Background For many decades after its inception, American football was widely regarded as a second-tier sport behind
baseball which was long-regarded as America's national pastime. As a result, even the elite levels of American football generally lacked both the financial wherewithal to build their own facilities and the political clout to secure significant public funds to construct such venues, and as such were compelled to play primarily in
ballparks hastily re-purposed for football. However, since gridiron football in particular is responsible for excessive wear and tear on a natural grass playing field, baseball clubs were not keen to see football played in their parks throughout the entire baseball season. Thus, the need to use ballparks played a large part in ensuring that the
National Football League and early rivals would delay the start of their seasons until September when the baseball season was winding down, thus affording baseball teams the exclusive use of their facilities in the spring and summer. Starting in the 1950s, a number of technological changes and trends eventually caused some to question the traditional timing of the American football season. In particular, football became a much more lucrative sport, the invention of artificial turf and developments in the growth and maintenance of natural grass made it more practical for baseball and football to be played at elite levels in the same facility at the same time of the year, and the increasing influence of television combined with the prevalence of a farm system in which Major League Baseball controlled the rights to baseball levels in all levels of play caused many minor league baseball clubs (some of whom played in large facilities that could be easily re-purposed for major league football) to be much less lucrative in their own right. Finally, the growing popularity of
college football (which also played a fall season to coincide with the fall semester) led to the construction and expansion of dozens of large stadiums for collegiate teams, which were mostly football-specific or at least designed primarily for football, and were primarily in cities without professional football franchises. It was in this environment, in 1965, that
David Dixon, a
New Orleans antiques dealer, who would be instrumental in bringing the
New Orleans Saints (and building their current home stadium, the
Superdome) to his hometown, began to envision
football as a possible spring and summer sport. This was not the first time the United States Football League name was used; there had been a previous, short lived attempt in
1945 to start up a league with that name.
Organization Over the next 15 years, Dixon studied the last two challengers to the NFL's dominance of pro football—the successful
American Football League and the troubled
World Football League. In 1980, he commissioned a study by
Frank Magid Associates that found promising results for a spring and summer football league. He had also formed a blueprint for the prospective league's operations, which included early television exposure, heavy promotion in home markets, and owners with the resources and patience to absorb years of losses—which he felt would be inevitable until the league found its feet. He also assembled a list of prospective franchises located in markets attractive to a potential television partner. Dixon was well aware that many attempts to challenge the NFL had foundered due to financial troubles. The WFL, for instance, was plagued by teams that were so badly underfinanced that they could not meet the most basic expenses. With this in mind, Dixon wanted to ensure that USFL teams had the wherewithal to put a credible product on the field. To that end, the league required potential owners to submit to a detailed
due diligence and meet strict capitalization requirements. They were also required to post a $1.5 million letter of credit for emergencies. With respected college and NFL coach
John Ralston as the first employee, Dixon signed up 12 cities—nine where there already were NFL teams and three where there were not. The Dixon Plan called for teams in top TV markets to entice the networks into offering the league a TV deal. All but two of the 12 initial teams were located in the top 13 media markets in the US at the time. After almost two years of preparation, Dixon formally announced the USFL's formation at the
21 Club in New York City on May 11, 1982, to begin play in 1983. ESPN president
Chet Simmons was named the league's first commissioner in June 1982. According to the Dixon Plan, if the league was going to be a success, it needed television revenue and exposure. In 1983, the league signed contracts with both over-the-air broadcaster
ABC and a
cable TV broadcaster, the four-year old
ESPN, to televise games. The deals yielded roughly $13 million in 1983 and $16 million in 1984, including $9 million per year from ABC. ABC had options for the 1985 season at $14 million and 1986 at $18 million. Each week, there would be a nationally televised game, as well as the USFL's own version of Monday Night football.
