Who Were The Lawrenceville Valley Club?

The Lawrenceville Valley Club was an independent professional football team that played two road games in 1920. On Sunday September 26, 1920 the Lawrenceville Valley Club went to McKees Rocks, PA at Bradley Field to play the Bradley Eagles in a 31-0 shutout lose. Their last game they ever played was on November 11, 1920 in McKeesport, PA at Cycler Park. McKeesport Olympics won 42-2 against the Lawrenceville Valley Club. Not much else is none by the team and the team never played again after going 0-2 and scoring only two points.

Who Were The Ishpeming-Negaunee Twin City Eleven?

It was October 19, 1919, when a group of athletes from Green Bay traveled to Ishpeming to play their very first road game. The team had just been formed on August 11, 1919 after George Calhoun, sports editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, put advertisements in the paper for local athletes. He and Curly Lambeau had discussed starting a football team earlier that summer. They met with the young athletes who replied to the ad in the editorial room of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette building on Cherry Street. This was the unofficial start of the team known as the Green Bay Packers, just a few years before the formation of the NFL.

This first road game played by the Green Bay Packers against the Ishpeming-Negaunee Twin City Eleven was held at Union Park in Ishpeming. The Twin-City Eleven was mostly a group of returning war veterans with an undefeated record. They were a tough team and had been five time Northern Michigan Champions, not losing a game on their home field in five years. Since the Packers had been clubbing the competition in their inaugural season with scores such as 61-0 (Marinette Northerners), 87-0 (Sheboygan Company C) and 76-6 (Racine) on their home field, Manager Calhoun looked to find a football team that would give his new team a good game. So, with a $200 budget for expenses, he took the team on the road to play the tough Twin City Eleven.

The Ishpeming Iron Ore newspaper wrote the day before the game, “Great Football Game - The Green Bay, Wis., football team and the Twin-Cities will meet at Union Park tomorrow in what is expected to be the greatest game to be seen in the Upper Peninsula this season. Green Bay has a record of being undefeated, and is said to be the very best city team in all Wisconsin. And the Twin-Cities can go some. So it is a pretty safe prediction that you will get your money’s worth if you go to the park tomorrow afternoon.” More than 3,000 fans turned out to watch to game!

From the account in the paper the next week, the ball was rarely in the Twin-City Eleven’s possession, with only a few instances where they made a first down. The Packer’s first score came after a few minutes of play; at the half, the score was 14 to 0.

The game saw many injuries; one Green Bay player suffered fractured ribs, one a broken ankle, and another a cracked collarbone. Since the Packers had a second string, it was much easier to replace those injured with an equally capable player. The Twin City team had minor injuries, and lost a few good players through the course of the game. They lost 33-0, with the Green Bay Packers scoring five touchdowns and kicking three of the extra points. The papers blamed many fumbles, injuries, and the Packers’ impenetrable defense for the loss. Plus, many of Green Bay’s players were former stars of college teams, such as Curly Lambeau.

The Iron Ore stated, “Lambeau, the Green Bay captain, played a star game. He is a former Notre-Dame fullback and displays the results of expert coaching.” They also wrote, “The Ishpeming-Negaunee boys are not one bit downhearted because of their defeat as they realize that they were up against a fast aggregation of stars.” Local sports writers were proud that the team had held the Packers’ score to only 33 points.

That feeling of pride didn’t last long. Upon returing to Green Bay, Manager Calhoun wrote in the Green-Bay Press Gazette that the Ishpeming-Negaunee players played with “rough-neck tactics.” He stated the play was so rough that the doctor and water boy were in their glory at all times. This outraged the locals and the Iron Ore responded on October 25, 1919 with, “It is quite true that the game was hard-fought from start to finish, but it is a mighty poor aggregation of football players who are not aggressive and in the game at all times. The Packers have been piling up large scores all year against weak elevens and they expected the Twin-City boys to take to the woods and run away the same as some of those farmer outfits from down in the nickel-cigar belt in Wisconsin. The Ishpeming-Negaunee players fought every inch of the way, but they fought in accordance with the rules of the game, and not a single man would be on the team today if he did not have some fight in his system.”

It was the last season for the Twin-City Eleven, though many of the players joined the Albert V. Braden Post football team in 1920. As for the fans, “Ishpeming-Negaunee fans are not of the variety who go back on a team because of defeat.” from the Iron Ore, October 25, 1919.

Who Were The Holmesburg Athletic Club?

The Holmesburg Athletic Club was a professional football team from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that was in existence from around 1915 until 1923. The team laid claim to the Philadelphia City Championship in 1919 and 1920.

The 1915 Holmesburg lineup featured Lou Little, an college All-American from Penn. Little, at the time a freshman at Penn, played under the assumed name of "Lou Small" to protect his collegiate status. He later went on to play for the Buffalo All-Americans of the National Football League, the Union Club of Phoenixville, the Union Quakers of Philadelphia and the pre-NFL version of the Frankford Yellow Jackets before going on to a highly successful coaching career at both Georgetown and Columbia.

Bert Yeabsley, a pinch hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies, and John B. Kelly, Sr., a three time Olympic gold medalist for sculling, played for the team in 1919. In 1921, Benny Boynton briefly played for Holmesburg for Thanksgiving Day game against the Union Quakers of Philadelphia. Stan Cofall also played for the team over its life span.

In the years following World War I the Holmesburg Athletic Club was a dominant force on the gridirons of Philadelphia. In addition to maintaining regular rivalries with such regional powers as the Frankford Athletic Association and Conshohocken Athletic Club, Holmesburg also competed against such far ranging teams as the Rex Athletic Club of Washington (DC), and the Coaldale Big Green, a powerhouse eleven from the Pennsylvania coal region's Anthracite League. Perhaps Holmesburg's most successful season was 1919. Widely acknowledged in the local press as the city champions of Philadelphia, that season's only defeat came at the hands of Conshohocken, a team generally recognized as that's seasons Eastern professional champions.

Heading into the 1919 season the Holmesburg Athletic Club was widely expected to field the strongest football team in the Philadelphia area. Manager Fred Gerker and Coach Henry Eavis had assembled a powerful lineup of collegiate stars that included team captain William "Doc" Morrison of Bucknell, Charlie MacKracken of Villanova, Kidder Caskey of Muhlenberg, former Swarthmore captain ??? MacKissick and former Lafayette stars Dick Diamond, Johnny Scott and Dick Lake. That season's lineup also included Bert Yeabsley, a player with a well established reputation on the local gridirons who had also played for pro baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, and Jack Kelly, the legendary sculling champion who would go on to capture gold in two Olympics.

The Northeast Philadelphia eleven opened its 1919 grid campaign on the second weekend in October, against West Philadelphia's Hobart AC. Johnny Scott led the charge, scoring four touchdowns and five extra-points, as the "Burg" rolled a 41-0 victory. A week later some 2,000 spectators were on hand at Holmesburg's Crystal Field to witness an even more overwhelming victory, this time over Camden New Jersey's Parkside AC. This game, which saw the first appearance of Bert Yeabsley in the lineup, was largely viewed as a wram-up for the upcoming tilt with Conshohocken. The late arrival of the New Jersey eleven delayed the start of the contest, ...and briefly postponed the inevitable. Jack Kelly's three touchdowns in the first quarter set the tone for the afternoon, then Scott, Knauer, Caskey, Yeabsley and MacKissick made a few contributions of their own to the points total. By the time it was all over Parkside lay buried under the rubble of a 90-0 rout.

With two solid victories under their belts, the Holmesburg squad made the trek out to Conshohocken the following weekend. There, playing before a crowd of about 14,000, the heavily favored visitors got on the board early when Johnny Scott dashed fifty-three yards through the home team for a touchdown. From that point forward, however, Coach Nig Berry's "Conshy" eleven outplayed the Philadelphians in nearly every aspect of the game. Whitey Thomas, the former Penn State and Holmesburg standout, recovered a Bert Yeabsley fumble and dashed thirty yards to endzone for Conshohocken's first touchdown of the game. Then a Johnny Scott fumble gave Conshohocken the ball on the Holmesburg 13-yard line. A few plays later Earl Potteiger took the ball into the endzone, giving Conshy a 13-7 lead heading into halftime. Little changed in the second half. Another Holmesburg error, this time a muffed punt, was combined with a thirty-five yard pass play to give Conshohocken the ball near the Holmesburg goal line. On the very next play Potteiger took it up the middle on a one yard dive for another touchdown, as Conshohocken walked away with a 19-7 upset victory.

