History Of The Continental Football League

The Continental Football League (COFL) was a professional American football minor league that operated in North America from 1965 through 1969. It was established following the collapse of the original United Football League, and hoped to become the major force in professional football outside the National Football League and the American Football League (AFL). It owed its name, at least in part, to the Continental League, a proposed third Major League Baseball organization that influenced MLB significantly, although they never played a game.

Four Continental Football League contributors are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the most of any league not considered a major league: coach Bill Walsh, quarterback Ken Stabler, Doak Walker and Steve Van Buren (the last two of whom were inducted as players but were coaches in this league). Sam Wyche, Bob Kuechenberg, Garo Yepremian and Otis Sistrunk were among the other players and coaches who would later gain fame in the NFL, while a few others, such as Don Jonas and Tom Wilkinson, would emerge as stars in the Canadian Football League.

The formation of the Continental Football League (COFL) was announced on February 6, 1965. The league was primarily formed by minor-league teams that had played in the United Football League and Atlantic Coast Football League.

A. B. "Happy" Chandler, former Kentucky governor, U.S. senator, and retired Major League Baseball commissioner, was named COFL commissioner on March 17, 1965.

The league originally adopted a "professional" appearance. Teams were sorted into two divisions and each team had a 36-man roster with a five-man "taxi" squad. The rules were primarily those of the NFL except that a "sudden death" overtime period was employed to break ties, which was not part of the NFL during the regular season at that time.

To reinforce an image of league autonomy, teams were restricted from loaning players to, or receiving optioned players from, the NFL or AFL.

The first COFL season opened with three games played on August 14, 1965. Before the season began, the Springfield, Massachusetts, franchise moved to Norfolk, Virginia. The Norfolk club went on to become the most successful team in the league at the box office and held several minor league attendance records throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1966, the league began abandoning the "league autonomy" posture by striving to establish working relationships with NFL and AFL clubs. Commissioner Chandler, charging that the league was altering the terms under which he had accepted the position, resigned on January 20, 1966. He was replaced by COFL Secretary Sol Rosen, owner of the Newark Bears. Rosen sold the Bears to Tom Granatell, who promptly moved the team to Orlando.

The league engaged in some unsuccessful preseason negotiations with the Empire Sports Network to obtain a television broadcasting agreement. However, it was able to get ABC to broadcast the championship game on the Wide World of Sports; ABC paid the league $500 for the rights to the game.

The Brooklyn Dodgers, although under the general managership of baseball Dodgers player Jackie Robinson, failed to attract at the gate. Part of the problem was that they were playing nowhere near Brooklyn: their home games were at Downing Stadium on Randall's Island.

Evidently, the Dodgers had trouble securing home dates at Downing; a season-ticket application showed only five home games in a fourteen-game schedule. In any event, small crowds (only 29,500 combined for four games, including 12,000 for an exhibition contest) caused the franchise to become a league-operated "road club" in October; one home game against Hartford was moved to Connecticut, and their final "home" contest was shifted to Memorial Stadium in Mount Vernon, New York.
Charleston's Coy Bacon, 1966 COFL All-Star end, went on to play for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins.

The league also established farm team relationships with semi-pro clubs (for instance, the Dodgers affiliated with the Liberty Football Conference's Long Island Jets in 1966).

The COFL added a Pacific Division for the 1967 season, adding three teams from the Pacific Football League to its ranks - Eugene Bombers (Oregon), Seattle Rangers (Washington) and Victoria Steelers (British Columbia), while the rest of the division comprised from four minor-league teams in California. The Pacific Division was basically a league-within-a-league and played exclusively against other Pacific Division opponents. The remaining teams in the league split into an Atlantic North Division and an Atlantic South Division.

Two of the small western franchises, in Eugene, Oregon, and San Jose, California, left the league after the season, while the franchise in Long Beach only played one game before folding. The Toronto Rifles actually folded mid-season, under unusual circumstances: the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League raided the Rifles roster and signed away the Rifles head coach, starting quarterback and starting running back, leaving the team unable to continue.

