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 1981 Chicago Fire of the American Football Association were a low-budget re-boot of the 1974 Chicago Fire of the World Football League. Both teams used the same logo and colors and played at Soldier Field. But while the WFL aspired to challenge the National Football League for talent and attention, the American Football Association was an avowedly minor league operation. Like the original Fire of 1974, the new Fire of 1981 folded after only one season of play.
The Tulsa Mustangs were a minor-league football outfit that last for only 5 games of a planned 16-game schedule in the American Football Association in 1979. The team had a 1-4 record at the time they folded in midseason. The AFA was a southern U.S. minor league that stretched from Jacksonville to San Antonio and as far north as Louisville during the 1979 season. Read more…
The Jacksonville Firebirds were a briefly popular entry in the American Football Association. The league, which played a spring/summer schedule, expanded across the Southeast in the late 1970’s and found a nice niche in Jacksonville, where the Firebirds began play in 1979. The Firebirds drew an astonishing 153,000 fans for 13 games at the Gator Bowl during their debut season, a campaign that capped off with a championship game victory over the Carolina Chargers.
The Americans were a minor league football team that played just one season at the Citrus Bowl during the summer of 1981. The team featured several NFL veterans, including starting quarterback Jerry Golsteyn, who used his Americans showcase to earn a return to the NFL as a back-up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1982 and 1983.
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