The Aztecs were L.A.’s sporadically glam soccer club of the 1970’s. The club won the North American Soccer League championship in their expansion season of 1974. At various times, the Aztecs had ties to everyone from George Best to Elton John to the Dutch midfield genius Johan Cruyff. But the club also bounced from one ill-fitting stadium to another every year or two and suffered from revolving door ownership.
The Shreveport Steamer brought pro football to the unlikely confines of Western Louisiana when the World Football League’s Houston Texans moved halfway through the 1974 season. They stayed on until halfway through the 1975, whereupon they went out of business with the rest of the league.
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.
The Boston Tigers were a semi-professional soccer team that played in Chelsea and Lynn, Massachusetts, melting pot cities that bordered the northern edge of Boston. The Tigers competed in the American Soccer League (ASL) against competition from other Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic cities. Future two-time NASL Most Valuable Player Carlos Metidieri suited up for the Tigers in 1967.
Arena Football League (2006-2008) Utah Blaze Born: September 2004 – AFL expansion franchise Folded: August 4, 2009 First Game: January 28, 2006 (W 48-35 @ San Jose SaberCats) Last Game: June 28, 2008 (L 49-44 vs. Colorado Crush) Arena Bowl Championships: None EnergySolutions Arena Opened: 1991 Team Colors: Owners: John Garff, Robert
The American Basketball Association (ABA) was formed in 1967 as a competitor to the established National Basketball Association (NBA). It started with 11 teams, and within a few years was angling for a merger with the older league. In 1976, the NBA took in four ABA teams, while three other surviving teams disbanded.
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.
