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Chicago Fire (WFL)
The Chicago Fire was an American football team in the short-lived World Football League for one season, 1974. Formation The team was founded in late October 1973, with building magnate Thomas Origer becoming the first owner to purchase a WFL franchise, for around $400,000. Chicago was also the first franchise to sign a player, former Notre Dame and Chicago Bears wide receiver Jim Seymour, and then added quarterback Virgil Carter, who also had played for the NFL's Bears as well as the Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers. Another notable Fire player was punter Chuck Ramsey, who would later go on to play with the New York Jets. Jim Spavital, one-time coach of the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers, piloted the Fire. The radio announcer for the Fire was former Milwaukee Bucks play-by-play man Eddie Doucette, while ex-Chicago Bears lineman Mike Pyle served as the color commentator. Home games were played at Soldier Field in the Loop area. 1974 season Fitti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Association Football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposition by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45 minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries, it is considered the world's most popular sport. The game of association football is played in accordance with the Laws of the Game, a set of rules that has been in effect since 1863 with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) maintaining them since 1886. The game is played with a football that is in circumference. The two teams compete to get the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts and under t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division (CFL), West division. They play their home games at IG Field. The Blue Bombers were founded in 1930 as the Winnipeg Rugby Football Club, later changed to the Winnipeg Football Club, which is the organization's legal name. The Blue Bombers are one of three community owned teams, without shareholders, in the CFL. Since their establishment, the Blue Bombers have won the league's Grey Cup championship 12 times, most recently in 2021 CFL season when they defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33–25 in the 108th Grey Cup. The team holds the record for most Grey Cup appearances of any team (26) and were the first club in Western Canada to win a championship. Team facts :Founded: 1930 :Formerly known as: Winnipegs 1930–1935 :Helmet design: Gold background, with a white "W" and blue tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WGN-TV
WGN-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister to the company's sole radio property, news/talk/ sports station WGN (720 AM). WGN-TV's studios are located on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center community; as such, it is the only major commercial television station in Chicago which bases its main studio outside the Loop. Its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower in the Loop. Like concept progenitor WTBS in Atlanta, WGN-TV was a pioneering superstation; on November 8, 1978, it became the second U.S. television station to be made available via satellite transmission to cable and direct-broadcast satellite subscribers nationwide. Later renamed WGN America, the former superstation feed was converted into a conventional basic cable network in December 2014, enabling it to be added to local cable providers, and later soft re-launched as NewsNation in September 2020. A cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Marek
Billy Marek (born c. 1954) is a former American football running back. He played college football for the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1972 to 1975. He gained more than 1,200 rushing yards for three consecutive years from 1973 to 1975. He concluded his college football career with 740 yards and 13 touchdowns in the final three games of the 1974 season, including a Wisconsin Badgers football record 304 rushing yards against Minnesota. Of course this didn't actually 'conclude his career' since he played the whole next season yet. He also set Wisconsin career records with 3,709 rushing yards and 277 points scored, led the country with 114 points in 1974, and was named the State of Wisconsin's "Sports Personality of the Year" in 1974. He was inducted into the University of Wisconsin Hall of Fame in 1994. Marek did not have a substantial professional career but did briefly play for the Chicago Fire of the minor league American Football Association in 1981. See also * L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Football Association (1977–1982)
American Football Association may refer to: * American Football Association (1884–1924), the first attempt in the United States to form an organizing association football body * American Football Association (1977–1983), a minor professional American football league * American Football Association (organization), a sanctioning body for semi-pro American football and organizer of the Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame, in which Jerry Kurz Jerry B. Kurz (born June 21, 1949) is a founding father of the now-defunct Arena Football League. He was one of the earliest leaders of Arena football, and was part owner of Gridiron Enterprises, original owner of the proprietary, formerly patent ..., Kenny Washington and Ray Seals are members {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Namath
Joseph William Namath (; ; born May 31, 1943) is a former American football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the New York Jets. He played college football at Alabama, where he won the national championship as a senior, and was selected by the Jets first overall in the 1965 AFL Draft. During his five AFL seasons, he was a two-time MVP and twice led the league in passing yards, while leading the Jets to win one AFL championship and one Super Bowl. Both victories remain the Jets' only championships. Following the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, Namath joined the NFL with the Jets, where he was the league's passing yards and touchdowns leader during the 1972 season. He played in New York for seven more seasons, with his final year spent as a member of the Los Angeles Rams. Namath cemented his legacy in 1969 when he guaranteed his heavy underdog Jets would win Super Bowl III before defeating th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago Winds
