The Fort Worth Cavalry were a failed Arena Football League franchise now residing in our One-Year Wonders file. After one star-crossed season in Fort Worth, the team crossed the border into Mexico just in time for that country’s late 1994 financial meltdown and vanished without a trace.
Not just a One-Year Wonder, but a winless One-Year Wonder. The Columbus Thunderbolts lasted for just a single season in the Arena Football League in the summer of 1991. Along the way, they compiled a record of 0-10 under Head Coach Dave Whinham despite signing two-time Heisman Trophy finalist Major Harris at quarterback.
The Florida Bobcats were a hard luck Arena Football League outfit that wandered in the wilderness for a decade in the notorious pro sports graveyard of Southern Florida. Ownership squabbles and building problems plagued the franchise throughout its existence. The team was also reliably terrible in competition, posting ten straight losing seasons.
The Avengers, who played at STAPLES Center from 2000 through 2008, were L.A.’s second and most popular go-round with the sport of Arena Football. The team benefitted from deep pocketed owners and played during the height of the sport’s prominence in the early 2000’s when the Arena Football League boasted a national broadcast contract with NBC and investment from numerous NFL owners. The Avengers era was also marked by a terrible tragedy. On April 10th, 2005, Avengers lineman Al Lucas died after suffering a spinal cord injury while making a tackle during a game against the New York Dragons at STAPLES Center.
The Memphis Pharaohs were a two-year entry in the Arena Football League. They were the first pro sports franchise to play in the infamous Pyramid Arena, a $62 million dollar white whale project that lasted a mere 15 years after its opening. The Pharaohs signed cult football legend Marcus Dupree, though he never played a down, and endured an 0-14 season before leaving town in 1996.
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