Stumbles before play begins Like almost all startup pro football leagues, the USFL had some off-the-field factors that prevented the league from starting out with their preferred membership. The problems started when the original owner of the Los Angeles franchise,
Alex Spanos, pulled out and instead became a minority owner (and eventually majority owner) of the NFL's
San Diego Chargers. Jim Joseph, a real estate developer who had lost out to friend
Tad Taube for the USFL's
San Francisco Bay Area franchise, had thought he would be content to be a part-owner of the
Oakland Invaders. When the potentially more lucrative Los Angeles franchise became available, Joseph snapped up the rights to the area. The owners of the USFL's
San Diego franchise, cable television moguls
Bill Daniels and
Alan Harmon, were denied a lease for
Jack Murphy Stadium. While this was in part due to pressure from the Chargers, the main opposition came from
Major League Baseball's
Padres who held the lease to the stadium at the time and did not want to see football played at the facility throughout the baseball season. Los Angeles was seen as critical to the league's success, and Dixon and Simmons felt that two cable moguls would be better suited to head the league's efforts there. Joseph was forced to move his operation. The team opened play in
Tempe, Arizona, where it became the
Arizona Wranglers. Daniels and Harmon's team became the
Los Angeles Express. The League's
Boston franchise, the
Breakers, also had stadium problems. The Boston ownership group wanted to play in
Harvard Stadium, but were unable to close a deal with the university;
Sullivan Stadium was owned by the
New England Patriots, who were unwilling to share their venue with a rival, while
Fenway Park was being used in the spring by the
Boston Red Sox and was also unavailable, and
Alumni Stadium on the campus of
Boston College, for reasons never made public, also declined. Finally they were able to negotiate a lease to play at
Nickerson Field on the campus of
Boston University, a facility that seated only 21,000 people. There were plans to establish four franchises in Canada prior to the inaugural season, located in
Vancouver,
Edmonton,
Montreal and
the Toronto/Hamilton metroplex (with the last of these to play at
Ivor Wynne Stadium). The proposal was pushed by
John F. Bassett, the Canadian who would go on to own the
Tampa Bay Bandits USFL team. However,
Senator Keith Davey warned that the Canadian government would act to protect the
Canadian Football League (the league in which all four of the aforementioned Canadian cities had teams in) from competition. The
Canadian Football Act had been proposed, but not approved, when Bassett had tried to establish the
Toronto Northmen in the
World Football League in 1974. Such legislation would have banned US football leagues from playing in Canada. In particular, Montreal's CFL team, the
Concordes, was on precarious financial ground, having just been established to replace the recently folded Alouettes. This led Bassett to drop the idea. Once play actually started, the league experienced the same kind of franchise instability, relocation, and closures that almost all pro football leagues, including the NFL, experienced in their early years.
The 1983 season • The
Washington Federals finished tied with the
Arizona Wranglers as the league's worst team with 4–14 records. The Federals were coached by the
Canadian Football League's fourth most successful coach at the time,
Ray Jauch. The team was injury prone and mistake prone, on and off the field. Prior to the 1983 season, the team traded away the rights to the league's leading sacker, linebacker
John Corker to Michigan for a 5th round pick. In spite of a rotating door at QB, the Federals lost 8 games by a TD or less, a fact that gave team owner
Berl Bernhard hope for the 1984 season. The 1983 team finished second to last in attendance drawing 13,850 per game. •
New Jersey Generals' running back
Herschel Walker emerged as the league's first superstar running for 1,812 yards and 17 TDs. However, the team won only 6 games. • The
