United States Football League (1983-1985)

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USFL Logo T-Shirt

This United States Football League logo tee harkens back to the iconic spring football experiment of the mid-1980s. The USFL challenged the NFL for the best collegiate talent of the era and created a form of de facto free agency for NFL stars, helping to launch or revitalize the careers of stars such as Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, Doug Williams and Sam Mills.

The classic-era logo was later revived with minimal alteration for the Made-For-Television USFL re-boot of 2022 and 2023.

This USFL design is available in a variety of colors and in sizes Small through 5XL from Royal Retros today!

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Background

The original United States Football League (USFL) officially debuted at a press conference in New York City on May 11, 1982. The 12 franchise owners and league founder David Dixon stood before the media and detailed their plans to play a 20-game regular season schedule starting in March 1983. The season, the said, would culminate in a championship to be played on the night of July 4. 

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A Long Time Coming

Dixon’s idea for a spring football league went back twenty years. The New Orleans native shelved the idea in 1962 in favor of trying to bring a National Football League (NFL) or American Football League (AFL) team to his hometown. He succeeded in helping the city land the NFL Saints and spearheaded the construction of the Superdome.

In 1980, his thoughts returned to spring football. Over the next two years, he lined up owners and created a detailed plan for success, learning from the mistakes made by other leagues, notably the World Football League (WFL), which had folded in 1975 after only one and a half seasons.

Man with a Plan

The first pillar of the Dixon Plan, of course, was to play games during the NFL’s offseason. It also called for using NFL-caliber stadiums and securing cable and broadcast TV rights, an achievable goal given the first part of the plan. The most important component, though, called for rigorously controlled spending, especially on player salaries. That last one proved to be the toughest nut to crack.

The USFL soon signed broadcast deals with ESPN and ABC, and most clubs leased professional-grade stadiums, many used by the NFL. Initially, teams were stocked with players at the end of their NFL or Canadian Football League (CFL) careers or those who had just missed making rosters in the established leagues. There was also a crop of overlooked former college stars to draw from. 

All 12 teams stuck to the plan– at first. On February 23, 1983, two weeks before the league’s inaugural season kicked off, Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, the star running back from the University of Georgia, signed a $5 million, three-year contract with the New Jersey Generals, owned by oilman J. Walter Duncan. The arms race had begun.

The Price is Right

While Walker’s contract was by far the biggest in the league, other well-known players, including notable rookies, drew very competitive salaries. Some of the league’s teams operated more shrewdly, with one, the Denver Gold, actually turning a small profit in the USFL’s first season.

Crowds were respectable, while TV ratings were encouraging. Nonetheless, financial problems plagued many teams. As the first season wound down, the league admitted six expansion teams for 1984, not because the league was such a huge but to collect the expansion fees reported to be $6 million per team. 

The USFL was further compelled to add teams to thwart the proposed International Football League, announced at the end of June 1983. Dixon, meanwhile, discouraged by the lack of commitment to his master plan, left the USFL and sold the franchise he held to a group that would eventually form the Houston Gamblers, one of the new teams. 

Ironically, four of the six new teams were among the league’s most successful in the long run. However, the weaker teams, old and new, were a drag on the league. The Chicago Blitz, for example, did great on the field but had trouble drawing fans. As a result, the team was losing more money than expected. The other owners feared they would soon be in the same position.  

The Fall Guy

A solution was devised. Its biggest proponent was new to the USFL fold. On September 22, 1983, New York real estate mogul Donald Trump bought the New Jersey Generals. He was originally slated to be the team’s owner when the league launched but backed out at the last minute to pursue an opportunity to buy the Baltimore Colts. 

Almost immediately, Trump started angling for the league to switch to a fall schedule in direct competition with the NFL. What sounded like a suicide mission was part of a larger plan. Trump, or someone in his orbit, likely realized that buying into the USFL was an easy path to the NFL.

In 1983, the NFL had 28 teams. Thirteen of those teams* had started in leagues that, at one time, had challenged the NFL. Trump slowly gained support among his fellow owners. Some objected. New Denver Gold owner Doug Spedding was one. Edward DeBartolo Sr., who owned the Pittsburgh Maulers, was another. He told the press he bought into a spring league, not a fall circuit. Similarly, A. Alfred Taubman of the Michigan Panthers, the league’s first champions,  felt he had a good thing going in Southeastern Michigan, and a move to fall would ruin it. The biggest opponent, though, was an experienced professional sports team owner.

Not so Fast

John Basset, who owned the Tampa Bay Bandits, was no stranger to rebel leagues, having been involved in the World Hockey Association (WHA) and, significantly, the ill-fated WFL. Bassett understood the plan all too well. When the WFL ceased operations, he attempted to get his team, the Memphis Southmen, into the NFL. However, the older league declined.  

