1975 Cedar Rapids Giants Baseball Program from the Midwest League

Cedar Rapids Giants

March 5, 2023

Cedar Rapids, Iowa hosted the Class A Midwest League farm team of the National League’s San Francisco Giants for five summers between 1975 and 1979. Top players to emerge from Cedar Rapids during the Giants era included third basemen Bob Brenly (C-R ’77), outfielder Chili Davis (C-R ’78) and outfielder Rob Deer (C-R ’79). Following the 1979 season, the Cincinnati Reds replaced San Francisco as Cedar Rapids’ parent club and the team became the Cedar Rapids Reds in 1980.

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1980 Alexandria Dukes Baseball Program from the Carolina League

Alexandria Dukes / Alexandria Mariners

March 5, 2023

The Alexandria Dukes were a Class A Carolina League minor league baseball team that played in the Washington D.C. suburbs from 1978 through 1983. During the 1979 season, the team was known as the Alexandria Mariners thanks to a short-lived affiliation with the American League’s Seattle Mariners. The Dukes enjoyed their greatest success as a Pittsburgh Pirates farm team from 1981 to 1983, including a Carolina League title in 1982. The team moved away to Woodbridge, Virginia in 1984.

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1999 Idaho Stallions program from the Indoor Professional Football League

Idaho Stallions / Boise Stallions

March 4, 2023

The Idaho Stallions were a perpetually troubled indoor football team that played three seasons in the Indoor Football League from 1999 through 2001. The Stallions played in Nampa at the Idaho Center in 1999 before moving to Boise’s Bank of America Centre for its final two seasons. The team was known as the “Boise Stallions” during their final season in 2001, which saw the team lose its ownership in midseason and cancel several games in order to save money.

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1999 Rocky Mountain Thunder Program from the Indoor Professional Football League

Rocky Mountain Thunder

February 26, 2023

The Rocky Mountain Thunder was an indoor football team based in Colorado Springs, Colorado that played one season in the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) during the summer of 1999. The IPFL was a small league of just six members that season, with other franchises in Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Players were primarily local guys and paychecks were modest at $200 per game. The Thunder played at the $59 million World Arena, which had opened just a year earlier.

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Head coach Vaughn Hebron on the cover of a 2001 Trenton Lightning program from the Indoor Professional Football League

Trenton Lightning

February 25, 2023

The Trenton Lightning were an indoor football team that managed to play just six games during April and May of 2001. The team, coached by former Denver Broncos running back Vaughn Hebron, lost all six of its contests before financial scandals caused the team to disband. Later investigations revealed that Lightning founder Philip Subhan, an American Express Financial Advisor, funded the team with money embezzled from his clients. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2004.

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