A
NEW LEAGUE IS BORN
The inaugural season of the United States Football League began
on March 6 with five games, including the professional debut of
1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, who signed with the
New Jersey Generals just weeks before the start of the
season. Walker's Generals make their debut against the Los
Angeles Express in a game that, not surprisingly, was chosen by
ABC as the nationally broadcast game of the week. That
didn't deter 34,002 fans from going to the L.A. Coliseum to see
Walker in action, and while Walker rushed for 65 yards and the
first touchdown in Generals history, it would be the Express
that would win the game for their hometown fans, 20-15.
On the east coast, the Chicago Blitz
demolished the Washington Federals at RFK
Stadium in what was considered the league's
"kickoff" game, taking a 21-0 lead at
the half and holding on for a 28-7 win. In
Tampa meanwhile, the hometown Bandits drew an
impressive 42,437 to the gate, then gave them a
show as John Reaves found wideout Willie
Gillespie to come from behind and post a 21-17
victory over the Boston Breakers. The Denver Gold hosted the
Philadelphia Stars, losing 13-7 but drawing
45,102 fans. The Gold used an interesting
marketing technique, offering fans refunds of
their ticket price to any who wanted one after
the first quarter ended. Very few would
take the team up on the offer - a good sign.
The last Sunday game of the week saw the Oakland
Invaders pitch the first shutout in USFL
history, beating the Arizona Wranglers in
Phoenix in front of a league-high 45,167
fans. On Monday night, the Birmingham
Stallions and Michigan Panthers slugged it out
in a defensive duel won by the Stallions, 9-7.
DOGFIGHTS IN CENTRAL AND PACIFIC, BUT THE STARS SHINE IN THE
ATLANTIC
Those observing the USFL's formation believed the Chicago Blitz,
with George Allen at the helm, would be the dominant force in
the new league. Allen's NFL history was one of lavish
spending on player personnel, and the team's signing of former
NFL players Greg Landry and Stan White, along with high-profile
rookies such as Tim Spencer and Trumaine Johnson did little to
change those opinions. While the team did fare well on the
field, they didn't go 18-0-0 as some had predicted; in fact,
they didn't even win the 1983 Central Division championship,
settling for a wild-card playoff berth. More ominous were
Blitz attendance figures - with the NFL's Bears under new coach
Mike Ditka and improving rapidly, the Blitz barely made a blip
in the windy city's football radar, attracting only 21,949 for
its home opener at Soldier Field, and drawing less than 15,000
fans five times in nine home games.
It would be the Michigan Panthers who would take the Central
Division crown, but it was anything but a serene trip for the
club. Starting the season 1-4-0 and seen early on as the
division's worst team, owner A. Alfred Taubman opened his wallet
wide, exceeding the informal salary cap agreed to by team owners
to acquire the services of NFL-calibre players such as LB's Ray
Bentley and John Corker, wide receiver Anthony Carter,
safety/punter David Greenwood, and former Pittsburgh Steelers
Ray Pinney and John Banaszak. Guided by head coach Jim
Stanley, the Panthers overcame their slow start to win 11 of
their last 13 games to finish 12-6-0, eeking out the division
crown over the Blitz via tiebreakers, and by a single game over
the third-place Tampa Bay Bandits. The Birmingham
Stallions finished last in the USFL's most competitive division,
but still finished a respectable 9-9-0.
A 9-9-0 record would have made the Stallions a contender in the
USFL's weakest division. The Pacific Division was won by
the Oakland Invaders simply by playing .500 football. At
9-9-0, the Invaders finished a game ahead of the Los Angeles
Express, and two above the Denver Gold, who had the distinction
of being the first USFL club to fire a head coach when Red
Miller got the axe after Week 11. At the end of Week 9 the
Pacific Division had all four teams tied for the lead, which
would have been seen as a testament to the league's
competitiveness save one minor detail: all four teams were
tied at 4-5-0. That record would seem like ancient history
to the Arizona Wranglers by the end of the season, as under head
coach Doug Shively the team ended its inaugural campaign by
losing a string of 10 consecutive games - what would turn out to
be the longest losing streak in USFL history.
If there was a dominant team in the USFL's inaugural season, it
was the Philadelphia Stars. The roster crafted by General
Manager Carl Peterson and coached by Jim Mora (who took the
reins just before training camp began, after George Perles
resigned to coach at Michigan State), the Stars featured a large
talent pool from Penn State, which at the time was a perennial
college football power. The team picked up the rights to
14 Nittany Lions in the league's Territorial Draft, and in the
regular college draft added players who would help the Stars go
an impressive 15-3-0: UCLA defensive tackle Irv Eatman in
the first round, followed by center Bart Oates (2nd round) and
back-up running back Allen Harvin from Cincinnati (5th).
The Stars would finish the regular season as the Atlantic
Division champions, winning the title over second-place Boston
by an impressive four games. Even with Herschel Walker the
Generals found themselves outflanked more often than not, going
6-12-0; and the Washington Federals joined the Arizona Wranglers
with the worst record in the USFL at 4-14-0.
SUMMATION
Prior to the signing of Herschel Walker by the New Jersey
Generals, the USFL was being compared to the most recent
previous challenger to the 63-year old National Football League,
the WFL. While the 1983 season produced financial losses
for all but one of the league's twelve teams (the Denver Gold,
having followed David Dixon's spending plan virtually to the
letter, being the exception), the USFL accomplished some things
that the WFL had not: it had no teams fold during the
season (as had been the case for the WFL's Jacksonville
franchise), no teams move in mid-season (the WFL had several),
no teams declining to participate in its playoffs (as WFL's
Boston/New York/Charlotte team had done). While there was
plenty of red ink to go around in the league's income statements
and a few owners wanted out, the losses were for the most part
their own doing.
On the field people were surprised with the quality of play in
the USFL's first season, particularly considering that the
league opted to start its inaugural regular season without the
benefit of any pre-season contests. After just one year,
those who didn't simply reject the concept of the USFL out of
hand were making comparisons - how would the champion Michigan
Panthers, the Chicago Blitz or Philadelphia Stars fare if they
were in the NFL? While the answer from most was that
they'd be lower-tier teams competitively speaking, just having
the discussion gave the USFL's on-field product greater
credibility.
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