Minor League Football System (1990)
Tombstone
Born: 1990 – MLFS expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1990
First Game: July 14, 1990 (L 26-14 @ Harrisburg Patriots)
Last Game: September 29, 1990 (W 67-0 vs. “Bay State Titans”)*
*See below for the circumstances of this very odd final game
MLFS Championships: None
Stadium
Lackawanna County Stadium
Opened: 1989
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: Bob Olivetti, et al.
Background
Luckless semi-pro football outfit that played a single season at Scranton-Wilkes Barre’s minor league baseball stadium in the summer of 1990. The Scranton Wilkes-Barre Stallions signed former New York Jets and New Jersey Generals (USFL) head coach Walt Michaels to run the team. Quarterback Walter Briggs was a Montclair State grad who appeared in a single game for the New York Jets as a replacement player during the 1987 NFL players strike.
The Minor League Football System was an odd concept. While the teams were big budget in some areas – the Stallions had to pay for charter flights to distant games in Macon, Georgia and Fresno, California – the players themselves played for nothing. Teams were supposed to help their players find local jobs, but the paid no salaries. Nevertheless, league officials bucked the “semi-pro” label and sought to establish the MLFS as a developmental system for the NFL. (The league would produce just one NFL regular – defensive end Eric Swann – in its two-year history).
The team drew decent crowds to start, including more than 5,000 for a pre-season exhibition against Swann’s Bay State Titans. But the Stallions season went south quickly. Walt Michaels fell ill and left the team after a couple of games. After a 2-2 start, the team dropped six straight games to fall to the bottom of the league standings. Two MLFS franchises folded in midseason as the league began to implode around the Stallions.
The End
In a strange denouement, the MLFS ended its season two weeks early in September 1990 and moved to a hastily scheduled playoff. The Stallions were well out of contention but team officials decided to finish out their schedule, apparently in order to avoid lawsuits from local sponsors. This resulted in a bizarre season finale at Lackawanna County Stadium on September 29, 1990 against the Bay State Titans. The real Titans team were eliminated in the league’s abbreviated playoffs the weekend before. The Stallions threatened to bring suit against Titans owner Vic Gatto if they failed to show up for the original scheduled game in Pennsylvania. Gatto appealed to his (unpaid) team to travel to SWB for the game. They reportedly physically ejected the owner from the team’s locker room. Gatto then fired his (unpaid) players and rounded up a team of semi-pro replacements from the Carolinas to play the game. The Stallions blew out the “Titans” 67-0. Then both teams folded along with the rest of the all-but-forgotten Minor League Football System.
Trivia
From the All-Name Team: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Stallions featured a former University of Miami running back named J.C. Penny.
Links
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