USFL

I remember my dad sporting an ugly-as-hell Michigan Panthers shirt.

 

Dave Twardzik. ODU grad.

 

Ah...now I see

 

Yes, thanks.

 

My dad took me to a Generals game at the Meadowlands in 1985 and remember nothing more than a snowball fight to end all snowball fights breaking out in the stands. It really said it all about the quality of the league.

 

Two USFL memories among many...

-- San Antonio played in a high school football facility near downtown called Alamo Stadium. Seated about 20,000. NJ owner Donald Trump forbid the league from ever having his team play in San Antonio because he thought the stadium and owner (Clinton Manges) were rinky dink. He was right. S.A. would do things like hire the foreman off of Manges' South Texas ranch to handle punting duties and deflate the gate to avoid paying visiting teams their rightful cut.

-- During 1984 season, I was engaged to a woman in Chicago, I had to cover a game there involving the Blitz. My parents and future bride's had never met so I got some tickets at Soldier Field and had them all take in a Blitz game. It was about 30 degrees, windy and rain. Parents and future in-laws lasted about a quarter and a half. I was to meet the group for dinner. Game goes to OT so I'm already an hour late and then I somehow get locked into the old part of Soldier Field and can't get out for about 20 minutes. By the time I show up, they are on desert. Wife decided to marry me anyway.

 

Lots of guys who played in the USFL -- and the Gunslingers in particular, as I recall -- are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars from their teams. I know there's a couple funny stories on Steve Young and the L.A. Express. I knew a guy who played for the Saints, who previously played for the Gunslingers. He knew he'd never see that money.

Incidentally JD, I was at that Gunslingers-Gamblers game at the Astrodome. I think that was the one that went almost four hours. Near the end of the game an incomplete pass skipped off the turf and out of bounds, right into my hands. My photog happened to be right there, I told him to stuff it in his bag.

Lost that ball, among others, in Katrina. It was a cool souvie, though.

 

I covered a couple of games, one at RFK and another in Pittsburgh and for the life of me I don't remember a damned thing about them except meeting the guy with the rainbow hair in the stands in Pittsburgh. I thought to myself at the time that he was some kind of a nut. I seemed to have hit that one correctly.

 

My father had season tickets for the Memphis Showboats in their second and final year or partial season tickets. I don't know which, but I think we went to about seven or eight games at the Liberty Bowl.

I remember one night they tried to give away a year's supply of New Coke. You could hear the boos pretty much all over. They also gave away packets of Skoal one night, and somehow they either gave me one (at 8 years old) or I got my hands on one. I didn't know the whole point was not to swallow the tobacco juice. (Face turns green at the memory).

I remember one particularly hot game against the Houston Gamblers. I have flashes of memories from night games with the Tampa Bay Bandits, Arizona Outlaws and Jacksonville Bulls. I remember walking down the ramp with everyone shouting after the Showboats beat the Bulls.

I also remember when they destroyed the Denver Gold in the playoffs only to break my heart and lose to Bobby Hebert and the Oakland Invaders in the next round.

I don't think I was sad when the USFL disbanded because I didn't really understand what happened at the time. For a little while at work, I did have the Showboats logo as the background on my computer.

 

I talked to a whole bunch of USFL alums for a story a couple years ago and got all kinds of great anecdotes. Steve Young said the LA Coliseum was so empty for some Express games that he had to whisper in the huddle to keep the defense from hearing his calls. Bill Polian said that in the final weeks of the Chicago Blitz's last season, the team couldn't afford to buy anything so he traded USFL footballs, team jerseys and other equipment to local businesses in exchange for towels and tape.

 

Bobby Hebert played for Oakland?
I thought he spent his whole USFL career with the Michigan Panthers

 

We had a local who played for the Washington Federals.
Those dollar bill green unis were classic.