Denver Gold won only 7 of 18 games in their first year, but finished first in the league in attendance drawing an average of 41,736 fans to see a team that featured a number of former Broncos. Team owner
Ron Blanding stuck to his budget, and took great pride in seeing his team defeat the big budget Chicago Blitz in Chicago 16–13 in week three on a TD run with 22 seconds to go. Blanding fired very popular former Broncos Coach
Red Miller after a 4–7 start, but was still able to finish the season with strong attendance. Due to low attendance numbers and over budget spending on players on all the other teams in the league, Blanding's Gold was the only USFL team to turn a profit in 1983. • The
Oakland Invaders finished 9–9 and won the Pacific Division behind the play of 29-year-old quarterback
Fred Besana and former Oakland Raiders tight end
Raymond Chester and halfback
Arthur Whittington. Besana had played for the Twin City Cougars of the California Football League from 1980 to 1982, but played like a proven veteran, finishing the season as the league's second rated passer. • In spite of a strong team led by 36-year-old former
WFL quarterback
Johnnie Walton and CFL veteran halfback
Richard Crump, the
Boston Breakers were unable to draw the regular sellouts they needed to survive at Nickerson. (Even when they sold out Nickerson, they still lost money due to its small capacity.) Boston finished the season 11–7, narrowly missing the playoffs. Walton, who had retired from pro football years earlier, and had spent the previous 3 years coaching college football, was the league's 7th ranked passer. Boston and Washington were the only USFL teams to draw less than 14,000 per game in 1983. The other 10 teams drew over 18,000 per game. • The
George Allen-led
Chicago Blitz had been described as an "NFL caliber" team and were heavily favored to win the title and dominate the rest of the league. The team was stacked with quality players, led by NFL veteran quarterback
Greg Landry, rookie HB
Tim Spencer of Ohio State, and rookie wide receiver
Trumaine Johnson of Grambling. In week two,
Jim Joseph's
Arizona Wranglers led by rookie quarterback
Alan Risher of LSU came from a fourth-quarter 29–12 deficit to defeat the Blitz 30–29 in a game considered by many to be the biggest upset in USFL history. The Blitz would go on to lose five more games in the regular season and be edged out by Michigan for the Central Division title. In the first round of the playoffs, the Blitz would carry a 38–17 lead into the fourth quarter vs. the host
Philadelphia Stars before losing to the Stars 44–38 in OT. • The
Philadelphia Stars finished a league best 15–3. Led by Coach
Jim Mora, NFL veteran quarterback
Chuck Fusina, rookie halfback
Kelvin Bryant of North Carolina and a very good defense led by linebacker
Sam Mills, the Stars made it to the title game where they almost came back from a 17–3 third-quarter deficit before falling 24–22 to the Michigan Panthers. •
Michigan Panthers owner
A. Alfred Taubman quickly decided he was willing to pay to fill the holes on his team with NFL caliber talent. Early in the season, the Panthers signed NFL veterans like guard
Thom Dornbrook, offensive tackle
Ray Pinney, fullback
Cleo Miller and defensive end
John Banaszak. Consequently, after a 1–4 start, the team jelled and finished the regular season 11–2, edging out Chicago for the Central Division title. They dispatched Oakland in the playoffs 37–21 and weathered a frantic comeback by the Stars to become the first league champions. On the whole, the inaugural season was a success for the league. Attendance was in line with league expectations at about 25,000 fans per game, and television ratings slightly exceeded projections (an average
Nielsen rating of 6.1, when the league had aimed for 5.0). The brand of play was exciting and entertaining, and the 1983 championship was generally recognized as being a more entertaining game than most of the
Super Bowls of the era. Even in cities where the fans were not numerous, the fan base was passionate; the documentary
Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? made note of a regular-season game in which
Boston Breakers fans
stormed the field following a come-from-behind victory over the Stars at
Nickerson Field.
