding minor league outfit. The team tore through the AFA schedule, posting an 11-1 record. On September 30, 1978, Lander arranged a championship match against the San Jose Tigers, the best semi-pro team in California, in Shreveport. Lander trumpeted the game as “the King Kong Bowl” but there was a miscommunication with the team’s print vendor. When a season-high crowd, estimated at 15,000 to 18,000 fans¹McLain, Jim. “Steamer didn’t know way to San Jose”. The Times (Shreveport, LA). October 1, 1978, showed up at State Fair Stadium for the clash, they were greeted by vendors hawking programs for the “Hong Kong Bowl”. San Jose crushed the Steamer 32-6.

Losing Steam

Lander moved on to start an AFA franchise in Birmingham, Alabama in 1979. Ownership of the Steamer passed into a hands of a Shreveport group headed by local Buick dealer Ed Powell. The team gained some headlines in June of 1979 by signing former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Clint Longley. The Mad Bomber started only two games in the NFL, but remains a cult figure for two things – a season-saving relief appearance and Hail Mary on Thanksgiving Day 1974 and for sucker punching Roger Staubach two years later. Longley played sparingly for the Steamer in 1979 and again in 1981.

American Football Associations players played for next to nothing. Each man on the home team received a paycheck equal to one percent of the net gate receipts after expenses. As attendance dwindled after 1978, so did paychecks. In August 1980, Shreveport Times sports reporter Ron Higgins estimated the average Steamer game check to be about $35 per man. As a result, most players held other jobs during the week. In 1981, the team lost the services of all-league offensive guard Bruce Harrison, a Shreveport police officer, after he was shot in the eye during a domestic disturbance call.

On August 5th, 1981 Steamer owner Ed Powell folded the team with two games remaining on the regular season schedule. He cited ongoing strife with the players over pay and working conditions on the club.

In January 1982, new owners formed the Shreveport Americans and entered the team into the American Football Association. The Americans played two seasons before folding along with the rest of the AFA at the end of the 1983 campaign.

Voices

“We were on this plane, a Delta flight flying to Charlotte. Man, it was a thunderstorm like no other. I was sitting next to the team chaplain who was also our athletic trainer.  Ennis Sullivan. He was an ordained minister and we used to call him ‘Doctor Fat’. Now we also had a defensive end named Ron Johnson. His brother was Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, who played for the San Diego Chargers. We used to call Ron ‘Dirty Sugar’. He was tough but he played dirty. If he could poke you in the eye, he gonna poke you. And everything out of his mouth was a cuss word.

“They had turned the seat belt light off. Guys are walking up and down the aisle. All of a sudden this plane dropped. My head hit the bottom of the baggage compartment. When that plane dropped, the minister said “Oh shit!” and Ron Johnson, who was a hell-raiser, yelled “Oh Lord!”

– A.T. Banks, Cornerback 1978-1980 (2021 FWiL Interview)

“For the pre-game meal in San Antonio in ‘78, the meal was just pancakes. Man, every ten minutes two or three of those big linemen were going to the locker room. Eating those pancakes, you got the runs, now, OK. So after that, everybody said we’re gonna strike, right?

[Team owner/head coach] Harry Lander called a team meeting and said “I’ll put a rooster and a donkey on the field and somebody will pay to come and watch.” I’ll never forget that.

– A.T. Banks

Shreveport Steamer Shop

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Outsiders II

by Bob Gill with Tod Maher & Steve Brainerd

 

Outsiders II covers the independent minor leagues of professional football from 1951 through 1985. This volume contains histories and yearly statistical summaries for the top minor leagues of the period, plus the World Football League, which has a claim to major league status, and the United States Football League, which was clearly a major league. It also includes yearly summaries for the best of the lesser leagues, which featured a good number of interesting players in their own right.

 

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In Memoriam

Founder/owner/head coach Harry Lander (Steamer ’78) died on January 9, 2004. He was 71 years old.

Team owner Ed Powell passed away October 12, 2016 at age 85.

Athletic trainer and team chaplain Ennis Sullivan passed away on July 16, 2019 at the age of 66. Obituary.

Downloads

August 5th, 1978 Steamer vs. Austin Texans Roster

2021 FWiL interview with Steamer cornerback A.T. Banks (AKA Asmar Baraka)

Links

American Football Association Programs

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