Eager to rebound from the disappointing performance against Conshohocken, the Holmesburg eleven anxiously awaited the first club on their November schedule: the Vincome AA. Unfortunately the wait was just a little longer than anticipated, as an unexpected cancellation on the morning of the game sent Manager Fred Gerker scrambling to find another opponent. After a few quick phone calls the Bluejackets of the USS Michigan were on their way up to the Northeast from their ship's berth in the South Philly. Then, behind the strong play and scoring of Johnny Scott, Dick Diamond and Bert Yeabsley, the Berg-men outclassed the sailors in a 32-0 shutout. A week later Holmesburg headed down to Browns Field for a clash with the Frankford Yellow Jackets. Up to this point in the season the only blemish on Frankford's record was a scoreless draw with the Ewing AA. Both Frankford and Holmesburg believed that the outcome of this game would settle the question of which team could claim the bragging rights as champions of Philadelphia. The game was a struggle throughout, with both teams' defenses holding fast. A Johnny Scott field goal from the 20-yard line was the only scoring play of the afternoon, giving Holmesburg a 3-0 shutout victory.

The final three games on the schedule were against strong clubs from of outside the immediate Philadelphia area. In the first of these Holmesburg welcomed the Rex AC to Crystal Field. Rex, touted as the champions of Washington (DC), was composed mostly of former Georgetown and Catholic University players. Undefeated over four seasons, the only blemish of this club's current campaign was a scoreless tie against the Ewing AA, of Philadelphia, just a few weeks earlier. Holmesburg was playing without the services of Johnny Scott, who was still recovering from injuries suffered during the Frankford game. It as a fierce contest throughout, with few scoring opportunities and plenty of injuries for both clubs. The first real scoring chance didn't come until the fourth quarter, when a MacKissick field goal attempt for Holmesburg went wide. A little while later Kidder Caskey made three rushes up the middle to take the ball from the 10-yard line for the only touchdown of the game, providing Holmesburg a 7-0 victory.

The next game on the schedule was against Casey Gildea's Coaldale Big Green, one of the finest teams from the Pennsylvania coal region. The Big Green made the trip down to Philadelphia on the weekend before Thanksgiving, accompanied by some 1,000 supporters. Holmesburg out-played the visitors in every aspect of a game that featured numerous interceptions by Johnny Scott, Dick Diamond and Doc Morrison. The visitors' only points of the game came off a Gildea field goal late in the first quarter. This gave Coaldale a 3-0 lead, but Holmesburg moved ahead late in the second quarter on a short pass from MacKissick to Dick Diamond at mid-field, which Diamond then carried forty-five yards through the entire Coaldale team for a touchdown. Second half touchdowns by MacKissick and Morrison put the game out of reach for the up-state eleven, as Holmesburg went on to win, 19-3.

Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, Holmesburg closed out the season at Crystal Field against the Thomas AC. Thomas, touted as the champions of Bethlehem (PA), forced another tough defensive game. The only points of the game came off a Holmesburg drive that started on their own 35-yard line. A series of runs, that included long gains of twenty-five and eighteen yards, brought the ball to the Thomas 3-yard line. Then Dick Diamond took the ball wide around the wing and into the endzone. MacKissick followed with a successful kick. Both defenses clamped down hard for the remainder of the game, and at the final whistle Holmesburg took a 7-0 decision.

The Philadelphia press began referring to Holmesburg as the city champions of 1919 following the victory over Frankford. This view was cemented by its victories against quality teams from outside the region in the final three games of the season, giving Holmesburg a 7-1-0 record for its championship season.

The 1915 lineup featured University of Pennsylvania All-American Lou Little. Little, at the time a freshman at Penn, played under the assumed name of "Lou Small" to protect his collegiate status. He later went on to play for the Buffalo All-Americans of the APFA/NFL, the Union Club of Phoenixville, the Union Quakers and the (pre-NFL) Frankford Yellow Jackets before going on to a highly successful coaching career at both Georgetown and Columbia.

Over the years the Holmesburg roster featured some other NFL veterans as well, including Stan Cofall and local product Howard "Nig" Berry. In 1921 the team enlisted the services of Benny Boynton as a hired gun for Thanksgiving Day game against the Union Club. Boynton, who also played that season with both the APFA's Buffalo All-Americans and Washington Pros, was selected a first team APFA all-pro by the Buffalo Evening News.

Who Were The Gilberton Catamounts?

The Gilberton Catamounts, sometimes called the Gilberton Cadamounts and the Gilberton Duck Streeters, were a 1920s-era professional football team based in Gilberton, Pennsylvania. However, the team played many of its home games in nearby Mahanoy City because Gilberton's home field, Stoddard Field, was usually flooded. The borough got its "Ducktown" nickname mainly because of persistent flooding.

The team played independently against other teams from Pennsylvania's "coal country". During the 1920s the teams based here paid large amounts of money to talented pro football players. Many players from the National Football League came to play football in this region because of the amount of money paid out. In 1924 Gilberton, under the managership of Joe Keating and James Rafferty, Gilberton acquired three new star players just days before their season opener. The team signed Ben Shaw, Cecil Grigg, and Lou Smyth. All three players were members of the Canton Bulldogs of the NFL. Ironically in 1924 the team played in the Anthracite League, which was formed to combat the out-of-control hiring of top professional football talent. It is no wonder that league folded after the 1924 season. The team later played in the Eastern League of Professional Football from 1926 until the league folded in 1927. The team had mild success on the football field. As an independent team in 1923 the team went 7-4-1. In 1924, the team went 4-3-1 in the Anthracite League. The team in 1926 in the ELPF went 5-2-2.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Fritz Pollard played with the team in 1923 and 1924. Coach Charlie Copley, a former teammate of Pollard's with the Akron Pros and the Milwaukee Badgers, recruited Pollard to play for the Catamounts. He became the first African-American to play football in the coal region.

History Of The United States Football League (USFL)

The United States Football League (USFL) was an American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be played in the autumn/winter, directly competing against the long-established National Football League. However, the USFL ceased operations before that season was scheduled to begin.

The ideas behind the USFL were conceived in 1965 by New Orleans businessman David Dixon, who saw a market for a professional football league that would play in the summer, when the National Football League and college football were in their off-season. Dixon had been a key player in the construction of the Louisiana Superdome and the expansion of the NFL into New Orleans in 1967. He developed "The Dixon Plan", a blueprint for the USFL based upon securing NFL-caliber stadiums in top TV markets, securing a national TV broadcast contract, controlling spending, and found investors willing to buy in.

Though the original franchise owners and founders of the USFL had promised to abide by the general guidelines set out by Dixon's plan, problems arose before the teams took the field, with some franchises facing financial problems and instability from the beginning. Due to pressure from the NFL, some franchises had difficulty securing leases in stadiums that were also used by NFL teams, forcing them to scramble to find alternative venues in their chosen city or hurriedly move to a new market. The USFL had no hard salary cap, and because of this, some teams quickly escalated player payrolls to unsustainable levels despite pledges to keep costs under control. While a handful of USFL franchises abided by the Dixon Plan and were relatively stable, others suffered repeated financial crises, and there were many franchise relocations, mergers, and ownership changes during the league's short existence; however, none of its teams actually folded during any given season. These problems were worsened as some owners began engaging in bidding wars for star players against NFL teams and each other, forcing other owners to do the same or face a competitive disadvantage.

On the field, the USFL was regarded as a relatively good product. Many coaches and team executives had NFL experience, and many future top NFL players and coaches got their start in the new league, including several who were later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and/or the College Football Hall of Fame. The Michigan Panthers won the first USFL championship in 1983. The Philadelphia Stars won the second USFL championship in 1984, and after relocating to Baltimore, won the final USFL championship in 1985 as the Baltimore Stars in what was effectively a rematch of the first USFL title game.

In August 1984, the USFL voted to move from a spring to a fall schedule in 1986 to compete directly with the NFL. This was done at the urging of New Jersey Generals majority owner Donald Trump and a handful of other owners as a way to force a merger between the leagues. As part of this strategy, the USFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League in 1986, and a jury ruled that the NFL had violated anti-monopoly laws. However, in a victory in name only, the USFL was awarded a judgment of just $1, which under antitrust laws, was tripled to $3. This court decision effectively ended the USFL's existence. The league never played its planned 1986 season, and by the time it folded, it had lost over US$163 million (over $389 million in 2021 dollars).