The 1983–1984 off-season • In September 1983, the New Jersey Generals were sold by
J. Walter Duncan to real-estate magnate
Donald Trump. The year before, Trump had been tapped to be the original owner of the franchise, but had backed out in order to make an unsuccessful bid to buy the NFL's
Baltimore Colts; the league subsequently awarded the franchise to Duncan instead. • The
Boston Breakers were unable to find a more suitable venue within Boston and its surrounding areas, so the Breakers relocated to New Orleans on October 18, 1983, and later sold to
New Orleans businessman
Joseph Canizaro. • Seeing the out-of-control spending worsening, Blanding sold his Denver Gold to Doug Spedding for $10 million. Blanding is widely thought to be the only owner to make a profit on the USFL. • Needing fresh capital, the league chose to expand league membership from 12 to 18 teams, adding the
Pittsburgh Maulers,
Houston Gamblers,
San Antonio Gunslingers,
Memphis Showboats,
Oklahoma Outlaws and
Jacksonville Bulls. The Dixon plan called for expansion to 16 in the league's second year. The Outlaws were originally slated to play in San Diego, but as was the case with what became the Express, could not get a lease for Jack Murphy Stadium. The Outlaws opened play in Tulsa at
Skelly Stadium. The Gamblers were technically not an expansion team. Founder David Dixon had reserved a franchise for himself in founding the league. He had chosen not to field a team in 1983 to help guide the league. By 1984, Dixon was disgusted with the path the league was on and the league owners were sick of Dixon's constant complaints about them overspending. With their blessing, he sold his franchise for slightly less than the $6 million expansion fee. Dixon's franchise became the Houston Gamblers. • After seeing the Wranglers lose ten games in a row to finish 4–14 (tied with Washington for the league's worst record) and perhaps more importantly seeing attendance wilt in the summer heat at
Sun Devil Stadium, Joseph decided to sell the Wranglers. Meanwhile, in spite of having the league's highest profile coach,
George Allen, and being at worst the third best team in the league, the
Chicago Blitz had drawn an anemic 18,133 per game, unable to contend with
Major League Baseball's
Cubs and
White Sox, the latter on their way to the postseason for the first time in 24 years. Blitz owner Dr.
Ted Diethrich, a Phoenix resident, felt the losses did not justify an investment so far from his home in Phoenix. Diethrich sold the Blitz to Milwaukee heart surgeon James Hoffman, and then bought the Wranglers from Joseph. Almost immediately after Diethrich closed on his purchase of the Wranglers, he and Hoffman swapped their team assets—coaching staff, most of the players, and all. To Blitz fans, it seemed that Hoffman had jettisoned one of the league's elite teams in favor of a team that tied for the league's worst record. In truth it was worse than that. In a league starved for competent QB play, Wrangler triggerman Alan Risher stayed in Arizona. The new Blitz would feature longtime Bear backup QB
Vince Evans (signed in November 1983 to a four-year, $5 million deal). In January, The Blitz tendered an offer that would have been the largest contract in football—$2 million a year for three years—to Bears running back
Walter Payton. Payton advised he would consider the offer, but would not be rushed by the Blitz. The Blitz's 1984 season was scheduled to start on February 27, 1984, and they had little success selling season tickets. The Blitz needed Payton to sign quickly to help season ticket sales, so they had put a deadline on the offer of February 9, 1984. Before he made up his mind, the Blitz withdrew the offer realizing they simply did not have the finances. With a less talented team and no big names to excite the fans, Chicago's season ticket sales predictably flatlined, in spite of Hoffman sinking a lot of money into advertising. Just prior to the start of the season, a frustrated Hoffman walked away from the Blitz, leaving the team to the minority owners. • In addition to Trump buying the Generals, the
Los Angeles Express were sold to J. William Oldenburg. The league believed that the teams based in the nation's two largest markets were owned by the owners with the deepest pockets. Trump and Oldenburg both went on signing sprees. Trump poached several NFL starters, including Cleveland's QB
Brian Sipe. Oldenburg's Express went after a number of highly regarded collegiate players. This combined with a general lack of quality QBs (only nine QBs in the 12-team league finished the 1983 season with QB ratings above 70) and HBs (even in an 18-game season only six rushers broke the 1000 yard mark) tipped off another explosion in league spending as USFL teams raided the NFL and college ranks to keep up.
