1 9 8 1
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May 14 - Tad Taube first meets with John Ralston about the possibility of establishing a USFL franchise in the Bay Area.
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October 23 - Partnering with friend Jim Joseph, Taube becomes minority owner of the Bay Area franchise.
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1 9 8 2
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May 7 - Taube and Joseph flip a coin to determine which of them takes control of the USFL's Los Angeles franchise.  Joseph "wins" and Taube becomes the team's majority owner.
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May 11 - At "21" in New York City, the USFL announces its intent to play spring football beginning in 1983.
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June 30 - John Ralston is named head coach and general manager.
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August 11 - Taube announces that the team will be known as the "Bay Area Invaders."
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October 19 - The Invaders sign their lease and their first player, Cedrick Hardman.  The team also changes its name to the "Oakland" Invaders, as the team would play all its games at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.  Originally the team's plan had been to play at three different sites:  the Oakland Coliseum, San Francisco's Candlestick Park, and Stanford Stadium in nearby Palo Alto.
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October 29 - The Invaders sign a contract with KGO radio giving them broadcast rights for the team's games.
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November 10 - The Invaders offices open in conjunction with the team's hosting of a league meeting at the Oakland Hyatt.
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To see more of the
Invaders timeline, visit the
USFL.INFO
Timeline of the USFL
Years Played in USFL: 1983, 1984, 1985
Club Owner(s): Tad Taube and Jim Joseph (1982); Tad Taube (1983-84); Tad Taube and A. Alfred Taubman (1985)
Playing Site: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Head Coach(es): John Rauch (1983-84); Charlie Sumner (1985)
Overall Record: -
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Year Head Coach W L T Pct. Finish Post-Season Notes
1983 John Rauch 9 9 0 .500 1st, Pacific Div. Lost Divisional Playoff
1984 John Rauch 7 11 0 .389 4th, Pacific Div. Failed to Qualify
1985 Charlie Sumner 13 4 1 .750 1st, Western Conf. Lost USFL Championship
Team Totals 29 24 1 .546 --- 2-2 in post-season games

Sometimes life decisions are made after careful thought and planning, while others they are made by the toss of a coin.  In the case of the Oakland Invaders and owner Tad Taube, the latter would prove to be the case.
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Taube originally partnered with Jim Joseph as co-owners of a USFL franchise that would play in the Bay Area of California.  But by April 1982, Taube had decided he'd rather be a majority owner.  Fortunately an opportunity to do just that had come along - Alex Spanos, owner of the USFL's Los Angeles franchise, had given up his slot in order to buy a stake in the NFL's San Diego Chargers.  With founder David Dixon's consent, Joseph and Taube decided to settle who would take over L.A. by tossing a coin - the winner got Los Angeles, the loser stayed in the Bay Area.

On May 7, 1982, the friends met at Vince's Restaurant in San Mateo and the coin was tossed.  Joseph won, and Tad Taube was the majority owner of a team in his hometown.  A real estate developer and investor, Taube is a self-made man in every sense of the word.  Born April 1, 1931 in Krakow, Poland, Taube came to the United States at a young age, growing up in the Bay Area and getting a degree in industrial engineering from Stanford.  Prior to tackling the challenge of the USFL he had been a successful businessman and avid philanthropist - both of which he remains to this day.  But his ownership tenure in the USFL proved to be one instance where his Midas touch and commitment to hard work just wouldn't pay off.

Starting their inaugural 1983 season with a 24-0 win over Jim Joseph's Arizona Wranglers (Joseph was asked to give the L.A. market to cable television pioneers Alan Harmon and Bill Daniels) gave Taube gloating rights over his friend as the USFL made its debut.  As the Invaders continued on over the course of the next three years, the team would give him a number of headaches as well. 

Taube was the first USFL owner to notice the rather stringent clauses in the league's television contract with ABC, and fought hard over the league's three years to get them renegotiated.  He was among the more active owners in the USFL, keeping in regular communication with the league office on a variety of issues, among them the failure of some of his fellow owners to adhere to David Dixon's blueprint for success.

However, as time wore on, Taube would come to the opinion that the USFL should seek a merger with the NFL and play in the fall.  Egged on by New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump, Taube began to see spring football as a financial failure, and hoped his Invaders would be among the franchises added to the older league should a merger scenario unfold.  It was not to be.

After a 1984 season that saw the Invaders go from first to worst in the Pacific Division standings and attendance drop to an unacceptable level (in part, no doubt, due to the USFL's announcement that they would play in the fall in 1986), Taube had had enough.  After discussing a merger between his Invaders and the Oklahoma Outlaws, he came to terms with Michigan Panthers owner A. Alfred Taubman, another who had seen all together too much money go down the chute.  The Panthers and Invaders were merged with the Invaders as the surviving team, and while the financial results weren't any better, the results on the field were a dramatic improvement.

While the 1984 Invaders had gone 7-11-0, the addition of several members of the Panthers propelled the Invaders to the best record in the USFL in 1985, going 13-4-1 and winning the seven-team Western Conference's regular season title.  The team fared just as well in the playoffs, defeating the Tampa Bay Bandits and Memphis Showboats to advance to the 1985 USFL Championship Game against the Baltimore Stars, whom they had tied 17-17 in the season's early stages.  As the regular season game had been the outcome was close, but the Stars emerged victorious, 28-24.  Thereafter the Invaders were a franchise pretty much in name only, suspending operations and awaiting the outcome of USFL v. NFL to determine if the Invaders were dead or merely hibernating.  When the verdict came in, it was official - the Invaders, and the rest of the USFL, were dead.
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