Category: Alternative Football

Anyone familiar with my World Football League obsession knows that in 1974 I cheered for the Birmingham Americans because they were my hometown team.

I also had a soft spot for the Southern California Sun; any club that wears magenta jerseys and orange pants is worthy of my respect and admiration.

But I also had more than a passing interest in the New York Stars, because they had a few former New York Jets on their team and the Jets were my favorite NFL franchise.

But did you know that eight years earlier a different version of the New York Stars was supposed to debut in the Continental Football League?

Not only that, they were set to play at little Downing Stadium, which was the poorly-lit, Randalls Island home of the WFL Stars.

Here’s the scoop:

The Continental Football League was formed in 1965 with visions of becoming a third major league. But its inaugural season featured the Charleston (West Virginia) Rockets, Ft. Wayne Warriors, Hartford Charter Oaks, Newark Bears, Philadelphia Bulldogs, Providence (Rhode Island) Indians, Richmond Rebels, Springfield (Massachusetts) Acorns, Toronto Rifles and Wheeling (West Virginia) Ironmen. Aside from Philadelphia and Toronto, the COFL wasn’t located in major North American media markets.

A New York franchise would be a game changer, and on February 11, 1966, the league granted one to theater and television producer Fred Finklehoffe.

“I consider pro football one of the most interesting aspects of show business,” Finklehoffe told the Associated Press. “I consider this an off-Broadway football team. I hope to make Broadway soon.”

The stadium at Randalls Island was chosen because it seated 21,000 and there were plans to add an additional 4,000 seats.

Considering his industry ties, giving the team the nickname “Stars” made perfect sense. Finklehoffe, along with writing partner Irving Brecher, had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Meet Me in St. Louis, and he’d also penned a pair of scripts for Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis comedies.

He was a big name who owned a team representing the Big Apple, and he started making news almost immediately. In March he signed coach Perry Moss away from Charleston, reportedly inking him to a 10-year, $500,000 contract that included the role of general manager. Moss led the Rockets to 14 consecutive victories and the inaugural COFL title in 1965.

In an interview with The Gazette (Montreal) on April 2, 1966, Moss predicted the Continental Football League would soon threaten the Canadian Football League.

“Our league is not only going to become the main football attraction in Montreal and Toronto, but it won’t be long before Vancouver joins us,” Moss told the paper. “Make no mistake about it … the Continental League will become the third major professional league in America. There’s an untapped television market and we’re going to share it. A dozen or more cities, with big area populations, are potential team outlets.

“There’s no shortage of good players coming out of U.S. colleges each year. The AFL and NFL can absorb only a limited number.”

Apparently unbeknownst to Moss, however, Finklehoffe exited the stage on the day he was interviewed by The Gazette.

After purchasing the franchise for $250,000, he sold it back to the league “because of motion picture commitments.”

Still, COFL officials announced that two other groups were bidding on the team and New York was sure to have a franchise by the start of the season, even if it wasn’t called the Stars.

That team came in the form of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who made their home on Randalls Island (a 40-minute subway ride from Brooklyn). And instead of Moss – who wound up in charge of the Orlando Panthers – the Dodgers named former New York Giants/Los Angeles Rams standout Andy Robustelli head coach.

Despite hiring baseball legend Jackie Robinson as a figurehead general manager, the team never developed a significant fan base and became a “road club” late in the season, finishing 5-9.

The Dodgers moved to Akron in 1967 and were rebranded the Vulcans, and the Continental League – which folded after the 1969 season – never became a major league and never again had a team in Gotham.

Thus, football fans in the City That Never Sleeps had to wait until 1974 before being able to cheer for the New York Stars.

But you wanna hear something weird?

The last game New York’s COFL team played at Downing Stadium was September 24, 1966, in front of 4,519 fans.

The last game its WFL team played there before moving to Charlotte was on September 24, 1974 – in front of 4,220 fans. That might not be good enough to qualify for a new edition of Strange But True Football Stories, but I think it’s a pretty good way to end this column.

With the National Spring Football League over before it even started in 1990 – and the World League of American Football a few months from kickoff – the battle to fill the spring football void should’ve been over.

It wasn’t.

Before anyone could ask, “What was the NSFL, again?” the United States Football Association entered the picture. On October 8, 1990, it was reported that the USFA would hold a news conference in Portland on October 10 to announce the Oregon city as the first member of the new league. Dick Seuss, coach of the Oregon Thunderbolts semi-pro team, was leading the Portland effort.

“I was in on the first two or three United States Football League meetings, and I think their thoughts at the time were absolutely correct,” USFA commissioner Lou Saban told The World newspaper. “We think spring football can work. Our people have learned from what happened with the USFL. We know that we’re only as strong as our weakest link.”

Saban, of course, was already well-established in the football world, having coached in the NFL, American Football League and college ranks, and earning back-to-back AFL Coach of the Year nods while guiding the Buffalo Bills in 1964 and 1965. By the time the 68-year-old assumed his USFA duties, he had held 15 different coaching posts. The last was a four-game stint with a Minor League Football System team in Georgia (the Middle Georgia Heat Wave) and the three previous to that were at the high school level.

He had developed a reputation for abruptly quitting jobs, leaving the Bills twice.

But this was a new gig and new adventure, and he hoped he could help the upstart circuit cull the best parts of the USFL.

“We’re trying to borrow from the USFL name as close as possible,” he said. “We’re still trying to establish a financial foundation. We’re still in the preliminary stage. I think within the next week or so, we’ll have a platform to work from.”