The remnants of the Brooklyn Dodgers were sold to Frank Hurn, who moved the team to Akron, Ohio as the Akron Vulcans. Hurn used only $2,000 of his own money and $50,000 of Chicago Outfit funding to buy the team and swindled numerous businessmen into providing lavish benefits for his team for which he would never pay. Under Hurn, the team lost $100,000 after just three weeks of play, forcing his big-budget head coaches, Doak Walker and Lou Rymkus, to front their own money to keep the team afloat; Hurn never paid the either the coaches or players for their services, and the Wheeling Ironmen ended up paying the Vulcans' salaries for what would be the Vulcans' fourth and final game in order to avoid a strike. Hurn would later amass a long record of criminal activity after his time in Akron.

Such instability marked the season for the COFL, particularly because the league could not improve upon its overall "semi-pro" public image. Inability to establish working relationships with NFL and AFL teams was a contributing factor. The league's breakthrough television contract with the upstart United Network was another: the network ended up folding prior to the 1967 season it was supposed to broadcast, leaving the COFL without a television partner yet again.

The San Jose Apaches in 1967 were coached by Bill Walsh, who later achieved great success as the three-time Super Bowl-winning coach of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.

In February 1968, the COFL merged with the Professional Football League of America (PFLA), in order to expand into the midwestern United States. The Quad City Raiders franchise moved to become the Las Vegas Cowboys after losing their first two games.

Danny Hill succeeded Rosen as COFL commissioner. Hill established a weekly payroll ceiling of $200 per player and $5,000 per team.

Ken Stabler played two games for the Spokane Shockers in 1968. Stabler later became the Continental league's first Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee as a player through his work with the Oakland Raiders of the NFL.

The Michigan Arrows began their season with a soccer-style kicker named Garo Yepremian, who had played the previous season with the Detroit Lions but had found himself out of work because of military service. Yepremian later found Super Bowl fame in the NFL as a member of the Miami Dolphins.

On September 8, 1968, Glen Hepburn, a two-way player for the Omaha Mustangs, suffered an in-game injury from which he died four days later; it would be the only fatality in the league's history.
The Orange County Ramblers were featured in the 1968 film Skidoo, in a credited role as stand-ins for a nude Green Bay Packers team. The Ramblers offense is seen, from behind, wearing nothing but helmets, during a scene in which a security guard is hallucinating due to the effects of LSD.
Jim Dunn replaced Hill as league commissioner for the 1969 season.

The league expanded into Texas by absorbing the Texas Football League, which also brought the first and, to date, only team from Mexico to play in a professional American football league, the Mexico Golden Aztecs (whose owner, Red McCombs, would later buy the NFL's Minnesota Vikings). Midway through the season, the Hawaii franchise moved to Portland, Oregon.

The COFL entered the 1969 season with high hopes. That optimism was exemplified by the Orlando Panthers' bidding for the services of the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner, halfback O. J. Simpson of the University of Southern California (USC). The Panthers made an offer of $400,000 (nearly double the entire team's salary) for Simpson to play for the Panthers if his negotiations with the Buffalo Bills fell through; they did not, and Simpson signed with Buffalo for the 1969 season.

But COFL attendance averaged approximately 5,700 spectators per game (the top attended team, Norfolk, had 13,000), insufficient to offset the lack of a TV contract. These economics contributed to the ultimate demise of the league after the 1969 season. Plans for an interleague exhibition between the COFL champion Capitols and the Canadian Football League champion Ottawa Rough Riders had been laid, but the Rough Riders backed out.

The Alabama Hawks played a pre-season game against the NFL's Atlanta Falcons rookies, losing 55–0.

The Indianapolis Capitols featured a rookie quarterback named Johnnie Walton during the 1969 season. Walton would become a regular in second-tier professional football; after several failed attempts to get onto an NFL roster in the early 1970s, Walton got his break in the World Football League, starting for the San Antonio Wings in 1975. Walton would spend the 1976–79 seasons as an NFL backup, then came out of retirement in 1983 to lead the Boston Breakers of the United States Football League.

