Spotlight

St. Louis Steamers MISL

St. Louis Steamers (1979-1988)

May 7, 2015 2 Comments

The original St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League were one of the most popular indoor soccer teams of all time. In the early 1980’s, the Steamers drew massive crowds to the St. Louis Arena, attracted by the team’s home grown American talent and exciting game production. At their peak during the 1981-82 season, the Steamers averaged 17,107 fans per game – the highest average in the sport’s history. By comparison, the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blues drew 14,433 fans per night in the same building that winter. Declining on-field performance and a pair sales of the team to progressively weaker owners led to the Steamers’ sad decline in the latter half of the decade and eventual closure in 1988.

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historic Football

Illustration of head coach Dick Coury on the cover of the 1983 Boston Breakers media guide from the United States Football League

Boston Breakers (1983)

December 10, 2013 4 Comments

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.

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Honoring the Negro Leagues

Cleveland Buckeyes

Baltimore Elite Giants (1938-1951)

February 27, 2026 No Comments

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.

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Retro Hockey

Winnipeg Jets program

Winnipeg Jets (1972-1996)

March 6, 2025 2 Comments

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.

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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

Houston Hurricanes soccer program 1980

Houston Pro Soccer…Then & Now

April 13, 2012 2 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

Kurt Warner and teammates on the cover of the 1996 Iowa Barnstormers Media Guide from the Arena Football League

Iowa Barnstormers (1995-2001)

July 31, 2020 No Comments

The remarkable story of Kurt Warner, who rose from supermarket stock boy to Super Bowl Champion and NFL Most Valuable Player over the course of five years, is one of the great legacies of the now-defunct Arena Football League. Warner, undrafted out of college, famously signed on with the Arena League’s Iowa Barnstormers in 1995. He led the Barnstormers into back-to-back Arena Bowl title games in 1996 and 1997, before earning his shot at the NFL with the St. Louis Rams.  By 1999, he was the NFL’s MVP and quarterback of a Super Bowl championship team in his first season as a starter. Warner’s fame briefly made the Iowa Barnstormers an object of cult fascination, if not quite a household brand name. So what became of the Barnstormers?

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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

1994 Sacramento Gold Miners media guide from the Canadian Football League

Sacramento Gold Miners

March 5, 2019 3 Comments

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.

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HISTORIC UNIFORMS

Chicago Sting NASL 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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