Spotlight

1973-74 Atlanta Flames Media Guide from the National Hockey League

Atlanta Flames

July 31, 2019 3 Comments

This was a good 1970’s NHL expansion team!  No, really. The Atlanta Flames had a winning record in five of their eight seasons as the NHL’s only Deep South outpost. They made the playoffs six out of those eight years. They had a core of outstanding young players and a future Hall-of-Fame executive in the GM chair. But the collective memory of the Atlanta Flames is that they weren’t very good because they were God-awful in the playoffs (objectively true) and Southerners hate ice hockey (possibly true, definitely a well-worn trope).

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historic Football

Chicago Hornets All-America Football Conference

Chicago Hornets (1949)

February 14, 2021 1 Comment

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.

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Honoring the Negro Leagues

Seattle Steelheads barnstorming poster

Seattle Steelheads

April 21, 2025 No Comments

The Seattle Steelheads were members of the West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCNBA) in that circuit’s only season, 1946. The team was actually the Harlem Globetrotters baseball club and returned to barnstorming when the WCNBA ceased operations.

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Retro Hockey

1978 Cincinnati Stingers Program from the World Hockey Association

Cincinnati Stingers

August 4, 2012 8 Comments

The Cincinnati Stingers hockey team began life in the upstart World Hockey Association in the winter of 1975-76.  Owners Bill DeWitt Jr. and Brian Heekin originally sought to land an NHL expansion club for the Queen City, failed, and then accepted the first expansion franchise awarded by the fledgling WHA as a fallback option in May 1973. 

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baseball History

San Antonio Brewers Texas League

San Antonio Brewers

November 25, 2020 No Comments

Fun fact: despite its misleading name, this five-season entry in the Class AA Texas League during the mid-1970’s was not really a farm club of the Milwaukee Brewers. OK, so that’s not quite 100% true.  San Antonio was a Milwaukee farm team for one season during the summer of 1972. To commemorate the new Player Development Contract with Milwaukee, San Antonio dropped its long-time local nickname – the ‘Missions’ – to become the Brewers that year. But Milwaukee pulled out after just one season and the team’s local owners didn’t bother to update the name … for the next four years!

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Soccer Indoor and outdoor

Houston Hurricanes soccer program 1980

Houston Pro Soccer…Then & Now

April 13, 2012 No Comments

Houston Pro Soccer Yesterday, The Houston Chronicle published photos of the nearly complete $95 million BBVA Compass Stadium in downtown Houston.  BBVA opens on May 12th when its primary tenant, the Houston Dynamo, plays D.C. United in a Major League Soccer match.  BBVA is simply the latest in a string of increasingly

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Arena Football

Kyle Moore Brown and Jay Jones on the cover of a 2001 Indiana Firebirds program from the Arena Football League

Indiana Firebirds

October 6, 2019 1 Comment

The Firebirds were an Arena Football League franchise that took roost at Indianapolis’ Conseco Fieldhouse for four summer seasons between 2001 and 2004. The ‘Birds previously played to strong crowds Albany, New York from 1990 to 2000 and captured the Arena Bowl championship in 1999. But in Indianapolis, the Firebirds languished under a pair of out-of-town owners and mediocre play. The team disbanded in the fall of 2004 after the team’s final owner, the late Dave Lageschulte, tried and failed to sell the team on e-Bay.

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Pro Basketball

1970-71 Sporting News American Basketball Association Guide

American Basketball Association (1967-1976)

March 25, 2012 1 Comment

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.

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Canadian Football League

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 4 Comments

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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HISTORIC UNIFORMS

Jacksonville Bulls jersey, burgundy front

Jersey of the Week

July 16, 2026 No Comments

Fun While it Lasted presents the Jersey of the Week, brought to you by Royal Retros. Each week, we feature a historic uniform. Click to learn more about the team that wore this classic gear.

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