The 1984 season • The USFL went to a seven-man officiating crew in 1984 adding the side judge. • After a game 1 blowout 53–14 road loss to the expansion
Jacksonville Bulls,
Washington Federals head coach
Ray Jauch was fired. In week 2, star RB
Craig James was injured. The team collapsed. Despite solid play from 2nd year QB
Mike Hohensee, WR
Joey Walters, and HB
Curtis Bledsoe, the team would finish 3–15, losing twice to the 3–15 expansion Pittsburgh Maulers and going 0–7 vs. the expansion teams. With seven games to go in the season, a press conference was held to announce the Federals had been sold to
Sherwood "Woody" Weiser who intended to move the team to
Miami. The team would be coached by
Miami Hurricanes' coach
Howard Schnellenberger. • After two games, William Tatham Jr., son of Oklahoma Outlaws owner
William Tatham, announced
Skelly Stadium was insufficient to support a pro team and that the Outlaws would be moving the following year. In spite of this lame duck status, awful spring weather, and a season-ending ten-game losing streak, the team drew an average of 21,038 fans per game. • A few games into the season, with the Chicago Blitz struggling and the fans staying away in droves, the team was near financial collapse. The league was forced to take over the Blitz for the remainder of the 1984 season in order to protect the league's TV deals which called for teams in the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago markets. With 4 games to go, a press conference was held announcing that
Eddie Einhorn would become the new owner of the USFL's Chicago franchise. At the press conference, it was stated that although the new team would not be the Blitz, Einhorn's franchise would retain the rights to all Blitz players and coaching staff—strongly implying the team would play in the 1985 season. • The expansion
Houston Gamblers rookie QB
Jim Kelly of the University of Miami emerged as the league's second superstar carrying his team to win the central conference with a 13–5 record. Kelly threw 44 TDs and piled up over 5,000 yards. The Gamblers would fall to the eventual league runner up Arizona Wranglers in the playoffs, 17–16. • The
Los Angeles Express' signings of high-profile collegiate players culminated with the signing of BYU QB
Steve Young to a $40 million guaranteed contract—at the time, far and away the largest contract in pro football history. The young talent was slow to adapt to the pro game and the Express continued to hover around .500. With one of the leagues' highest payrolls and poor attendance, financial losses mounted. It is estimated that the Express lost as much as $15 million in 1984. The Express did manage to make the playoffs and defeated the defending league champion Panthers 27–21 in triple overtime, before falling to the eventual league runners-up, Allen's
Arizona Wranglers, 35–23. • In spite of seeing his Wranglers team make it to the title game, Ted Diethrich had seen enough. He had lost millions for the second year in a row. Despite fielding a dramatically improved team, he had only had seen a negligible increase in attendance in Arizona over the previous year's numbers. • The Philadelphia Stars again finished with the league's best record and made it to the title game, this time defeating Diethrich's Wranglers, 23–3.
The 1984–1985 off-season • The owner of the
Los Angeles Express, J. William Oldenburg, stopped paying the team's bills late in the season after media and federal investigations revealed he had lied about his net worth. News of his financial troubles sent a collective shiver through the league in the middle of the 1984 season. With Chicago already gone, the potential loss of the Express might have put the league's contract with ABC in jeopardy. • Seeking a larger market, a larger stadium, and to share expenses, the Outlaws sought to merge with the
Oakland Invaders, but Oakland Invaders owner Tad Taube walked away from the deal rather than give control of the team to Outlaws part-owner and general manager William Tatham Jr. • Weiser pulled the plug on his deal to buy the Federals and move them to Miami. Bandits minority owner Donald Dizney, a health care industry magnate unrelated to the differently-spelled
Disney family, stepped in 5 days later and bought the Federals. Under his ownership, the team was moved to
Orlando, where they became the
Orlando Renegades. • After the league officially announced plans to move to the fall in 1986 (see below), a number of teams moved elsewhere after their owners decided they could not directly compete with the NFL. The
Breakers moved a second time, this time to
Portland, Oregon. The defending champion
Philadelphia Stars moved to
Baltimore, capitalizing on the
departure of the NFL's
Colts to Indiana—until the Stars realized that the
Baltimore Orioles still occupied Baltimore's only usable stadium during the spring and summer, forcing the team to settle in
College Park, just outside Washington city limits, while retaining the "Baltimore Stars" name until the season moved to the fall in 1986. • The
Michigan Panthers merged with the
Oakland Invaders, while the
Pittsburgh Maulers folded after losing a reported $10 million in their only season. • Einhorn, who along with Trump was one of the principal advocates of fall play, decided to sit out the 1985 season. ABC cleared this move due to the league's anemic ratings in Chicago, allowing the league to shut down the Blitz, who had lost nearly $6 million in 1984. by the Tathams in a deal often referred to as a "merger", as the rosters were merged. The resulting
Arizona Outlaws featured players from both teams but was run by the Tathams.