Three consecutive Heisman Trophy winners signed with USFL teams directly out of college: Georgia running back Herschel Walker and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie signed with the New Jersey Generals, and Nebraska running back Mike Rozier signed with the Pittsburgh Maulers.

Future Pro Football Hall of Fame members defensive end Reggie White of the University of Tennessee, offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman and quarterbacks Jim Kelly of the University of Miami and Steve Young of Brigham Young University began their professional careers with the USFL's Memphis Showboats, Los Angeles Express, Houston Gamblers, and Los Angeles Express, respectively. A number of NFL veterans of all talent levels played in the USFL. It is true that some NFL backups such as quarterbacks Chuck Fusina and Cliff Stoudt, G Buddy Aydelette, and WR Jim Smith who had limited success in the NFL became major stars in the USFL. However, many NFL backups struggled or did not make it in the USFL. Additionally, the USFL also lured in NFL starters, including a handful of stars in the primes of their careers, including the 1980 NFL MVP, Cleveland Browns' quarterback Brian Sipe, the Buffalo Bills' three-time pro bowl running back Joe Cribbs, and the Kansas City Chiefs' three-time pro bowl safety Gary Barbaro.

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, the elite levels of American football lacked the financial wherewithal to consistently finance their own facilities and instead played primarily in ballparks hastily re-purposed for football. However, since gridiron football in particular is responsible for excessive wear and tear on a 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, 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.

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.

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.

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 Phoenix, 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 in 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 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.

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, 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 at Nickerson Field.

In September 1983, the New Jersey Generals were sold to real-estate magnate Donald Trump.
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.

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 the 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.

The Los Angeles Express were sold to J. William Oldenburg and the New Jersey Generals were sold to Donald Trump. 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.

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 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 Disney 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, 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.

The assets of Diethrich's Arizona Wranglers (see Chicago Blitz of 1983) would be acquired Archived 2008-10-13 at the Wayback Machine 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.

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.

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 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.

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).

It was announced that the USFL will 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 are involved in the new league, which is instead being 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. The league plans a minimum of eight teams for its first season and will retain rights to original team names.

In another effort to keep themselves afloat while at the same time attacking the more established National Football League, the USFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the older league, claiming it had established a monopoly with respect to television broadcasting rights, and in some cases, on access to stadium venues.

The case was first heard by Judge Peter K. Leisure. The USFL claimed that the NFL had bullied ABC, CBS and NBC into not televising USFL games in the fall. It also claimed that the NFL had a specific plan to eliminate the USFL, the "Porter Presentation." In particular, the USFL claimed the NFL conspired to ruin the Invaders and Generals. The USFL sought damages of $567 million, which would have been tripled to $1.7 billion under antitrust law. It hoped to void the NFL's contracts with the three major networks. The USFL proposed two remedies: either force the NFL to negotiate new television contracts with only two networks, or force the NFL to split into two competing 14-team leagues, each limited to a contract with one major network.

The lawyer for the USFL, Harvey Myerson, had what he felt were three "smoking guns".
A memo from March 1973 to NFL broadcasting director Robert Cochran, from attorney Jay Moyer stating that an "open network" might be open to the "invitation to formation of a new league."
A memo from August 1983 from NFL management council executive director Jack Donlan to his staff. The memo laid out plans for NFL teams to "increase salary offers to USFL to existing players or run the risk of losing them."

All but one of the league's 28 teams was named as a co-defendant. Al Davis, owner of the then-Los Angeles Raiders, was a major witness for the USFL and had been excluded from the lawsuit in exchange for his testimony. ABC Sports' Howard Cosell was also a key witness for the USFL.
The case went to trial in the spring of 1986 and lasted 42 days. On July 29, a six-person jury handed down a verdict that devastated the USFL, even though it technically won its case. The jury declared the NFL a "duly adjudicated illegal monopoly", and found that the NFL had willfully acquired and maintained monopoly status in professional football through predatory tactics.

However, it rejected the USFL's other claims. The jury found that the USFL had changed its strategy to a more risky goal of forcing a merger with the NFL. Furthermore, the switch to a fall schedule caused the loss of several major markets (Philadelphia, Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Miami, the Bay Area). The jury also made note of a memo Tad Taube wrote about the dispute, which quoted the comic strip Pogo: "we have met the enemy and he is us."

Most importantly, the jury found that the NFL did not attempt to force the USFL off television. (Indeed, ESPN remained willing to carry USFL games in the fall, several of the league's teams also had local broadcast contracts, and 1986 also happened to be the inaugural season of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a network that would eventually become the fourth major broadcast network.) In essence, the jury felt that while the USFL was harmed by the NFL's de facto monopolization of pro football in the United States, most of its problems were due to its own mismanagement. It awarded the USFL nominal damages of one dollar, which was tripled under antitrust law to three dollars.

When Rozelle and NFL broadcasting chief Val Pinchbeck initially heard the verdict, they were devastated; Pinchbeck later recalled that he thought Rozelle would have a heart attack. While on their way to the league office, however, they heard that the USFL had lost nearly all of its claims, and headed back to the courthouse.

The verdict was a classic Pyrrhic victory. The USFL had essentially staked its future on the outcome of the suit, banking on a substantial settlement to finance the move to the fall. It considered the television-related claims to be the heart of its case. On August 4, four days after the announcement of the verdict, the USFL owners voted to suspend operations for the 1986 season, with the intent of returning in 1987; the league accurately foresaw the 1987 players' strike and had hoped the strike would give the league access to star players. Players signed to contracts were free to sign with NFL (or other professional teams) immediately. Indeed, the NFL had held a draft in 1984 for teams to acquire the rights to USFL players, in the event of the league (or teams in the league) folding. However, it is unlikely the USFL would have been able to put together a viable product in any case. Many of its players had signed contracts with NFL teams after the 1985 season, and the league was some $160 million in debt.

Five days after the verdict, the Tampa Bay Bandits were effectively shut down when a judge placed a lien on the franchise to satisfy back pay owed to former player Bret Clark. All of the team's remaining assets were seized to satisfy the debt. In a desperation move, the Arizona Outlaws arranged a meeting in January 1987 with officials with the Canadian Football League hoping to negotiate a merger with that league; the CFL's owners were "lukewarm" and ultimately rejected the Outlaws' request. With nearly all of its players under contract to the NFL and CFL, Usher announced the league would stay shuttered in 1987 as well. (Many of the USFL players who were not under NFL contract would end up playing in fall 1987 as replacement players during the strike.)

The USFL appealed the award, but it was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1988. This decision ended any chance of the USFL returning to the field, and the league's six remaining teams (the Outlaws had already decided not to return) voted to formally disband shortly afterward. However, because the USFL was at least nominally the winner of the lawsuit, the NFL was required to cover the USFL's attorney fees and costs of litigation, and the USFL was awarded over $5.5 million in attorney fees and over $62,000 in court costs. That award was appealed by the NFL; it was affirmed on appeal and ultimately allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990, four years after the USFL had ceased operations.

The USFL had a significant impact on the NFL both on the field and off. Almost all of the USFL's on-field innovations were eventually adopted by the older league, and a multitude of star players in the USFL would go on to enjoy very successful careers in the NFL.

The NFL would also eventually have franchises in some of the markets which the USFL had proved fertile for pro football or had renewed interest in the game. Jacksonville, in particular, was being courted by the Houston Oilers as a potential relocation destination as early as 1987; that city eventually got the expansion Jaguars in 1995. The Oilers would instead relocate to Tennessee in 1997, initially playing one season in Memphis (to minuscule crowds) before moving to Nashville to become the Tennessee Titans. Although the USFL's stay in Baltimore was brief, the city's acceptance of the Stars, coupled with the success of the Canadian Football League's Baltimore Stallions a decade later, were factors in Art Modell's decision to relocate his Cleveland Browns NFL franchise to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens in 1996. Arizona was never one of the USFL's strongest markets but still managed to lure the former St. Louis Football Cardinals to take up residence in the state in 1988. Three decades after the USFL's failure, the NFL awarded the 2017 Pro Bowl to Orlando. Outside the NFL, Tampa Bay's embrace of Bandit Ball and the rapid growth of the Sun Belt prompted the establishment of other major league teams in the metro area: the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning and Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays. Other cities that did not get NFL franchises, such as Birmingham, Memphis and Orlando, would receive teams from the numerous short-lived pro football leagues that have attempted to launch in the years that have followed, such as the 2001 XFL (which, with the lone exception of the Las Vegas Outlaws, resided entirely in former USFL markets), CFL, UFL, AAF and 2020 XFL.

