The Charlotte Barons were a dominant semi-professional football team that played two summer/fall seasons at American Legion Memorial Stadium in 1989 and 1990. Charlotte dominated the nationwide Minor League Football System in both seasons, running up a 23-2 overall record and winning the MLFS league championship in 1990. The Barons folded along with the rest of the league following the 1990 season.
Pretty terrific on the field. Pretty messy off of it. That was more or less the book on the Colorado Spring Spirit. The minor league football outfit won 17 of 23 games over two seasons before its players and coaches simply walked away from their first place team midway through its sophomore campaign in the Minor League Football System.
This Macon-based semi-pro football squad played a single season in the Minor League Football System during the summer of 1990, only to see the league come apart at the seams. Former Buffalo Bills chief Lou Saban was the Heat Wave head coach initially but left the team midway through the season, leaving the squad in the hands of long-time New England Patriots defensive stalwart Julius Adams, a Macon native.
The Bay State Titans were a semi-pro football outfit that played for one season at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts. The Titans claim to fame was the reclamation of 19-year old defensive lineman Eric Swann. Swann was a fast and enormous (6′ 5″, 320 lb.) pass rusher who never played a down of college football. After auditioning with the Titans in 1990, Swann emerged as a dominant NFL pass rusher earning All-Pro honors in 1995 and 1996.
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.
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