Nearly 40 years ago [This thread began in October 2020], very few people believed football would ever work in the spring. But that didn't stop New Orleans antique dealer David Dixon from outlining his grand vision in the early 1980's.

After two years of preparation, Dixon formally announced the birth of the United States Football League on May 11, 1982. A month later, Dixon hired sports television pioneer Chet Simmons as the league's first commissioner.

Over the summer and fall of 1982, Dixon successfully signed the USFL to television deals with ABC and a fledgling cable channel called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, or ESPN for short.

One important codicil that Dixon cleverly snuck into the USFL's constitution was that the league must stick with its spring schedule and abstain from competing directly with the more-powerful National Football League.

For the twelve cities that will take the field in the Spring of 1983, Dixon selected these twelve:

ATLANTIC
Boston Breakers (Nickerson Field); Co-owned by George Matthews and former Patriot Randy Vataha.
New Jersey Generals (Giants Stadium); Owned by Oklahoma-based oilman J. Walter Duncan.
Philadelphia Stars (Franklin Field); Owned by Myles Tanenbaum.
Washington Sentinels (RFK Stadium); Owned by Berl Bernhard.

CENTRAL
Tampa Bay Bandits (Tampa Stadium); Owned by Canadian-born and former WFL Memphis Grizzlies owner John Bassett. Actor Burt Reynolds is a minority partner for the club.
Michigan Panthers (Pontiac Silverdome); Owned by Alfred Taubmann.
Chicago Fire (Soldier Field); Owned by Eddie Einhorn.
Birmingham Maulers (Legion Field); Owned by Marvin Warner.

PACIFIC
Arizona Wranglers (Sun Devil Stadium); Owned by Dr. Ted Dietrich.
Oakland Condors (Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum); Owned by Sacramento-based businessman Fred Anderson.
Los Angeles Action (Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum); Owned by Stockton-based businessman Alex G. Spanos.
Denver Gold (Mile High Stadium); Owned by Ron Blanding.

Last edited by NeoPrankster (11/13/2020 2:20 pm)