Spotlight

Pottstown Firebirds Atlantic Coast Football League

Pottstown Firebirds

May 17, 2017 5 Comments

Minor league football is – and always has been – so far off the radar in this country that it’s impossible to speak of there being any iconic teams.  The sport offers nothing like the Hershey Bears hockey team or Rochester Red Wings baseball club that have entertained locals for upwards of a century. To the extent that minor and semi-pro football at least has a cult favorite team – the sport’s answer to the Durham Bulls – it may well be Pennsylvania’s short-lived Pottstown Firebirds of the defunct Atlantic Coast Football League.

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historic Football

Quincy Giants Atlantic Coast Football League

Quincy Giants

January 31, 2021 1 Comment

The Quincy Giants were a minor league football outfit that played for one season in this border city on the southern edge of Boston during the fall of 1969.  The franchise previously played in northern Massachusetts as the Lowell Giants from 1966 to 1968. The Giants were members of the Atlantic Coast Football League, competing against teams from Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

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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

Birmingham Bulls WHA

Birmingham Bulls (1976-1981)

May 16, 2014 No Comments

The Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association were one of the first major pro hockey teams to make their home in the Deep South, sharing that distinction with the slightly older Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League. The Bulls never posted a winning record and made the playoffs only once in three WHA seasons. But the team did make news for its controversial “Baby Bulls” youth movement that saw the team sign a parade of teenage stars from the junior ranks who would later go on to NHL stardom, including Ken Linseman, Michel Goulet, Rick Vaive, Pat Riggin and others. Read more…

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baseball History

Houston Colt 45s Program

Houston Colt .45s (1962-1964)

May 9, 2025 3 Comments

Houston’s dreams of landing a Major League Baseball team go back at least as far as the 1950s. The threat of a third major league, the proposed Continental League, yielded Houston a National League expansion franchise that was known as the Houston Colt .45s for its first three seasons.

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Soccer Indoor and outdoor

Marinette Pichon on the cover of a 2004 New Jersey Wildcats program from the USL W-League

New Jersey Wildcats

March 21, 2022 No Comments

For a remarkable three-year period between 2004 and 2006 this amateur women’s soccer club that played in a 1,500-seat community college field in the Trenton suburbs managed to sign up a jaw-dropping roster of top players from all over the world. The Wildcats ran roughshod over the USL’s W-League during these years with only one North American women’s club – the Vancouver Whitecaps – able to stay on the field with them.

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Arena Football

2000 Carolina Cobras Media Guide from the Arena Football League

Carolina Cobras (2000-2004)

August 3, 2020 3 Comments

The original Carolina Cobras were an Arena Football League franchise that split their time between Raleigh (2000-2002) and Charlotte (2003-2004).The Cobras never finished better than .500 in five seasons of competition, but did manage to make the playoffs in 2001 and 2002. The hapless 0-16 Cobras squad of 2003 demands consideration as the worst in the 32-season history of the Arena Football League.

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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

Montreal Concordes CFL

Montreal Concordes

January 14, 2018 5 Comments

In the spring of 1982, the Canadian Football League’s venerable Montreal Alouettes franchise collapsed under a mountain of debt. Seeking a clean slate for new ownership, league officials folded the Alouettes on May 13, 1982 and awarded a new Montreal expansion club to Seagram’s liquor baron and Montreal Expos founder Charles Bronfman the next day. The club embarked on a star-crossed four year voyage under the new name “Concordes”, drawing inspiration from the iconic supersonic transatlantic jets of the era.

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HISTORIC UNIFORMS

Southern California Sun magenta jersey

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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