Perhaps in a few years, Bassett reasoned, the USFL would be in a position that would force the NFL to sue for peace as it had done in the 1960s with the AFL. It was too soon for the USFL, Bassett told his fellow owners. Trump, not a patient man, greatly respected Bassett but pushed for the move to fall nonetheless. The other owners, many floating in red ink, gradually sided with Trump. If they couldn’t get into the NFL, they thought, they might at least get paid to go away and thus recoup their losses. 

The 1984 season, while still a success overall, revealed many concerning issues. Before the start of the season, the league took control of the Chicago Blitz. The Los Angeles Express was sold, and its new owner, J. William Oldenburg, inked highly-touted, future NFL great Steve Young to the largest contract in the history of pro sports. That looked great at first. The team was successful on the field and won the Western Division. However, they struggled to draw fans to the cavernous L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Barely 10,000 a game turned up, sometimes fewer, in a facility that could seat 90,000. Halfway through the season, in true rebel league fashion, reports surfaced that Oldenburg wasn’t nearly as wealthy as he said he was.

In San Antonio, the expansion Gunslingers, new in 1984, were in similar trouble. A mediocre team, they averaged only 14,000 fans in small, charming but ancient Alamo Stadium, a Depression-era facility owned by the San Antonio School Board. To make matters worse, team owner Clinton Manges bounced payroll checks all over South Central Texas.

The Tribe has Spoken

With a move to fall conditionally approved in October 1984, some USFL owners abandoned ship. DeBartolo folded the Maulers after just one season, unwilling to go head-to-head with the Steelers. Similarly,  Michigan Panthers owner Al Taubman refused to compete with his friend William Clay Ford and the Detroit Lions. Instead, he merged his team with the Oakland Invaders. The Breakers, who had just found a workable and welcoming market in New Orleans, home of the NFL Saints, packed their bags for Portland, Oregon. The Philadelphia Stars moved to Baltimore, recently abandoned by the Colts. The Washington Federals became the Orlando Renegades. The league suspended the Chicago Blitz but awarded a new Windy City franchise to Eddie Einhorn for the fall 1986 season.

Einhorn, who ran the old TVS network of independent TV stations strung together to carry WFL games in 1974, quickly became a massive cheerleader for the switch to fall. There were only two dissenters left: Bassett and Denver Gold owner Doug Spedding. The latter’s team drew huge crowds to Mile High Stadium, but Spedding knew he could not compete with the local NFL team. He opted out and sold the team.

The Last Dance

The 1985 season was played with only 14 teams, down from 18 the previous year. The L.A. Express, under league administration, limped to the finish, playing its final home game at a community college. The San Antonio Gunslingers were near bankruptcy, as were the Portland Breakers. 

At the behest of the Generals’ owner, on the same autumn day in 1984 that the league announced its move to fall, the USFL sued the NFL for anti-trust violations. This was the silver bullet that would save the league, either with a large cash award or a peace treaty and possible merger with the NFL. The suit dragged on into spring 1986. It culminated in a 12-week trial that ended on July 29, all while the USFL continued to slim down. 

The Houston Gamblers, led by star QB Jim Kelly, merged with the New Jersey Generals. The Arizona Wranglers merged with the Oklahoma Outlaws to become the Arizona Outlaws. The Denver Gold canceled plans to move to Portland to replace the bankrupt Breakers. Instead, they merged with the Jacksonville Bulls.

Hollow Victory

Shockingly, the upstart league won its lawsuit. The NFL was stunned and initially scrambled to put a response together. That included, according to then-Baltimore Stars GM Carl Peterson, the taking in of some USFL teams– but not the Generals.

The league already had one outspoken owner in Al Davis of the Raiders. They weren’t keen to add another. The NFL’s worries were alleviated, though, when the jury awarded the  USFL $1 in damages, tripled to $3. A week later, the league announced it was suspending operations. With no TV contract and having to split $3 eight ways, the USFL was effectively finished.

Up until the damage award was announced, the league was moving forward with its fall 1986 season using the following setup:

Independence Division

Arizona Outlaws

Jacksonville Bulls

Orlando Renegades

Tampa Bay Bandits

Liberty Division

Baltimore Stars

Birmingham Stallions

Memphis Showboats

New Jersey Generals

They never played another down. However, in 2022, the United States Football League was re-launched, but in name only. After playing two seasons with eight teams using some of the old nicknames with slightly updated logos, it merged with the also revived XFL. The combined circuit now operates as the United Football League, which is unrelated to the league which operated from 2009 to 2012 under the same name.  

*The thirteen NFL teams that started in rebel leagues: Rams (AFL II), Browns and 49ers (AAFC), Oilers (now Titans), Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, Jets, Broncos, Dolphins, Bengals, Patriots, and Bills (AFL IV).

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Football For A Buck

The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL

By Jeff Pearlman

 

The United States Football League—known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL—did not merely challenge the NFL, but cause its owners and executives to collectively shudder. In its three seasons from 1983-85, it secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans and launched the careers of legends such as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and Reggie White. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic team owner—a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump.

In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to airplane brawls and player-coach punch outs, to backroom business deals and some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes and how, forty years ago, Trump was already a scoundrel and a spoiler.

 

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