Category: United States Football League

Illustration of head coach Dick Coury on the cover of the 1983 Boston Breakers media guide from the United States Football League

Boston Breakers (1983)

December 10, 2013

The Boston Breakers were one of twelve original franchises in the springtime United States Football League (1983-1985).  Expectations were low for Head Coach Dick Coury’s club, which failed to sign virtually all of its draft picks and fielded a team of low budget, no-name NFL training camp cuts, Canadian Football League castoffs and prison parolees. To nearly everyone’s surprise, the Breakers finished 11- 7 and narrowly missed the final playoff spot.  Coury was named the USFL’s Coach of the Year.

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New Orleans Breakers USFL

New Orleans Breakers

June 22, 2013

The New Orleans Breakers were a relatively popular entry in the United States Football League during the spring of 1984. The team gained national attention by signing teenage Marcus Dupree to a $6 million contract after the ex-University of Oklahoma star dropped out of college. The Breakers got off to a hot start 5-0 start in league play that spring and brought in crowds of over 30,000 to the Superdome. But the USFL’s sudden lurch to move to a fall season in 1986 doomed the franchise in the Big Easy.

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Jacksonville Bulls United States Football League

Jacksonville Bulls

April 6, 2013

When it comes to the United States Football League, the 1980’s spring football adventure that still enjoys a sizable cult following today, you might say the Jacksonville Bulls are the team that time forgot.  The Bulls, for example, barely merit a mention in director Mike Tollin’s definitive and affectionate Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? documentary for ESPN’s 30-for-30 film series. So let me make a brief case for why the Jacksonville Bulls deserve a lot more love from retro football fetishists.

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1985 Portland Breakers United States Football League Poster

Portland Breakers

March 8, 2013

The Breakers of the United States Football League landed in Portland, Oregon in November 1984.  This nomadic franchise drifted through three different cities during the USFL’s three-year existence as a springtime football league from 1983 to 1985.  The club started out in Boston, Massachusetts in 1983, played at New Orleans’ Louisiana Superdome in the spring of 1984 and finished up at Portland’s Civic Stadium.

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1983 Chicago Blitz Media Guide from the United States Football League

Chicago Blitz

March 8, 2013

This springtime pro football team from the United States Football League was notable for pulling one of the craziest and most self-destructive trades in pro sports history. Thanks to some ownership shenanigans, the Blitz swapped basically their entire (superb) roster and coaching staff for the threadbare roster of the wretched Arizona Wranglers prior to the USFL’s second season. Despite the chaos, the Blitz featured not one but two future Hall-of-Fame head coaches during their brief two-year existence.

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