The collapse of the USFL had a particularly positive effect on the NFL's Buffalo Bills. The Bills, as a small-market NFL franchise, were particularly hard-hit by the USFL; as its players from the moderately successful early 1980s era aged, the team was unable to find quality replacements for them on the free agent market, as the USFL was drawing away much of pro football's top talent (including Bills running back Joe Cribbs and the team's planned franchise quarterback of the future, Jim Kelly). With subpar talent, the Bills went 4–28 over the course of 1984 and 1985, and average attendance at Rich Stadium plummeted to under 30,000 fans per game, putting the team's long-term viability in jeopardy. When the USFL collapsed, the Bills signed a large number of former USFL players: Kelly, Kent Hull, Ray Bentley, special teams coach Bruce DeHaven, general manager Bill Polian and coach Marv Levy, which, combined with the high draft picks compiled during the USFL years, would allow the Bills to rise to perennial Super Bowl contenders by the early 1990s. In 2014, after founding owner Ralph Wilson died, Trump tried to purchase the Bills, but was largely rebuffed in favor of Terry Pegula, who bid $400 million more for the team. In a 2015 interview with Sports Illustrated, Trump claimed that if he had bought the Bills in 2014, he "probably would not be" running for President of the United States the following year.

The league also had an indirect impact on the scheduling of televised football games. The USFL had planned to go against the NFL in the fall of 1986 without directly playing its games opposite the larger league by playing its games on Sunday nights, when the NFL did not play yet. One year later, ESPN and the NFL launched Sunday Night Football in the time slot.

The last player of the USFL on an NFL roster was Philadelphia Stars punter Sean Landeta, who was signed in late 1986 by the New York Giants. He officially announced his retirement on March 6, 2008, the 25th anniversary of the first USFL game. (He last played in 2006 but he did not officially retire during the 2007 season.) The last non-kicker to retire was quarterback Doug Flutie, who played in both the CFL and NFL until 2005.

The USFL, compared to other professional leagues of the late 20th and 21st centuries, did not radically change the rules of the game; its rules largely resembled a hybrid of the NFL and college football rulebooks. The league's rule on stopping the clock was one example of this hybrid approach: outside the two-minute warning, the clock ran between plays after a first down like in the NFL, while after the warning, it stopped between the end of the play that earned a first down and the placement of the ball back into play (to allow the chain crew to get into place), as is done in college football. Like college football, it recognized the two-point conversion (that was, at that time, only recognized in the CFL at the professional level) that would not be put into NFL rules until 1994. Unlike other professional football leagues (but like the NCAA then and the CFL), the USFL allowed the usage of a small, plastic "tee" for extra point and field goal attempts.

For its final season in 1985, the USFL used a method of challenging officials' rulings on the field via instant replay, using a system that is almost identical to that used by the NFL today; the NFL would adopt its first instant replay system (but in a different form from its current one instituted in 1999) in 1986; it would be used until 1991.

Who Were The Gas City Tigers?

Gas City Tigers were an independent club around the 1920s. The team played most of its games at home. Most of their history is forgotten but the 1920 season is well documented.  The first game of the season was against the Muncie East End Ramblers in a 89-0 victory. They followed it up with a 97-0 victory over the Alexandria Tigers. Seven days later Greenfield Flyers Seconds headed to Gas City, Indiana and lost 124-0. Following up back to back shutout victories the Wabash A.A. were defeated 14-6 in Gas City. Gas City would go on the road for the only time in 1920 to play the Kokomo American Legion at Exposition Park and the Tigers won 14-3. Louisville K&I would be defeated 22-0 the following week by the Tigers. The Tigers would win again in a 27-0 victory over South Bend Rum Village Athletic Club. Kirklin Independents would head to Gas City and lost 21-0 to the Tigers in mid November. Logansport Legion would try to defeat Gas City but they were shutout 35-0. The Gas City Tigers would end their season aginst the Muncie Flyers of the APFA. The Muncie Flyers would prevail winning 19-7 in Gas City. The Muncie Flyers repeated the performance the following week winning the rematch 13-7. The Tigers went 9-2 in 1920 only losing games to the Flyers of the APFA (later to be known as the NFL).

Who Were The Fort Wayne Pyramids?

 

The Fort Wayne Pyramids were an independent team based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The team mostly played games on the road. The team is believed to be founded in 1919. Most of the Pyramids is lost but there 1921 season is the most known from the team's history. The Pyramids played the Kendallville Oaks and were defeated 17-12. They were home for the only time in 1921 and played against the Muncie A.C. and won 21-0. The Pyramids lost 20-0 to the Marion Boosters the following week. They then tied 6-6 against the Garrett Phi Delta Kappa in the fourth game of the season. The Pyramids then won back to back games 6-0 and 7-0 (Wabash A.C. and Fort Wayne Red Devils). The team lost the last two games of the season 12-0 and 22-0 (Bluffton American Legion and Fort Wayne Pros). The team overall was not very successful being the lesser known team in Fort Wayne and folded around 1924.

Who Were The Fort Wayne Friars?

The Fort Wayne Friars were an early professional football team based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The team, which was also known as the Friars Athletic Association, consistently fielded good and noteworthy teams. Because Fort Wayne is situated near the Ohio border, the Friars often played Ohio teams as well as those from Indiana.

From their conception in 1909, the Friars began as a purely amateur team. However by 1913, as was the custom in those days, Fort Wayne would on occasion employ a "ringer” or two who usually turned out to be a current star college player. Knute Rockne played for the Friars in 1913 under the alias, "Jones". By 1914, the Friars relied on graduated stars for its roster when needed.

In 1915 Friars coach Samuel Byroades brought together a line-up that consisted of at least 5 players who had previously played for Notre Dame, 3 players from University of Indiana and D.C. Smith from Purdue. The 1915 Friars went 7-1-1, losing only to the Evanston North Ends and tying the Wabash Athletic Association. The final game of the 1915 saw the Friars shut out the Columbus Panhandles, featuring six of the infamous Nesser Brothers. A year later the Friars posted a 8-1-1 record, losing again only to Wabash. That season the Friars employed 9 Notre Dame players. Rockne and Gus Dorais both played for the Friars that season.

The manning shortages associated with World War I caught up with the Friars in 1917. Some players left the team for better pay elsewhere, while some played only on a week-by-week basis for the highest bidder for their services.

In 1920, the Friars Athletic Association decided to field a team and recapture some of the glory of its past. The new Friars signed several players from the Fort Wayne local teams. They also as held tryouts for other players. Because of inflation, the Friars played all of their games at home in 1920. The Friars based their financial strategy on the projection that they could draw at least 2,000 fans per game by playing at home. The first game of the season resulted in a 6-0 loss to the Cincinnati Celts. During the inaugural season of the National Football League (then called the American Professional Football Association), the Friars defeated the league's Columbus Panhandles 14-0. For this game, the Friars employed Bob Peck and Ken Huffine. Then after a series of scheduling missteps, that resulted in "no shows" by their opponents, the Friars beat the Pitcairn Quakers, 7-0, on a touchdown that was set up by an interference penalty. The Friars then held another AFPA team, the Detroit Heralds, to a scoreless tie.

The 1920 season ended with a exhibition game against the Notre Dame freshman team. The game took place on a Saturday, when most Friars fans were at work. Therefore it can be assumed that the Friars were lucky to break even for that game. The Friars lost a couple of players as a result of the previously unplayed "no show" games and later folded.

History Of The Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League as a member club of the American Football Conference, south division, and play their home games at Nissan Stadium.

Originally known as the Houston Oilers, the team was founded in 1959 by Bud Adams (who remained the owner until his death in 2013), and began play in 1960 in Houston, Texas, as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL). The Oilers won the first two AFL championships along with four division titles, and joined the NFL as part of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. The Oilers made consecutive playoff appearances from 1978 to 1980 and from 1987 to 1993, with Hall of Famers Earl Campbell and Warren Moon, respectively.

