The original Macon Whoopees were charter members of the Southern Hockey League in 1973. The team only lasted one season. In the 1990s, a new team in the Central Hockey League (CHL) revived the name, though they dropped the “S” at the end. That team skated for five seasons, the last as members of the ECHL.
The Memphis Southmen, known colloquially as the “Grizzlies”, were a short-lived member of the World Football League (WFL) that played at the Liberty Bowl for parts of two seasons in 1974 and 1975. In an era when the NFL offered no free agency, the threat of jumping to the WFL offered a brief window of leverage for NFL stars seeking better contracts. The Southmen garnered national headlines (and the cover of Sports Illustrated) when they successfully lured the trio of Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield and Jim Kiick away from the Miami Dolphins for the 1975 season. All three stars suited up for Memphis that fall, but by that time the WFL was already on its last legs. The league disbanded that October without completing its regular season schedule.
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.
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…
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.
Reno 1868 FC was a 2nd Division pro soccer club affiliated on the technical side with the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer and operated on the business side by the front office staff of Minor League Baseball’s Reno Aces of the Pacific Coast League. 1868 played out of Greater Nevada Field, the Aces’ 9,000-seat baseball stadium, from 2017 through 2020.
The Baltimore Brigade were a late-era entry in the now-defunct Arena Football League. The Brigade played during one the league’s darkest eras, when the once sprawling national league was reduced to a tiny cluster of survivors in the northeastern U.S. In 2018, the Brigade played in Arena Bowl XXXI, a bizarre spectacle that somehow saw the Brigade lose the championship game to the Washington Valor, the league’s last place team that went 2-10 in the regular season.
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 Baltimore Stallions played two seasons in the CFL starting in 1994. The most successful of the league’s American teams, they went to the Grey Cup following both seasons, winning in 1995. The team experienced grief off the field from the NFL, first with a lawsuit over using the name Colts, then by the relocation of the Cleveland Browns.
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.
