The Chicago Rockets were charter members of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a league that attempted to rival the National Football League for pro football supremacy in the post-WWII years of 1946-1949. The Rockets were the city’s third pro football team, joining the NFL’s Bears and Cardinals. In 1949, the team was sold and renamed the Hornets. They folded when the NFL absorbed three AAFC, the Hornets not being one of them.
The Chicago Hornets were a one-year wonder in the All-America Football Conference, a league that attempted to rival the National Football League for pro football supremacy in the post-WWII years of 1946-1949. The Hornets arrived on the scene just in time to take part in the AAFC’s final season, before getting contracted 10 months later in the December 1949 merger of the AAFC and the NFL. The Chicago market went to the NFL’s Bears (and Cardinals), while the Hornets vanished into the dustbin of history.
The Chicago Machine were an ill-fated operation formed as part of Major League Lacrosse’s 2006 expansion to the Midwest and West Coast. After posting the first winless season (0-12) in league history in 2006, the Machine posted three more last place finishes in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The team closed up shop in Chicago after the 2009 season but technically played one more season on the league table as a travel-only club in 2010. Chicago’s league membership was moved to Rochester, New York in late 2010. Major League Lacrosse itself went out of business after 20 seasons in late 2020.
National Professional Soccer League (1967) Born: 1967 – NPSL founding franchise Moved: January 1968 (Kansas City Spurs) First Game: April 16, 1967 (W 2-1 vs. St. Louis
The 1981 Chicago Fire of the American Football Association were a low-budget re-boot of the 1974 Chicago Fire of the World Football League. Both teams used the same logo and colors and played at Soldier Field. But while the WFL aspired to challenge the National Football League for talent and attention, the American Football Association was an avowedly minor league operation. Like the original Fire of 1974, the new Fire of 1981 folded after only one season of play.
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