The New England Whalers, later known as the Hartford Whalers, were one of the last two teams to join the brand-new World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1971, but they ended up being one of the most successful clubs in the league, on the ice and at the gate.
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.
The Baltimore Elite Giants got their start in Nashville, before moving to Columbus, Ohio for one year, then to Washington, D.C. They moved down the road in Baltimore in 1938 and played there until 1950, before spending their final season back in Tennessee.
The original Winnipeg Jets were charter members of the WHA in 1972. They moved to the NHL in 1979, along with three other WHA squads. In 1995, they were sold and moved to Phoenix for the 1996-97 hockey season. The name was revived when the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Manitoba in 2011 and assumed the Jets name but not their history.
The Atlantic City Surf were one of the six original franchises in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. The Atlantic League was (and remains) the most ambitious league to arise out of the independent baseball boom of the 1990’s. The Surf played at the Sandcastle, a 5,900-seat ballpark built on the grounds of Atlantic City’s municipal airport, Bader Field. The stadium was built with $11.5 million in Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funds and $3 million in taxpayer bonds.
Soccer League As I draft this column, I’m sitting in the athletic center at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts administering the final exam for my Sports Promotions & Marketing course (SM 203). I taught two sections of the course as a guest instructor this semester and it was a blast.
Arena Football League (1987, 1989-1990) Maryland Commandos Born: 1987 – Arena Football founding franchise Folded: Postseason 1990 First Game: June 19, 1987 (L 48-46 @ Pittsburgh Gladiators) Last Game: July 28, 1990 (L 37-28 @ Dallas Texans) Arena Bowl Championships: None 1987 & 1989: Capital Centre (17,000) Opened: 1973 Demolished: 2002 1989: Baltimore Arena
A detailed history of the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-1970) a founding member of the ABA that played three seasons in the Big Easy and later moved to Memphis.
The Sacramento Gold Miners were the first U.S.-based franchise admitted into the Canadian Football League during the CFL’s short-lived American expansion adventure from 1993 to 1995. The Gold Miners weren’t a brand new operation though. Owner Fred Anderson’s team previously played in the NFL-sponsored World League of American Football (WLAF) as the Sacramento Surge in 1991 and 1992. After NFL owners pulled the plug on the WLAF in September 1992, Anderson applied for entry to the CFL. The team retained its color scheme, Head Coach Kay Stephenson and a number of players from the WLAF era, but changed its name upon joining the CFL.