COFL's alum Don Jonas did not reach the NFL, but instead chose to play in Canada after the 1969 season. As Orlando Panthers quarterback, he played four seasons before joining the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Jonas led Orlando to the 1967 and 1968 COFL championships, and was named the league's Most Valuable Player for each season. He also paced the Panthers to the 1966 championship game, which they lost to Philadelphia in overtime; and to the COFL semifinal game in 1969. Don was inducted into the American Football Association's Semi Pro Hall of Fame in 1983. Many CFL teams used the COFL as a developmental league sending players that need time to improve their skills.

Obert "Butch" Logan, a receiver, defensive back and player-coach, played his penultimate season in professional football with the Continental league's San Antonio Toros. Logan is notable for being the last professional football player to wear the singular jersey number zero (two others, Ken Burrough and Jim Otto, would wear a double zero, 00, into the 1970s).

A number of franchises folded or defected during and after the conclusion of the 1969 season, making the end of the COFL all but inevitable.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

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 "A Roundup Of The Sports Information Of The Week". Sports Illustrated. May 9, 1966. Archived from the original on January 12, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2011. HIRED: JACKIE ROBINSON, 47, former Brooklyn Dodger baseball star, as general manager of the new Brooklyn Dodger professional football team of the Continental League.

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 "Kentucky New Era - Google News Archive Search". Kentucky New Era. Retrieved December 21, 2014 – via Google News Archive Search.

 Guys, Carl (September 23, 1969). "Inflation Deflates". Del Rio (Texas) News-Herald.

 "Ironmen Franchise Revoked by CFL". Beckley Post-Herald. Associated Press. December 16, 1969. p. 2.

 "Jersey Jays to Join Atlantic Coast Loop". The Bridgeport Post. Associated Press. February 19, 1970. p. 36.

 Sargent, Bill (February 22, 1970). "Panthers Find Ray of Hope in Sunshine". Florida Today.

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 "Birds Draft 13; Complete Trade". The Pottstown Mercury. May 4, 1970. p. 15.

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 North, Kim (September 10, 2025). "New Continental Football League To Be Headquartered In Wheeling". theintelligencer.net. Retrieved September 12, 2025.

 Baker, Amber (September 11, 2025). "Revived football conference, headquartered in West Virginia, announces first team". WTRF. Retrieved September 11, 2025.

 Mayares, Dan (April 25, 2025). "Ohio Valley Ironmen to launch season in June at Monarch Stadium". WTRF. Retrieved April 27, 2025.

Who Were The Newark Tornadoes?

The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from 1888 to 1895, the National Football League from 1929 to 1930, the American Association from 1936 to 1941, the Atlantic Coast Football League from 1963 to 1964 and 1970, and the Continental Football League from 1965 to 1969. The team was based for most of its history in Orange, New Jersey, with many of its later years in Newark. Its last five seasons of existence were as the Orlando Panthers, when the team was based in Orlando, Florida. The NFL franchise was sold back to the league in October 1930. The team had four head coaches in its two years in the NFL, Jack Depler in Orange, and Jack Fish, Al McGall and Andy Salata in Newark.

The Orange Tornadoes can trace their roots back to the Orange Athletic Club. The Orange A.C. was originally an amateur football team that began play in 1887. The team's first ever game was a 36–0 loss to the Seton Hall University football team. By the 1890s the Orange became a semi-pro team. In 1892, the team practiced under electric lights at night to prepare for an October 8 game against Rutgers College. The Orange A. C. would go on to win that game 22–10. In 1893, the team won the American Football Union Championship, after posting an 8–2 record. In 1902, the Orange A. C. played against Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Athletics of the first National Football League. The team also played in World Series of Football in that year, at Madison Square Garden. In 1902, Orange lost to All-Syracuse, 36–0. However, the team returned to the World Series of Football in 1903, when they played the Watertown Red & Black and the eventual champion, the Franklin Athletic Club. Orange lost to Watertown, 11–0, and to Franklin, 12–0. However, it did manage to defeat the Oreo Athletic Club of Asbury Park, 22–0.