In 1997, the Oilers relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, but played at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season while waiting for a new stadium to be constructed. Due to low attendance, the team moved to Nashville's Vanderbilt Stadium in 1998. For those two seasons, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers, but changed their name to the Titans for the 1999 season, moving into Adelphia Coliseum (now known as Nissan Stadium). The Titans' training facility is located in Saint Thomas Sports Park, a 31-acre (13 ha) site at the MetroCenter complex in Nashville.

Throughout their history, the Titans have played in the Super Bowl once (XXXIV), when they lost 23–16 to the St. Louis Rams. Led by Steve McNair and Eddie George, the Titans made the playoffs in all but one season from 1999 to 2003, but only made the playoffs twice in the next thirteen years. Since 2016, the Titans have had six consecutive winning seasons, the most since they were the Houston Oilers, and made four playoff appearances in that time. The Titans are the only team in the NFL to have two players rush for 2,000 yards in a season–in this case, Chris Johnson (2009) and Derrick Henry (2020).

The Titans were originally formed as the Houston Oilers, one of the eight charter members of the American Football League (AFL). They became a part of the National Football League in 1970 as part of the AFL–NFL merger and have remained a member of the NFL ever since. They played in Houston through the end of the 1996 season. They were part of the AFL's Eastern Division for their first ten years and became part of the American Football Conference upon their joining the NFL. They were placed in the AFC's Central Division, which they were part of until 2002.

The Houston Oilers began in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League. They were owned by Bud Adams, a Houston oilman, who had made several previous unsuccessful bids for an NFL expansion team in Houston. Adams was an influential member of the eight original AFL owners, since he, Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt and Buffalo Bills founder Ralph Wilson were more financially stable than the other five (all three would go on to own their franchises for over forty years, whereas the others pulled out by the 1980s).

The Oilers appeared in the first three AFL championships. They scored an important victory over the NFL when they signed LSU's Heisman Trophy winner, All-America running back Billy Cannon. Cannon joined other Oiler offensive stars such as quarterback George Blanda, flanker Charlie Hennigan, running back Charlie Tolar, and guard Bob Talamini. After winning the first-ever AFL championship over the Los Angeles Chargers in 1960, they repeated over the same team (then in San Diego) in 1961. (In 2012, the retail outlet Old Navy earned infamy for selling a shirt that misidentified the 1961 AFL champions as the Houston Texans, who did not exist until 2002.) The Oilers lost to the Dallas Texans in the classic 1962 double-overtime AFL championship game, at the time the longest professional football championship game ever played. In 1962, the Oilers were the first AFL team to sign an active NFL player away from the other league, when wide receiver Willard Dewveall left the Bears to join the champion Oilers. Dewveall that year caught the longest pass reception for a touchdown in professional American football history, 99 yards, from Jacky Lee, against the San Diego Chargers.

The Oilers won the AFL Eastern Division title again in 1967, then became the first professional football team to play in a domed stadium, when they moved into Houston's Astrodome, then home of MLB's Houston Astros for the 1968 season. Previously, the Oilers had played at Jeppesen Stadium at the University of Houston (later called Robertson Stadium) from 1960 to 1964, and Rice University's stadium from 1965 to 1967. Adams had intended the team play at Rice from the first, but Rice's board of regents initially rejected the move. After the Astrodome opened for business, Adams attempted to move there, but could not negotiate an acceptable lease with the Houston Sports Association (owners of the Houston Astros) from whom he would sublease the Dome. The 1969 season, the last as an AFL team, saw Houston begin 3–1, but tumble afterwards. They qualified for the playoffs, but were defeated by the Raiders 56–7, to finish the year with a record of 6–7–2.

The years immediately after the AFL-NFL Merger were not as kind to the Oilers, who sank to the bottom of the AFC Central division. After going 3–10–1 in 1970, they went 4–9–1 in 1971, and then suffered back-to-back 1–13 seasons in 1972–73. But by 1974, the Oilers led by Hall of Fame coach Sid Gillman brought the team back to respectability by reaching .500 at season's end.

The next year, Bum Phillips arrived and with talented stars like Elvin Bethea and Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, the Oilers had their first winning season of the decade going 10–4 but did not make the playoffs. Injuries and inadequate offense doomed them to a 5–9 season in 1976, but the team improved to 8–6 the following year, and in 1978, the Oilers' fortunes improved when they drafted University of Texas football star Earl Campbell, known as the "Tyler Rose", who was Rookie of the Year that year and led the Oilers to their first playoff appearance since the merger.

Defeating Miami in the wild-card round, they then trumped New England, leading to immediately rebuilding of the Patriots. But in the AFC Championship, the Steelers routed them 34–5. In spite of the lopsided defeat, the Oilers returned home to a packed Astrodome for a pep-rally uncommon in professional sports.

The 1979 season was a near rerun of 1978 as the Oilers finished 11–5 with Campbell gaining 1,600 yards in the regular season, and again earned a wild card spot. Beating the Broncos in the first home playoff game in Houston in over a decade, the Oilers' performance suffered with injuries to Campbell, Pastorini and Burroughs. They did manage to edge past the high-flying San Diego of Dan Fouts in the divisional round, partly thanks to the play of Vernon Perry (4 INTs and a blocked FG) as well as the outstanding line coached by Joe Bugel. The Oilers returned to the AFC Championship game for the second year in a row, only to get knocked down by the Pittsburgh Steelers again, in spite of a terrific effort by Dan Pastorini—the Steelers had shut the ailing Campbell down, yet Pastorini nearly succeeded with the modest receiving corps of Mike Renfro, Rich Caster, and Ronnie Coleman venturing into the Steelers Hall of Fame defense. A controversial out-of-bounds call nullified a touchdown by wide receiver Mike Renfro resulting in a 27–13 victory for Pittsburgh. Once again, after a tough loss, the Oilers returned to their then-adoring fans who packed the Astrodome for an impromptu pep-rally for the second year in a row.

Pro Football Hall of Famer running back Earl Campbell was the centerpiece of the Oilers' offense in the late 1970s and early 1980s, earning several NFL awards, AFC rushing titles and five Pro Bowls.
1980 saw the Oilers go 11–5 and achieve a wild card spot for the third year in a row, but they were quickly vanquished by Oakland, 27–7. Bud Adams fired Bum Phillips, who was succeeded by Ed Biles. Afterwards began a long playoff drought as the Oilers fell to 7–9 in 1981, and 1–8 in the strike-shortened 1982 season. In 1983, Houston went 2–14. Biles resigned in Week 6 and was succeeded by Chuck Studley, who served merely as an interim coach until Hugh Campbell was hired in the off-season. In 1984, the Oilers won a bidding war for free-agent former CFL quarterback Warren Moon but didn't return to the playoffs that year either, with two wins and fourteen losses. The aging Earl Campbell was traded to New Orleans during the off-season and was replaced by Mike Rozier, a refugee from the USFL. In week 14 of the 1985 season, Campbell was replaced by Jerry Glanville, who saw the team through the last two games to finish 5–11. A 31–3 rout of Green Bay in the 1986 season opener looked promising, but in the end Houston only managed another 5–11 record. Another strike in 1987 reduced the season to 15 games, three by substitute players. After ending 9–6, the team achieved its first winning record and playoff berth in seven years. After beating the Seahawks in overtime, they fell to Denver in the divisional round. Going 10–6 in 1988, the Oilers again got into the playoffs as a wild card, beat Cleveland in a snowy 24–23 match, and then lost to Buffalo a week later. 1989 saw a 9–7 regular season, but the team gained a wild card berth. In a messy, penalty-ridden game, they were beaten by Pittsburgh.


The Oilers' resurgence came in the midst of a battle for the franchise's survival. In 1987, Adams threatened to move the team to Jacksonville, Florida (later the home of Jacksonville Jaguars), unless the Astrodome was "brought up to date". At the time the Astrodome seated about 50,000 fans, the smallest capacity in the NFL. Not willing to lose the Oilers, Harris County responded with $67 million in improvements to the Astrodome that included new AstroTurf, 10,000 additional seats and 65 luxury boxes. These improvements were funded by increases in property taxes and the doubling of the hotel tax, as well as bonds to be paid over 30 years. However, Adams' increasing demands for greater and more expensive accommodations to be funded at taxpayer expense sowed seeds of tension that assisted the team's departure from Houston.


