American Football Association (1982)
Tombstone
Born: February 1982 – AFA expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1982
First Game: May 29, 1982 (W 37-32 vs. Jacksonville Sunbirds)
Last Game: July 31, 1982 (L 16-14 @ Georgia Pride)
AFA Championships: None
Stadium
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners: Jim Patton & Steve Patton
Background
The Alabama Magic were a One-Year Wonder that played a 10-game schedule in the minor league American Football Association during the spring and summer of 1982.
Putting minor league football back into Birmingham’s Legion Field – after three other pro teams had failed there in the past seven years – was an insane long shot from the get go. But the Magic’s fate was effectively sealed on May 11th, 1982, two weeks before the team’s debut game. On that date, the formation of the United States Football League was announced with Birmingham as one of the league’s 12 founding franchises. The USFL had an ABC network television contract and some deep-pocketed owners. The Magic struggled two rub two nickels together.
Alabama Road Show
The Magic tried to establish a regional identity. Legion Field played host to three of the five Magic home dates. The other two games were scheduled at Memorial Stadium in Anniston and in Selma. The road show was a brutal flop for the Magic players, whose pay was supposed to be a fixed percentage of net box office receipts. A severe thunderstorm ruined the gate at the Anniston contest, a 28-0 win against the Florida Statesmen, on June 12, 1982. Anniston Star sports editor Charles Goldberg pegged the Memorial Stadium crowd at “four people” with two minutes left in the first half in his game recap the next day. The Selma game on July 10, 1982 never happened. The Magic’s intended opponent, the Florida Suns, folded in midseason and forfeited the contest.
After a 6-1 start the Magic dropped their final three contests to finish their lone campaign at 6-4. The team folded quietly in the fall/winter of 1982. The AFA itself closed its doors after the 1983 season.
Thanks to Gene Crowley at BirminghamProSports.com for sharing the 1982 Magic program (top right) that anchors this post.
Trivia
Former Auburn quarterback Charlie Trotman played wide receiver and defensive back for the Magic. He was also the team’s back-up QB and returned punts. In 1983, Trotman saw brief action with the team that supplanted the Magic at Legion Field, the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions.
The Magic’s dance team was known as the “Magic Charms”.
Alabama Magic Shop
Editor's Pick
The Home Team
My Bromance With Off-Brand Football
Birmingham, Alabama – the Football Capital of the South – has likely had more pro football teams than any other city. None have been in the NFL, and all have failed. Quickly.
As veteran sportswriter Scott Adamson can attest, loving an off-brand team is the triumph of hope over experience. Having decided at an early age that tackle football was the greatest sport man has yet to invent, Adamson takes on a fan’s-eye view of life with Brand X football. The Home Team: My Bromance with Off-Brand Football is the funny, somewhat tortured, journey of a fanatic’s life long quest for a hometown team of his own.
The Home Team: My Bromance with Off-Brand Football is filled with trivia, history, heartache, and more trivia. And how game day hotdogs can be fatal to young romance. Adamson’s account of Birmingham’s unsinkable quest for pro football is for any fan whose hometown’s reach has exceeded its grasp.
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