The 1985 season • Gamblers minority owner Jay Roulier agreed to buy the Express, but was pushed out in short order during training camp after it emerged that he had misled league officials about his net worth. The league took control of the team and decided to run it on a shoestring until a new owner could be found. The league financed and ran the Express all season, but could not find an owner. With a huge salary burden and dreadful attendance, the Express barely survived the season. • Owners agree to a 4-year CBA with the
United States Football League Players Association. •
San Antonio Gunslingers owner
Clinton Manges stopped paying the team's bills with about a month to go in the season. • The
Denver Gold's attendance flatlined due to the planned move to the fall, as fans were not willing to choose between the Gold and the NFL's
Broncos. The Gold would have hosted a playoff game against the
Memphis Showboats, but ABC forced the league to move the game to Memphis rather than endure the embarrassment of playing in a near-empty
Mile High Stadium. • Stallions owner Marvin Warner was forced to give up control of the team after
Home State Savings Bank, the Cincinnati savings and loan he controlled, was brought down in a massive run, one of the first casualties of the
savings and loan crisis. Unfortunately, the Stallions' emergency letter of credit was drawn on Home State, rendering it worthless. Team president Jerry Sklar urged the Stallions' limited partners to chip in more money, and persuaded the city government to buy a $100,000 stake in the team along with a $900,000 credit line. This allowed the Stallions to finish out the season.
The 1985–1986 off-season • The San Antonio Gunslingers had their franchise revoked when Manges ignored a league-imposed deadline to make restitution for the team's debts. • The Breakers were disbanded after owner Joe Canizaro suffered two-year losses in the realm of $17 million. • Los Angeles and Oakland announced that they would suspend operations. • Denver merged with Jacksonville, to play the 1986 season in Jacksonville, while Houston merged with New Jersey, to play in New Jersey. • Although
Eddie Einhorn remained involved with the league's antitrust lawsuit, he opted not to field a Chicago team in the USFL's fall 1986 season as planned, and the team was left off the proposed 1986 schedule. • Tampa Bay initially pulled out of the league, prepared to continue playing in the spring even if it meant forming a new league; owner John Bassett was, in either case, too ill to continue and would die on May 14, 1986. Lee Scarfone agreed to take over the Bandits' USFL franchise in July 1985 and have the team play a fall schedule.
1986 Arizona, Baltimore, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Memphis, New Jersey, Orlando and a newly reorganized Tampa Bay team were scheduled to play an ultimately aborted 18-game fall schedule season in 1986. At the time, only New Jersey and Tampa Bay shared markets with an NFL team (in New Jersey's case, they shared with two NFL teams).
2022 It was announced that the USFL would be returning in March 2022 with at least eight teams and a broadcasting deal with
Fox Sports. Despite claims that this was a reactivation of the old league, no figures from the original league were involved in the new league, which was instead backed by the principals of the extant developmental showcase
The Spring League, Brian Woods and
Fox Sports. On June 3, 2021, the new USFL confirmed a return in the spring of 2022. In December 2023, it was announced that the new USFL had merged with the
XFL to form the
United Football League. ==Competition vs. NFL==