|
1
9 8 2 |
| - |
| May
11 - At "21" in New York City, the
USFL announces its plans to play spring football
beginning in 1983. |
| - |
|
1
9 8 3 |
| - |
| July
17 - Memphis is awarded the USFL's 18th and
final franchise. Young's group, Memphis
Pro Football, Inc., is the initial franchise
holder. |
| |
| Fall
- Realizing that he alone lacked the financial
resources to underwrite the team's operations,
Young forms a limited partnership (Memphis
Showboats, Ltd.) in an effort to attract
investors. |
| |
|
1
9 8 4 |
| |
| February
26 - The Showboats take the field in their first
game, a 17-9 loss to the Philadelphia
Stars. 28,098 is the paid attendance - a
solid start. A week later, the 'Boats earn
their first victory, defeating the Chicago
Blitz, 23-13. |
| |
| August
22 - The USFL's owners (Memphis owner Bill
Dunavant among them) vote to move to a fall
schedule beginning in 1986. With good
attendance figures in a market where there
wasn't already an NFL franchise, Dunavant sees
the Showboats as a potential survivor if the NFL
and USFL merge. |
| - |
|
To
see more of the
Showboats timeline, visit the
USFL.INFO
Timeline of the USFL |
|
| Years
Played in USFL: |
1984,
1985 |
| Club
Owner(s): |
Logan
Young, Jr. (1984), William Dunavant
(1984-85) |
| Playing
Site: |
Liberty
Bowl, Memphis, Tennessee |
| Head
Coach(es): |
Pepper
Rodgers |
| Overall
Record: |
19-19-0
(18-18-0 regular season) |
| . |
. |
|
|
|
| Year |
Head
Coach |
W |
L |
T |
Pct. |
Finish |
Post-Season
Notes |
| 1984 |
Pepper
Rodgers |
7 |
11 |
0 |
.389 |
4th,
Southern
Div. |
Failed
to Qualify |
| 1985 |
Pepper
Rodgers |
11 |
7 |
0 |
.611 |
3rd,
Eastern
Conf. |
Lost
USFL Semi-Final |
| Team
Totals |
18 |
18 |
0 |
.500 |
--- |
1-1
in post-season play |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Logan
Young, Jr. was the living embodiment of a
modern showboat. Having inherited a
fortune from his father, who made millions
in the soft drink and margarine businesses
during World War II, Young was flamboyant,
braggadocious but without being pompous,
and a lover of football.
. |
|
So
when the USFL came into existence, Young thought
he could make a splash and give the community a
new team to cheer for, maybe making a buck or two
in the process but definitely having a good
time. In the spring of 1983 when he learned
that the USFL was planning to expand for 1984 he
immediately put an application together.
It'd be neat for Memphis to have pro football,
Young surmised.
After awarding five other applications (including,
inexplicably, the one that brought the league the
San Antonio Gunslingers), it awarded Young his
team, which was almost immediately dubbed the
Showboats. Befitting Young's showboating
style, he quickly put together a top flight
marketing staff to promote his club, hired local
legend Pepper Rodgers as the team's head coach,
and... ran out of cash. See, most of the
assets that Young had, assets the USFL perceived
as readily available to operate the team, were
actually locked up in a trust fund that the owner
couldn't access. Before the Memphis
Showboats had even pumped up a football, there was
a cash crunch.
Young ultimately resolved the problem, first by
lining up limited partners who kicked in $150,000
per partnership unit, and then when that didn't
result in enough money being raised, giving up
majority control of the team to William Dunavant,
a man who inherited his father's money and then
proceeded to make a whole lot more money with it
in the textiles industry. Dunvant had real,
accessible money (reportedly at the time
Dunavant's worth was $150 million) and a real
interest in the Showboats being a successful
enterprise. While Young remained a part of
the ownership group, it was Dunvant who kept the
'Boats afloat.
The team on the field in 1984 would post the
second-best record among expansion franchises,
going 7-11-0 and finishing fourth in the USFL's
Southern Division, but the real stories were the
play of future Pro Football Hall of Famer Reggie
White and the Showboats fans themselves - the
team's attendance was stellar by USFL standards,
drawing 30,640 for their game against the
Pittsburgh Maulers, 32,406 against the
Gunslingers, and 50,079 when the Showboats took on
their Alabama-based rivals, the Birmingham
Stallions. Unlike most USFL teams where the
attendance figures got lower as the season
progressed, in Memphis they got higher. It
was encouraging to say the least.
Adding talent for the 1985 season through the
draft as well as the dispersal draft held after
the league consolidated from 18 teams to 14, the
Showboats fared even better in their second
season, posting an 11-7-0 record and finishing
third in the seven-team Eastern Conference.
The attendance numbers had improved over '84, with
the team averaging over 30,000 in paid attendance
per game. Awarded home field advantage
thanks to their attendance, in the 1985 USFL
divisional playoffs the Showboats destroyed the
Western Conference's #2 seed, the Denver Gold,
48-7. And while the 'Boats fell to the
Oakland Invaders in the USFL's semi-finals the
following week, fans of Memphis had reason to look
forward to the league's move to the fall in 1986.
But the loss to the Invaders would prove the
team's final game. The verdict of USFL v.
NFL would cause a near immediate cancellation of
the 1986 USFL season, and while the Showboats
likely would have done as well in the fall as they
had playing in the spring, the league and the
Showboats were sunk. |
| . |
|