Original plans called for eight to 10 teams to play a March through early July schedule. The first franchises announced were the Portland Predators and Tampa Bay Bandits, and Saban said the league had contacted potential investors in Jacksonville, Miami, Mobile, Salt Lake City, Norfolk, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and Scranton.

Jim Spavital, who was coach of the World Football League’s Chicago Fire and general manager of the USFL’s Michigan Panthers, was supposed to help put together the Tampa Bay entry.

The player pool would be made up of athletes “not quite good enough for the National Football League,” Saban said.

Portland set up tryouts for October 21, and two weeks later, Tampa held its camp with Saban on hand to observe.

“I’ve been involved in football tryouts every year that I can remember for a long time,” Saban told the Tampa Tribune. “I just went through a tryout in Macon where we had 150 guys in the first camp, 100 the second and 125 in the third, and I can tell you they don’t fool you too many times.

“Usually, they can look at the guys running the 40 and doing chin-ups and know right away whether or not they’ve got a chance.”

I have no idea how any of the hopefuls fared in those events.

In fact, I don’t know much of anything involving the USFA after its initial announcement and news of the Oregon and Florida tryouts. Like many other leagues that exist only in theory, it just disappeared.

In February, 1991, Saban announced he was interested in becoming the athletic director at the University of Miami, where he coached from 1977-78. But just a couple of months later he was back coaching, this time at NAIA Division II Peru State in Nebraska. Every story I could find mentioned his job history – sometimes in great detail – but none referenced the United States Football Association or its would-be commissioner.

So we’ll never know what kind of cool rules the USFA would’ve come up with, whether it could’ve snagged a TV contract, and how it would’ve fared trying to occupy the same space as the WLAF. And that’s a shame, because I’ve always felt the rivalry between the Portland Predators and Tampa Bay Bandits could’ve been one of the best in all of sports – at least until the league folded.

I became a fan of Don Maynard in the 1960s and grew obsessed with alternative football in the 1970s, so how come I’m just now learning that Maynard was once the commissioner of an alt-league?

Yep, Joe Namath’s favorite target was also the top administrator of the National Spring Football League, which was formed in 1990 with a projected start date of 1991.

News of the NSFL dates back to early January, 1990, when United Press International reported that the league was looking at placing franchises in cities in Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma, and already had owner commitments for teams in Chicago and Tampa Bay.

By early spring the NSFL had supposedly already finalized its inaugural season plans. The first eight franchises would be located in New Jersey, Chicago, Tampa Bay and Texas – making up the East Division – while Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento and Hawaii would be in the West. Tentative plans called for either the all-star game or championship to be played in Japan, and future expansion plans included the possibility of placing teams in Australia, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand.

“We feel New Zealand and Australia are the future frontiers of American football,” Maynard told the New York Times. “Because of the sporting backgrounds of those nations, it is conceivable teams could be made up utilizing local talent within a period of a few years.”

The cost of a franchise was $125,000, plus $150,000 to be set aside for operation of the league and another $300,000 for what founder and CEO Bill Byrne called a “rainy day fund.”

Teams’ operation cap would be $3.5 million with $1.5 going to salaries.

A 14-game season was to begin in March, 1991, and NBC was touted as a possible TV partner.

One of the reasons I was unfamiliar with the NSFL is probably due to the fact that the National Football League had already announced plans to launch the World League of American Football in 1991 (which included the Birmingham Fire). Also playing in the spring, it was hard to imagine any other league trying to compete with something backed by NFL money.

But Byrne insisted the quality of play in his league would be better.

“We’re not a supplemental league or minor league or a developmental league,” Byrne told the Honolulu Advertiser for a March 27, 1990, story.

Tampa Bay owner Charles Yancy believed sticking to a spring schedule and steering clear of the NFL was the key to sustainability.

“To tell you the truth, the success of the whole league will be up to the owners,” he told UPI. “If we can get the right ownership groups, I know we can have a great league. If we try to go against the NFL, we could have another doomsday. It’s not like 1960, when you can merge with the NFL.

“This is 1990. Things are completely different. We’re not trying to be the NFL. We’re trying to be a professional football league in the spring and summer.”

Byrnes agreed there would never be a suicidal switch to fall, a move that doomed the United States Football League of the early 1980s.

“Hell, no,” Byrnes said. “That’s etched in stone. You’d have to be crazy and stupid to think about taking on the NFL.”

By June the new league held meetings and confirmed that the first six franchises would be placed in Charlotte, Chicago, Ohio, Portland, Southern California and Tampa Bay, and as many as six more would be named at an October summit of NSFL officials.

“I’m very excited with the outcome of these meetings,” Maynard said. “This league will give a lot of opportunities to players, coaches and front office people who might otherwise not get a chance. I think our concept will work.”

Yeah, about that …

The last mention I found of the NSFL came in the October 8, 1990, edition of The World newspaper of Coos Bay, Oregon. In a story about Portland getting a franchise in the newly formed United States Football Association, it was stated that:

Four months ago, a group called the National Spring Football League announced that Portland would be one of its charter members. The NSFL, which also planned to play in the spring, had Hall of Fame receiver Don Maynard as its commissioner. Since then, that effort died off.

The story went on to say that the USFA was trying to pick up where the NSFL left off and had named Lou Saban its commissioner.

Sadly, I never got to enjoy my favorite pass catcher run an off-brand football league. I would have rooted for him and it. But learning about it wasn’t a total loss. If I hadn’t researched this topic, I wouldn’t have found out about the USFA.

That’s the subject of next Monday’s column.