The Oilers briefly rose to become a league power once again in the first half of the 1990s. In 1991, the Oilers won their first division title in 25 years, and their first as an NFL team. However, only two minutes away from their first conference title game in 13 years, they were the victims of an 80-yard march by John Elway and the Denver Broncos before David Treadwell kicked a 28-yard field goal to win the game 26–24. In 1992, the Oilers compiled a 10–6 regular season record, but made history against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card playoffs by blowing an NFL record 35–3 lead and eventually losing 41–38 in overtime, a game now known simply as "The Comeback".


In the 1993 season, the Oilers finished with a 12–4 record, their best record ever in Texas, and another AFC Central title, but lost in the second round to the Chiefs. However, the 1993 season is best remembered as being a turbulent season for the team, as internal conflict plagued the team with a 1–4 start before they eventually won their final 11 games of the season. One notable part of the turbulence was a brawl between offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan (who did not get along very well at all) on the final game of the regular season (nationally broadcast on ESPN) against the New York Jets. After the season ended, Moon was traded to the Minnesota Vikings. Without Moon, the Oilers finished the next season 2–14, the third-worst record for a full season in franchise history. The Oilers would never make the playoffs again in Texas. However, they did draft Steve McNair in 1995.

At the same time, Adams again lobbied the city for a new stadium, one with club seating and other revenue generators present in recently built NFL stadiums, and he committed to pay for 25% of the cost of a new stadium. His idea called for a downtown domed stadium that could also be reconfigured to accommodate the NBA's Houston Rockets–similar to San Antonio's Alamodome. Mayor Bob Lanier initially supported Adams' bid for a new stadium privately, but refused to publicly support the project. Although Houstonians wanted to keep the Oilers, they were leery of investing more money on a stadium so soon after the Astrodome improvements. The city was also still struggling to recover from the oil collapse of the 1980s. Adams, sensing that he was not going to get the stadium he wanted, began shopping the Oilers to other cities. He was particularly intrigued by Nashville, and opened secret talks with mayor Phil Bredesen. At the end of the 1995 season, Adams announced that the Oilers would be moving to Nashville for the 1998 season. City officials there promised to contribute $144 million toward a new stadium, as well as $70 million in ticket sales.

Soon after the move was announced, support for the Oilers in the Houston area dried up almost overnight. As a result, the 1996 season was an unmitigated disaster. Only three games attracted crowds of more than 30,000 people. Games were so quiet that it was possible to hear conversations on the field from the grandstand. Meanwhile, the team's radio network, which once stretched across the state of Texas, was reduced to flagship KTRH in Houston and a few affiliates in Tennessee. By October 1996, KTRH was cutting off games prior to their finish in favor of Houston Rockets preseason games. The Oilers got off to a 5–2 start, but a stretch of four losses in five games took them out of playoff contention. The team went 8–8, finishing 6–2 in road games and only 2–6 in home games. The team's final game in Houston, against the Bengals on December 15, attracted just over 15,000 people, by at least one estimate, the smallest crowd in franchise history. Adams, the city and the league were unwilling to see this continue for another season, so a deal was reached on May 8, 1997 to let the Oilers out of their lease a year early and move to Tennessee. The Oilers lost their final game in Houston 21–13.

In 1999, Robert McNair was awarded, at a cost of $1 billion, an expansion team which replaced the Oilers in Houston. The franchise became the Houston Texans, which adopted a similar red, white and blue team color tandem, albeit in darker shades and inherited the sports complex the Oilers had played in, but not the Oilers' former home; what is now called NRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium) would be built next door to the Astrodome in 2002.

After the 1995 season, Bud Adams announced the move to Tennessee, causing fan support in Houston to collapse for the 1996 season. They intended to play at a new stadium in Nashville, but it would not be ready until 1999. The largest stadium in Nashville at the time, Vanderbilt Stadium on the campus of Vanderbilt University, seated only 41,000, a capacity deemed too small for even temporary use. Vanderbilt was also unwilling to permit alcohol sales. However, Adams ruled out using the state's largest stadium, the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, in Knoxville; at 102,000 seats, it would have been all but impossible to sell out in time to avoid local blackouts on television.

Ultimately, Adams announced that the renamed Tennessee Oilers would play the next two seasons at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The team would be based in Nashville, commuting to Memphis only for games, essentially sentencing the Oilers to 32 road games for the next two years.

Even though this arrangement was acceptable to the NFL and the Oilers at the time, few people in either Memphis or Nashville were happy about it. After numerous attempts to get an NFL team over the last three decades, Memphians wanted nothing to do with a team that would be lost in only two years, especially to longtime rival Nashville. Conversely, Nashvillians showed little inclination to drive over 200 miles to see "their" team. At the time, Interstate 40 was in the midst of major reconstruction in the Memphis area, lengthening the normal three-hour drive between Nashville and Memphis to five hours.

In Memphis, attendance was even worse than it had been in the team's final season in Houston. The Oilers played before some of the smallest NFL crowds since the 1950s, with none of the first seven games of the season attracting crowds larger than 27,000 (in a 62,000-seat stadium), and with at least two crowds of less than 18,000. The few fans there were usually indifferent, and often those that attended were fans of the opposing team. Attendance was smaller than what the USFL's Memphis Showboats had drawn and what the XFL's Memphis Maniax would draw to the same stadium. It appeared that only large contingents of fans supporting the Oilers' opponents kept average attendance from dropping below what it had been for the CFL's Memphis Mad Dogs.

Despite this, Adams had every intention of playing in Memphis the next season. That changed after the final game of the 1997 season. The Oilers faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of 50,677 fans, the only crowd that could not have been reasonably accommodated at Vanderbilt. However, Steeler fans made up the great majority of the crowd (at least three-fourths, by one estimate). Adams was so embarrassed that he abandoned plans to play the 1998 season in Memphis and ended up playing at Vanderbilt after all. The team rebounded that season, and was in playoff contention until losing their last two games for another 8–8 record. The Oilers had gone 6–2 in Nashville while going 2–6 on the road. The Titans have maintained both radio and preseason TV affiliates in the Memphis area.

On July 29, 1998, Adams announced that in response to fan requests, he was changing the Oilers' name to coincide with the opening of their new stadium and to better connect with Nashville. He also declared that the renamed team would retain the Oilers' heritage (including team records), as had all other relocated teams except the Browns/Ravens, and that there would be a Hall of Fame honoring the greatest players from both eras.

Adams appointed an advisory committee to decide on a new name. He let it be known that the new name should reflect power, strength, leadership and other heroic qualities. On November 14, 1998, Adams announced that the Oilers would be known as the Tennessee Titans starting in 1999. The new name met all of Adams' requirements, and also served as a nod to Nashville's nickname of "The Athens of the South" (for its large number of higher-learning institutions, Classical architecture, and its full-scale replica of the Parthenon). The team's new logo and colors were unveiled on December 22, 1998.

In 1999, Adelphia Coliseum, now known as Nissan Stadium, was completed and the newly christened Titans had a grand season, finishing with a 13–3 record, the best season in franchise history. They won their first game as the "Titans," defeating the Bengals before a sold out stadium (Every game since the Titans moved to Nashville has been sold out). They did not lose a game at home and finished one game behind the Jacksonville Jaguars for the AFC Central title. Tennessee then won their first round playoff game over the Buffalo Bills on a designed play, known as "Home Run Throwback" in the Titans playbook, that is commonly referred to as the "Music City Miracle": Tight-end Frank Wycheck made a lateral pass to Kevin Dyson on a kickoff return with 16 seconds left in the game and the Titans trailing by one point; Dyson returned the pass 75 yards for a touchdown to win the game. After replay review, the call on the field was upheld as a touchdown. The original play did not call for Dyson to be on the field and he was only involved due to an injury of another player. The Titans went on to defeat the Indianapolis Colts in Indianapolis, and then defeated the Jaguars in Jacksonville in the AFC Championship Game. The Titans' magnificent season led to a trip to Super Bowl XXXIV, where they lost to the St. Louis Rams when Kevin Dyson was tackled one yard short of the end zone (preserving a 23–16 Rams' lead) as regulation time expired, in a play known as "The Tackle."

