Jacksonville Express

World Football League (1975)

Tombstone

Born: April 16, 1975 – WFL expansion franchise¹
Folded: October 22, 1975²

First Game: August 2, 1975 (L 27-26 @ Memphis Southmen)
Last Game: October 19, 1975 (L 30-13 @ Portland Thunder)

World Bowl Championships: None

Stadium

The Gator Bowl (70,000)
Opened: 1928
Demolished: 1994

Marketing

Team Colors: Black, Gold & Red

Cheerleaders: The Expression

Ownership

Owner: Earl Knabb, Leff Mabie, Charles Mabry Jr. & Lewis Obi

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Background

The Jacksonville Express was a franchise that existed for part of one season in the World Football League during the summer and autumn of 1975. The WFL was an under-funded effort to challenge the NFL head-to-head in the fall, along the lines of the AFL-NFL rivalry of the 1960’s. Jacksonville was one of the league’s original cities in 1974, but the Jacksonville Sharks club went kaput midway through the season.

When the WFL re-organized for 1975, they gave Jacksonville another shot under an entirely new ownership group and front office. Among the few holdovers from the Sharks debacle was Head Coach Charlie Tate. The new club adopted the Jacksonville Express moniker.

The team had a handful of seasoned NFL veterans but no true “stars”. NFL veteran QB George Mira played for the WFL’s Birmingham Americans the previous year and earned MVP honors in the 1974 World Bowl championship game. Defensive end Don Brumm was a former 1st round draft pick and Pro Bowler with the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals. The Express also signed young running back Tommy Reamon, who was one of the league’s ‘Tri-MVP’s” in 1974 as a rookie with the since-disbanded Florida Blazers club.

The Express featured one notable rookie in defensive back Steve Foley out of Tulane University. After the WFL disbanded, Foley latched on with the Denver Broncos and enjoyed an 11-year career in the NFL, highlighted by two Super Bowl appearances and an All-Pro selection in 1978.

The End

The Express posted a 6-5 record and were midway through their first season when financial problems finally overwhelmed the league. League owners met on October 22, 1975 to review the condition of the league and voted 6-4 to disband immediately. Despite disappointing attendance at the Gator Bowl – just over 10,000 per game, down sharply from the free-ticket fueled number posted by the Jacksonville Sharks a year earlier – the Express were one of the four dissenting clubs who wished to continue.

The league shut down immediately in the wake of the vote. The Express’ final game was a 30-13 road loss in Portland, Oregon on October 19, 1975.

Trivia

Express defensive back Fletcher Smith was the first man ever to touch the ball in a Super Bowl. On January 15th, 1967 Smith, as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, booted the opening kickoff of Super Bowl I to the Green Bay Packers.

Voices

“The night before the opener against Memphis, they got all of us seven rookies together in a hotel room and proceeded to gut our salaries by 75%. That knocked me from $1,000 a game down to $250. But I thought if I made that team, I’d get back to the NFL. I would have paid them to play.”

– Dan Callahan, Punter 1975 (2021 FWiL interview)