The Chicago Winds was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire (WFL), Chicago Fire. The team was so named because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City." The Winds played at Soldier Field and the team was assigned to the WFL's Western Division for 1975 World Football League season, 1975 (the league having shrunk from 12 franchises to 11, and from three divisions to two). Pursuit of Joe Namath Prior to the 1975 season opener, Winds owner Eugene Pullano attempted to sign New York Jets star quarterback Joe Namath to a contract. Namath, who had helped establish the credibility of the Jets and the old American Football League, was wavering about re-signing with New York after the 1974 season. Reports had him retiring, being traded to another NFL team — or jumping to the WFL, perhaps as a player/coach/co-owner. Namath's agent Jimmy Walsh asked the Winds for a $500,000 signing bonus, a three-year contract worth $600,000 a year, a $2 million annuity ($10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia Bell
The Philadelphia Bell was a franchise in the World Football League, which operated in 1974 and a portion of a season in 1975. The Bell played their home games in 1974 at JFK Stadium in South Philadelphia. The team logo was a representation of the Liberty Bell. In 1975 the team decided to stop playing at JFK and moved its games to Franklin Field. Formation The Bell was one of just two WFL teams that maintained the same ownership in both 1974 and 1975 (the other being Canadian millionaire John Bassett's Memphis Southmen). The group was headed by John B. Kelly Jr., a respected business and sportsman in Philadelphia and part of the well-known Kelly family, which included his sister Grace Kelly, movie star-turned-Princess of Monaco. The major money contributor behind the ownership group was John Bosacco, who came forward during the first season and took over the operations of the franchise. Bosacco believed that the WFL could survive and was instrumental in the removal of Gary D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Davidson
Gary L. Davidson (born August 13, 1934) is an American lawyer and businessman who is based in Orange County, California. Davidson co-founded and served as the first president of the World Hockey Association and co-founded, with former Buena Park Mayor Dennis Murphy, the American Basketball Association. He also founded the World Football League where he was the league's first president and commissioner. He was a star basketball player at Garden Grove, Calif., High School and attended the University of Redlands, Calif. Honours In 1973 and 1974, the Gary L. Davidson Award was presented to the most valuable player of the World Hockey Association. In 2010, Davidson was part of the initial group of individuals elected to the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame The World Hockey Association Hall of Fame is an independent organization dedicated to honoring the World Hockey Association (WHA) which operated from 1972 to 1979 as a major professional ice hockey league. Officially pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hawaiians (WFL)
The Hawaiians were a professional American football team based in Honolulu that played in the World Football League. They played two seasons, 1974 and 1975. Their records were 9–11 in 1974 and 4–7–1 in 1975. Their home stadium was Honolulu Stadium in 1974 and Aloha Stadium in 1975. The best known player to play for the Hawaiians was former Dallas Cowboys running back Calvin Hill, though quarterback Jim Fassel became better known as a head coach decades later. The Hawaiians head coach was Michael Giddings who guided the Hawaiians through both the 1974 and 1975 World Football League seasons. The franchise was originally going to be called the Honolulu Warriors, but a local team had trademarked that name. As a result, the team was known simply as "The Hawaiians", although the press frequently mistakenly called them the "Honolulu Hawaiians" or the "Hawaii Hawaiians." They were owned by real estate developer Christopher Hemmeter for the first season. He was named league ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis Southmen
The Memphis Southmen, also known as the Memphis Grizzlies, were an American football team based in Memphis, Tennessee. They played in the World Football League (WFL), which operated in 1974 and 1975. They played their home games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. From North to South The team was originally slated to be based in Toronto, Canada, with the nickname of the Northmen. However, when Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that no U.S.-based professional football league would be allowed in Canada in competition with the Canadian Football League under the Canadian Football Act, a change in venue and nickname was announced. From the beginning, Memphians disliked "Southmen" and the team was informally known as the Memphis Grizzlies. The name appeared to come from the logo, a representation of a bear backed by the sun. The "Grizzlies" were owned by John F. Bassett. A multi-millionaire, Bassett gave the league instant credibility by signing three stars from the Nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Americans
The Birmingham Americans were a professional American football team located in Birmingham, Alabama. They were members of the four-team Central Division of the World Football League (WFL). The Americans, founded in late December 1973, played in the upstart league's inaugural season in 1974. The team was owned by William "Bill" Putnam, doing business as Alabama Football, Inc. The club played all of their home games at Legion Field. The most successful of the World Football League franchises, the Americans led the league in attendance and won all 13 of their home games. They developed a reputation for come-from-behind victories and winning by narrow margins. The Americans finished the 1974 regular season at 15–5 and won the 1974 World Bowl by one point over the Florida Blazers. Financially unstable due to investor reluctance and lavish signing bonuses paid to lure National Football League (NFL) players to the new league, the team folded after only one season. Most of the team ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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