In 2000, the Titans finished with an NFL-best 13–3 record and won their third AFC Central title, their first division title as the Tennessee Titans. They won Central division titles in '91 and '93 while still in Houston as the Oilers. The Titans went on to lose their home Divisional playoff game to the eventual Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.

In 2001, the Titans collapsed to a 7–9 record and missed the playoffs.

In 2002, the Titans were moved to the newly-created AFC South division, as part of the league's divisional realignment caused by the addition of the Houston Texans. Despite starting the season 1–4 the Titans finished the season 11–5 and made it to the AFC Championship Game but lost to Oakland 41–24.

The Titans went 12–4 and made the 2003 playoffs, winning their wild card game over the Baltimore Ravens and losing in the AFC divisionals to the New England Patriots who went on to win the Super Bowl. In 2003, quarterback Steve McNair won the MVP award, sharing it with Peyton Manning.

The 2004 season created an unusual number of injuries to key players for the Titans. Their 5–11 record turned out to be their third-worst record ever since the Houston/Tennessee Oilers became the Tennessee Titans. Numerous key players were cut or traded by the Titans front office during the off season, including Derrick Mason, Samari Rolle, Kevin Carter and others. This was done due to the Titans being well over the salary cap.

In 2005, the Titans took the field with the youngest team in the NFL. Several rookies made the 2005 team, including first round pick, cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, offensive tackle Michael Roos, and three wide receivers, Brandon Jones, Courtney Roby and Roydell Williams. After losing their first game of the season on the road to the Pittsburgh Steelers 34–7 and then winning their Week 2 home-opener against the Baltimore Ravens 25–10, the Titans began the season 1–1, but quickly fell out of contention. They lost on the road to the St. Louis Rams 31–27 and lost to their division rival, the Colts 31–10. After getting some redemption on the road against their new division rival, the Houston Texans 34–20, they lost five-straight games to the Cincinnati Bengals (31–23), the Arizona Cardinals (20–10), the Oakland Raiders (34–25), the Cleveland Browns (20–14), and then (coming off of their Week 10 bye), their division rival, the Jacksonville Jaguars 31–28. The Titans won at home against the San Francisco 49ers 33–22, but then went on the road and were swept by the Colts 35–3. The Titans defeated the luckless Texans 13–10 at home, but that was their last win of the year, as they lost their remaining three games to the Seattle Seahawks (28–24), the Miami Dolphins (24–10) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (40–13). Their record for the season was 4–12.

In 2006, The team finished at 8–8, a definite improvement over the previous year's mark of 4–12. The year saw Vince Young lead the team to an 8–5 record as the starting quarterback. That span also included six straight victories. The team's chances of making the postseason at 9–7 ended at the hands of New England in a 40–23 defeat. Floyd Reese resigned as the franchise's executive vice president/general manager on January 5, 2007, after thirteen seasons at the helm. He was replaced by Mike Reinfeldt on February 12 of the same year.

In 2007, after starting a promising 6–2, the Titans lost four of their next five games to fall to 7–6. They then won their next three games, including a must-win game against the Indianapolis Colts. They were tied for the final playoff spot with the Cleveland Browns, but they won the tiebreaker and made the playoffs at 10–6. In the wild card round they lost to the San Diego Chargers, 17–6.

The 2008 season began with the Titans selecting Chris Johnson out of East Carolina University in the first round of the NFL draft, and subsequently acquired former Titan (most recently Eagle) DE Jevon Kearse and former Falcons TE Alge Crumpler. After a Week 1 injury to Vince Young, Kerry Collins took over the starting quarterback position and led the Titans to a 10–0 record before their first defeat at the hands of the New York Jets on November 23.

The Titans followed up the 34–13 loss by defeating the winless Lions on Thanksgiving, by a score of 47–10. In week 14, Tennessee clinched its second AFC South title with a 28–9 victory over the Cleveland Browns. In the week 14 game against the Browns, rookie Chris Johnson rushed 19 times for 136 yards and one touchdown and LenDale White rushed for 99 yards and one touchdown. They later clinched a first round playoff bye with a loss of the New York Jets. On December 21, 2008, the Titans played the Pittsburgh Steelers in a contest to decide the number one seed in the AFC. The Titans won 31–14 and clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Their final record was 13–3, which ties their franchise record for most wins. On Saturday, January 10, they lost their home playoff game 13–10 to the Baltimore Ravens, who had previously won their Wildcard game at Miami on January 4. The playoff game against Baltimore included three red zone turnovers and 12 penalties by the Titans.
After their successful 2008 season, the Titans looked to be very promising in 2009. However, the opening game against Pittsburgh resulted in a 13–10 overtime loss and things disintegrated from there as they dropped the next five matches. This losing streak culminated in a catastrophic 59–0 defeat at the hands of New England. After the bye week, it was decided that Vince Young would succeed Kerry Collins as the starting quarterback. The team began recovering and won five in a row including a game against the defending NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals, on a 99-yard game-winning drive by Vince Young, culminating in a touchdown pass on fourth down with 6 seconds left from the 10-yard line to Kenny Britt.

During the Week 10 home game against Buffalo, Bud Adams was seen making an obscene gesture towards the Bills bench, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (who was also attending the game) fined him $250,000. Afterwards, the Titans sustained a defeat against Indianapolis, wins over St. Louis and Miami, a loss to San Diego, and finally a victory in Seattle to end the season at 8–8. Not only did the Tennessee Titans have a great 8–2 finish, but along the way, running back Chris Johnson became only the sixth player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards (2,006), surpassing Marshall Faulk's record for the most yards from scrimmage during a season with over 2,500 total yards.

The Titans started 2010 with alternating wins and losses. They crushed Oakland at home in Week 1 and then were beaten, 19–11, by the Steelers in Week 2. In Week 3, Tennessee beat the Giants 29–10 in the New Meadowlands. In week 4, Tennessee lost 26–20 to Denver, and finally won 34–27 in Dallas to reach a 3–2 record by Week 5. The following game was a MNF rout of Jacksonville (30–3). In Week 7, they beat Philadelphia 37–19 in a come-from- behind win that included scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter. Wide receiver Kenny Britt had a break out performance with 225 reception yards, 3 touchdowns and 7 receptions. However, after a loss to the Chargers in Week 8, they were the only team to submit in a claim for the recently waived Randy Moss. Even after this widely publicized claim, the team was still unable to beat the Dolphins after their bye week, 29–17. In Week 11, at home against the Washington Redskins, the Titans lost Young to a thumb injury in-game and they snapped their NFL-leading interconference win streak at 14 games, losing to Washington 19–16 in overtime. After the game, Young had a highly publicized meltdown in the locker room and walked out on Fisher, causing him to not only be promptly put on injured reserve, but also essentially guaranteeing his release from the team in the offseason. Losses continued to mount for the Titans, until a week 15 win against the Houston Texans kept their season alive at 6–8. Needing a miracle to get into the playoffs, this nonetheless happened with consequent losses against the Chiefs and Colts. The Titans' season ended at 6–10.

In the week following the Titans' final loss to the Colts, the generally pro-Young Bud Adams agreed that it would be best for the team to release or trade Young. On January 7, 2011 Adams released a statement announcing he was retaining head coach Jeff Fisher, as Fisher was under contract for the next season. Adams also stated that he hoped to extend Fisher's contract following the 2011 season, but that an extension would be contingent upon the team's performance. Despite these initial proclamations, it was announced on January 27, 2011, that Fisher and the Titans had mutually agreed to part ways. This ended Fisher's tenure as head coach, a tenure which lasted more than 17 seasons, spanned three cities (Houston, Memphis and Nashville), and saw three different incarnations of the team (Houston Oilers, Tennessee Oilers, Tennessee Titans).

Following the departure of former head coach Jeff Fisher, Mike Munchak was named head coach of the Titans on February 7, 2011. During the 2011 NFL Draft the Titans took Washington quarterback Jake Locker with the 8th pick overall. Meanwhile, 15-year veteran Kerry Collins retired from the NFL in July (unretiring a month later to join the Indianapolis Colts). On July 29, 2011, veteran Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck signed a 3-year, $21 million deal to play for the Tennessee Titans. During the summer training camp prior to the 2011 season, Chris Johnson did not show up to camp, pending contract negotiations. Johnson felt he was due a considerably larger sum of money. As the leading rusher since 2008 (4,598 yards) he was set to make $1.065 million in 2011, under current contract terms. On September 1, Johnson became the highest paid running back, agreeing to a four-year, $53.5 million contract extension, including $30 million guaranteed, with the Titans, ending his holdout.
With Hasselbeck starting, the Titans won three of their first four games, but afterwards saw a bumpy series of wins and losses. They finally finished the season 9–7, failing again to reach the playoffs, but remaining in contention to Week 17.

