Officially, the Canadian Football League’s “American Experiment” ended on February 2, 1996. That was the day the league approved the relocation of the Baltimore Stallions to Montreal and disbanded the Birmingham Barracudas, Memphis Mad Dogs, Shreveport Pirates and San Antonio Texans.
As a Birmingham native, losing a hometown team was hardly a new experience for me; I had already witnessed my city say hello and goodbye to the Americans and Vulcans of the World Football League, Stallions of the original United States Football League, and Fire of the World League of American Football.
The failure of the WFL and USFL franchises broke my heart (the loss of the WLAF team didn’t really faze me, if I’m being honest) but man, seeing the CFL team go under was a gut-punch I didn’t expect.
When Birmingham was granted a CFL franchise, I genuinely thought my city was finally in a league to stay and, therefore, had a team to last. Jack Pardee was a big-time coach, and he was hired to run the show. And with Matt Dunigan throwing to Marcus Grant and Jason Phillips and a defense featuring guys like Andre Strode and Anthony Drawhorn, the Cudas were sure to be contenders right out of the gate.
Because I was in love with the “longer, faster, wider” game, I just assumed all my local gridiron loving brothers and sisters would feel the same way.
Sadly, I assumed incorrectly.
And that brings me to September 17, 1995, the day I realized the Magic City was about to add another tombstone to its football graveyard. It was just the twelfth game of an 18-game regular season, but the contest between the Barracudas and Ottawa Rough Riders marked the beginning of the end.
Why?
After drawing 31,185 fans to its home opener in July and averaging 24,843 fans per game through five dates at Legion Field, the vast majority of fans decided they were no longer interested in CFL football.
Despite the Barracudas sitting at 6-5 and battling for a playoff spot, only 5,289 folks showed up to see them improve to 7-5 with a 40-9 trouncing of Ottawa.
“I was told from the start that our biggest challenge was going to be when the college football season started,” Cudas owner Art Williams told the Birmingham Post-Herald. “We’re obviously seeing that. We had a disappointing crowd … we have to do better the next three games.”
The game started at 12:30 p.m. CDT, which put it in direct competition with televised National Football League games. In the Birmingham market that day, the Atlanta Falcons vs. the New Orleans Saints and Oakland Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs were brodcast starting at 11:30 a.m.
I guess I was naïve enough to think that since Birmingham didn’t have an NFL team, even NFL fans who lived here would show up for the pro team we had. I knew playing on Saturdays in the fall would be suicidal but honestly believed the Barracudas would always be able to count on 20,000-25,000 regular paying customers on Sundays.
Instead, once American football season began, the CFL became an afterthought. Hell, it wasn’t even that – it was barely thought of at all.
Making matters worse, Williams and some of the other owners of American teams were hoping to turn to CFL into something quite different from what it was.
“There’s a lot of things about the CFL I admire and respect,” Williams said. “But the way it’s being played today, it’s not working in the U.S.”
Williams suggested changing the league’s name, “Americanizing” the rules, and competing against the NFL for local marquee players. He even hinted that the U.S. teams might break away from the CFL and form their own league.
“I think the NFL is very vulnerable right now to another league,” he said. “It could happen.”
It’s never a good sign when an owner is already plotting an exit strategy two-thirds of the way through his first season in a new league. And the threat of losing the franchise didn’t inspire fans to initiate any “Save the Barracudas” measures.
While the crowd against Ottawa proved to be the season low, none of the remaining home games did much better. Ticket sales numbered 6,314 for Shreveport; 6,859 for San Antonio; and 8,910 for Edmonton.
Birmingham’s season home average of 17,625 was still better than the Texans (15,855), Pirates (14,359) and Mad Dogs (13,691), but Memphis was the only other club to draw under 10,000 for a home game – that coming on September 24 when the Dogs beat the Cudas, 28-19, before 7,830 fans at the Liberty Bowl.
By the time Birmingham was blown out by San Antonio, 52-9, in a first-round playoff game on November 5, Williams had already announced the franchise would not be returning to the CFL in 1996 but hoped it would be part of a new alternative league.
“My first preference is to get a contract with CBS, sign a few marquee players and play in the spring at Legion Field,” Williams, who said he expected to lose as much as $10 million on his pro football venture, told the Post-Herald. “The only thing that’s certain is we won’t be back in Birmingham in the CFL in the fall.”
And that – as they say – was all she wrote.
Birmingham’s only franchise in an established, major North American football league was of the one-and-done variety, and made me rather cynical about my city’s long-term pro football prospects in the future.
Since then, the Ham has been home to three spring league teams. I tried to like the 2001 XFL Bolts but didn’t; rooted for the 2019 Alliance of American Football Iron up until the league went cleats up before completing its only season; and was a casual fan of the 2022 USFL Stallions, who won the league championship and – with a second season planned – have a chance to grow on me.
But the Birmingham Barracudas? I believed they were built to last.
Instead, they were built to last only a single season.