Tag: Memphis Memorial Stadium

Memphis Showboats

Memphis Showboats

November 27, 2017

The Memphis Showboats were a popular entry that drew strong crowds to the Liberty Bowl in the springtime United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. The Showboats are best remembered today for persuading University of Tennessee star defensive end Reggie White to sign with the USFL rather than enter the 1984 NFL draft. After two seasons with Memphis, White joined the NFL in 1985. He is one of four Pro Football Hall-of-Famer players to begin his career in the USFL, alongside Jim Kelly, Steve Young and Gary Zimmerman.

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Paul Warfield on the cover of a 1975 Memphis Southmen program from the World Football League

Memphis Southmen

July 20, 2014

The Memphis Southmen, known colloquially as the “Grizzlies”, were a short-lived member of the World Football League (WFL) that played at the Liberty Bowl for parts of two seasons in 1974 and 1975. In an era when the NFL offered no free agency, the threat of jumping to the WFL offered a brief window of leverage for NFL stars seeking better contracts. The Southmen garnered national headlines (and the cover of Sports Illustrated) when they successfully lured the trio of Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield and Jim Kiick away from the Miami Dolphins for the 1975 season. All three stars suited up for Memphis that fall, but by that time the WFL was already on its last legs. The league disbanded that October without completing its regular season schedule.

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Memphis Rogues North American Soccer League

Memphis Rogues (1978-1980)

June 28, 2013

The Rogues were Memphis’ first proper pro soccer team, playing three lackluster seasons at the Liberty Bowl from 1978 to 1980. The team was both more competitive and more popular playing a lone indoor season during the winter of 1979-80 at the Mid-South Coliseum. But the franchise moved to Calgary in 1980 before it could follow up on its promising indoor debut.

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2001 Memphis Maniax Media Guide from the XFL

Memphis Maniax

January 25, 2013

The Memphis Maniax were one of eight franchises during the one and only season of the XFL, a failed joint venture between World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and NBC. The team was widely mocked and derided for its name and logo, including by mental illness advocates. 1994 Heisman Trophy winning running back Rashaan Salaam along with two other former NFL first round draft picks, quarterback Jim Druckenmiller and defensive end Shante Carver, all attempted to re-boot their pro careers with the Maniax. NBC and WWE disbanded the XFL after one season in the spring of 2001.

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Owner Fred Anderson and Head Coach Pepper Rodgers on the cover of the 1995 Memphis Mad Dogs Media Guide

Memphis Mad Dogs

June 28, 2012

The Memphis Mad Dogs were a short-lived chapter in the Canadian Football League’s expansion misadventure into the United States between 1993 and 1995. The Mad Dogs arrived at the Liberty Bowl just in time for the final season of the CFL’s three-year American experiment in the fall of 1995. The ‘Dogs featured an outstanding defense and CFL legend Damon Allen at quarterback but never quite put it all together and finished their only season at 9-9. The team did make a star out of unheralded community college wide receiver Joe Horn, who leapt from the Mad Dogs to a 12-year career in the NFL and four Pro Bowl nods. The team folded after the 1995 season.

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