In 2012, the Titans finished 6–10, failing to reach the playoffs.

In 2013, after three seasons as head coach, Mike Munchak was fired after finishing the season 7–9. Bud Adams, who was the owner of the Tennessee Titans, died on October 21.

The 2014 season was the first for head coach Ken Whisenhunt. The Titans finished the season 2–14, their worst record in Tennessee Titans history, tying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the league's worst record, and their worse since 1994 when they were the Houston Oilers.

In 2015, the Titans had the second pick of the NFL draft. They selected quarterback Marcus Mariota, one of the best prospects of the 2015 class. It was Ken Whisenhunt's second season as head coach.

Whisenhunt was fired on November 3 due to a 1–6 start, and Mike Mularkey was tabbed as the interim head coach. The Titans finished the season 3–13, tied with the Cleveland Browns for the league's worst record. After the season, the Titans fired general manager Ruston Webster. Controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk announced that the Titans had hired former Buccaneers Director of Player Personnel Jon Robinson for the open general manager job, and were going to take the interim tag off of Mularkey, making him the head coach. The Titans had the first pick in the 2016 draft, which Robinson traded to the Los Angeles Rams.

The 2016 season was Mike Mularkey's first full season as head coach. Leading up to week 16, the Titans were tied with the Texans atop the AFC South at 8–6, with the Colts one game behind at 7–7. The Titans had lost to the Texans in week 4, and were scheduled to play them again in week 17. With the Titans thus unable to win a potential head-to-head tiebreaker with the Texans, mathematically unable to even tie the Texans in divisional record, and having already lost twice to the Colts, the Titans were not going to win the South on tiebreakers. The only chance for the Titans to win the division was to finish with a better record than the Texans and Colts. However, with the hapless 2–12 Jaguars on tap for the Titans in week 16, it seemed as though a dramatic week 17 "win-and-in" bout against the Texans was a real possibility for the Titans. However, the Titans lost to the Jaguars 38–17, as Mariota suffered a broken fibula in the third quarter, ending his season. The Texans hung on to beat the Bengals 12–10 later that day on "SNF," as Bengals kicker Randy Bullock missed a potential go-ahead 43-yard field goal with 5 seconds left in the game. The Texans thus clinched the AFC South title (the Colts had also lost earlier that day to the Raiders), rendering the Titans' week 17 game (which they nonetheless won) meaningless for their playoff hopes. The Titans finished the season 9–7, the same record as the Texans, losing the tiebreaker due to record against divisional opponents, by three games (the Titans were 2–4, the Texans were 5–1).

The 2017 season was Mike Mularkey's second full season as the Titans' head coach. In Week 17, the team defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 15–10 to clinch one of the AFC wild card slots for the playoffs. It marked the franchise's first playoff berth since 2008. In the Wild Card Round, the Titans traveled to Arrowhead Stadium to face the Chiefs. The Titans looked outmatched in the first half, after which they trailed 21–3. However, the Titans ended up staging a second-half-comeback, storming back to win 22–21. The playoff run ended in the Divisional Round, with a 35–14 loss to the AFC #1 seed and eventual super bowl participant Patriots. Despite another 9–7 record & a playoff appearance, this was Mike Mularkey's final season as head coach, with Mularkey and team brass mutually agreeing to part ways after losing 35–14 in the Divisional Round against the New England Patriots.

Quarterback Marcus Mariota led the Titans to the playoffs for the first time in nearly ten years in 2017.
The 2018 season was the first season under new head coach Mike Vrabel, also a welcoming of new uniforms and helmets. After making the playoffs in 2017 for the first time in nine years, the team had high hopes for 2018, expecting to make the playoffs for the second year in a row; the season was not as expected, losing the "important games" to the Buffalo Bills 12–13 in Week 5 and the Los Angeles Chargers 19–20 in Week 7, though they notably routed the New England Patriots, Vrabel's former team while playing, 34–10 in Week 10. During a Thursday Night Football game against the Jaguars in Week 14, running back Derrick Henry ran for a 99-yard touchdown, tying an NFL record with Tony Dorsett, and rushed for 238 yards and three more touchdowns in the 30–9 victory. They played the Indianapolis Colts in Week 17, needing a win to clinch the final Wild Card spot in the playoffs, but lost 33–17. Starting quarterback Marcus Mariota had been injured with a 'stinger' the week before vs the Washington Redskins, sitting out the last game of the season due to a 'risk of permanent damage', as backup Blaine Gabbert played in his place. The Titans finished the season 9–7 for the third year in a row.

The 2019 season was the 100th season of the NFL, while the 60th for the Titans. Mike Vrabel returned for his second season and Mariota for his fifth. The Titans opened up the season with a 43-13 blowout against the Cleveland Browns, with Mariota passing for three touchdowns and the defense logging three interceptions. During halftime of the 19-17 Week 2 loss against the Indianapolis Colts, the Titans retired the jersey numbers of running back Eddie George and quarterback Steve McNair. After starting the year 2–4, Mariota was benched during Week 6 in favor of backup Ryan Tannehill, who they traded for in the offseason. Tannehill would go on to win the next 7 out of 10 games, with the Titans finishing 9–7. They would make the playoffs following a 35-14 Week 17 victory over the Texans.

Derrick Henry had a career year, leading the NFL in rushing yards with 1,540 and tying for the most rushing touchdowns with 16. In the playoffs, the Titans upset the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium winning 20–13 in the Wildcard Round, with Henry rushing for 182 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries. The Titans then beat the heavily favored top-seeded Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium 28–12 in the Divisional Round, with Henry running for 195 yards on 30 carries and throwing a touchdown. The Titans reached their first AFC Championship since 2002, and the first sixth-seed to do so since the 2010 Green Bay Packers. The Titans would lose, however, to the Kansas City Chiefs, 35–24, at Arrowhead Stadium.

The 2020 season was the 61st season for the Titans and the third under head coach Mike Vrabel. The Titans put on one of their best offensive performances in franchise history, led by Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry. The Titans started the season 5-0 for the first time since 2008. They then lost their next three of four and sat at 6-3 before heading into Week 11. The Titans continued their earlier success, however, and won their last five of seven games to finish 11-5. Their 46-25 victory over the Detroit Lions in Week 15 gave them their first double-digit winning season since 2008 and their first time not going 9-7 in five seasons. The Titans beat the Houston Texans 41-38 on January 3, 2021 in Week 17 to win their first division championship since 2008. In the Week 17 game, Derrick Henry rushed 35 times for 250 yards and two touchdowns, breaking 2,000 yards on the season. Henry became one of only eight players to do so, joining Chris Johnson, and made the Titans the only franchise in NFL history with two 2,000 yard rushers. Henry also led the NFL in rushing yards once again with a total of 2,027 yards, becoming the first player to win back-to-back rushing titles since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006 and 2007. Henry also lead the league in rushing touchdowns back-to-back with 17, becoming the first player to do so since Marshawn Lynch in 2013 and 2014. A. J. Brown finished with 1,075 receiving yards for his second-straight 1,000 yard season. On January 10, 2021, the Titans hosted the Ravens at Nissan Stadium for their first home playoff game in 12 years. The Titans lost in a low-scoring 20-13 Wildcard Round to the Ravens with Derrick Henry rushing 18 times for only 40 yards and Ryan Tannehill throwing a crucial late-game interception.

The 2021 season is the 62nd season for the Titans and the fourth under head coach Mike Vrabel. They are trying to improve upon their 11-5 record from last year, repeat back-to-back double-digit winning seasons for the first time since 2007 and 2008, and win the division back-to-back for the first time in franchise history. The Titans began the season with a surprise 38-13 Week 1 blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals, with Tannehill being sacked six times. They rebounded the next week with a 33-30 overtime victory over the Seattle Seahawks, snapping the Seahawks' 13-straight home opener win streak.