High Desert League (1978)
California Football League (1979-1981)
Tombstone
Born: 1978 – High Desert League expansion franchise
Re-Branded: June 1979 (Ventura County Americans)
Folded: Postseason 1981
First Game: September 16, 1978 (W 22-16 vs. Los Angeles Norsemen)
Last Game: September 26, 1981 (L 28-7 @ Campbell-San Jose Tigers)
California Football League Championships: None
Stadia
1978: Mt. Clef Stadium
1979-1980: Hueneme High School
1981: Camarillo High School
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners:
- 1978: Dr. Irving Schaffner
- 1979: ?
- 1980: George Holmes
- 1981: Ventura Football, Inc. (William J. Ferrin, President)
Background
The Americans were a minor league football outfit that played at college and high school football stadiums in Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Camarillo, California for four seasons seasons between 1978 and 1981. In 1978, the team was known as the Conejo Americans and played in the obscure High Desert League.
From 1979 through 1981, the re-named Ventura County Americans were members of the California Football League, one the nation’s top semi-pro leagues of the era. The CFL’s San Jose Tigers and Twin Cities Cougars regularly appeared atop Pro Football Weekly’s national rankings of the country’s minor and semi-pro teams.
Fred Kemp coached the team for all three of its seasons in Ventura County. The team’s most accomplished player was probably former University of Washington quarterback Tom Porras, who suited up for Ventura County as a 23-year old in 1981. Porras went on to a long professional career in the USFL, the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League that lasted until 1996. He was the starting quarterback for the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1987 and part of 1988 and was part of two Grey Cup championship teams in Canada.
The Ventura County Star estimated that Americans’ games drew typical crowds of around 500 fans at Oxnard’s Hueneme High School during the 1980 season.1Reem, Craig. “Americans begin semipro year tonight”. The Star (Ventura, CA). July 11, 1981
Following the 1981 season, the California Football League’s entire Southern Division disbanded, including the Ventura County Americans. The CFL played two more seasons in 1982 and 1984 before closing its doors for good.
Trivia
The Americans lifted their logo – a stylized capital “A” with a star inscribed within it (see program cover at upper right) – from the old Birmingham Americans of the World Football League. The WFL attempted to rival the National Football League in the mid 1970’s, much as the American Football League had successfully challenged the elder league a decade earlier. When the WFL disbanded in 1975, no one protected the league’s intellectual property and many of the league’s short-lived logos and team names were subsequently repurposed by semi-pro around the country.
Ventura County Americans Shop
Downloads
8-1-1981 Ventura County Americans vs. Orange Empire Outlaws Roster
8-1-1981 Ventura County Americans vs. Orange County Outlaws Roster
Links
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