The Orange team became an established independent pro team from 1919 until 1928, under the nickname the Orange AC Golden Tornadoes. During this time, Orange defeated the New York Brickley Giants of the NFL. They also played pre-NFL versions of the Frankford Yellow Jackets and the Staten Island Stapletons. They also played against the Atlantic City Roses and the Millville Big Blue, two of the top independent teams of the 1920s. By 1928, Orange held the New York Giants and Frankford Yellow Jackets to close scores. On September 16, 1928 Orange held the 1927 NFL Champion New York Giants to just a 7–0 victory. A week earlier the NFL's previous champions, the Frankford Yellow Jackets, were held to a 12–0 victory. Orange showed that their team could compete in the NFL.

While the Golden Tornadoes played in Orange, a separate Newark Bears played in the original American Football League in the 1926 season in Newark, unrelated to the Tornadoes team that would later take on that identity. That Newark Bears club was later absorbed into the Staten Island Stapletons.

In 1929 Ole Haugsrud, the owner of Duluth Eskimos, sold his NFL franchise rights for the Eskimos to Piggy Simandl, a wholesale meat salesman and sports promoter from Orange, who named his franchise the Orange Tornadoes. The Tornadoes played their home games at Knights of Columbus Stadium. The first game for the new team was a scoreless tie against the New York Giants on September 29, 1929. A week later the team recorded its first NFL win by defeating the Boston Bulldogs 7–0. The victory came off a short George Pease pass to Paul Longua, who ran 60 yards for a touchdown. However, the following week, Orange experienced its first NFL loss in a 7–0 defeat to the 1928 NFL Champions, the Providence Steamroller. The team regrouped on October 19, 1929, and the Tornandoes held the Frankford Yellow Jackets to a 6–6 tie at Frankford Stadium. A week later the team rallied from a 13–0 deficit to defeat the Boston Bulldogs, 19–13.

On October 29, 1929, the Bulldogs and Tornadoes met again to play, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Prior to 1929, the Bulldogs played as the Pottsville Maroons and the teams played for their still loyal fans at the Maroons' Minersville Park. This time however, the Tornadoes lost 6–0 by way of a 4-yard touchdown run from Boston's Tony Latone. On October 3, the Tornadoes held the Staten Island Stapletons to a scoreless tie at Thompson Stadium. During that game the Stapletons were within scoring distance three times, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the Tornadoes only penetrated the Staten Island 20-yard line once.

The Orange then lost a rematch against the New York Giants, 22–0, a week later. But after a scoreless tie against Frankford, the Orange defeated the Staten Island Stapletons 3–0, due to a Felix McCormick field goal. However, the next game, against the Chicago Cardinals, resulted in a 26–0 Tornadoes loss. The Cardinals, led by Ernie Nevers, put up 20 points in the second quarter of the game. The Tornadoes then ended their 1929 season with a 10–0 loss to Frankford. They finished with a 3–5–4 record, scoring 35 points, while giving up 80. In 1929, Orange experimented with using letters instead of numbers on player jerseys; Heinie Benkert, for example, wore the letter "C" on his uniform.

The team's fortune in the NFL changed for the worse after it moved to Newark in 1930. During the team's time in Newark, it played its home games at Newark Schools Stadium. Head coach Jack Depler defected to buy the Dayton Triangles, moving that team to Brooklyn and transforming that team into the Brooklyn Dodgers. He took most of the members of the 1929 Tornadoes with him. Meanwhile, the Tornadoes went through three coaches during the 1930 season, and the team's only victory during the 1930 season was against the Frankford Yellow Jackets.

The last game for the Newark Tornadoes was against the New York Giants, a 34–7 loss on October 29, 1930. The franchise ended league play after the 1930 season and was sold back to the NFL. The league ordered the franchise sold to the highest bidder prior to the 1931 season, but there were no takers and the team took the field as the “Cleveland Indians” under league ownership.

In 1932, a Boston-based group won a new NFL franchise and was awarded the remains of the failed Newark organization. The new team would be named the Boston Braves, now the Washington Football Team. However, the NFL does not consider Washington to be a continuation of the Tornadoes, just as it does not consider the Tornadoes to be a continuation of the Duluth Eskimos.

Though the NFL franchise had moved to Newark, owner Edwin Simandl had kept a barebones organization back in Orange, just in case the NFL Tornadoes failed. When they did, he moved as many players as he could from the Newark squad back to Orange. The minor league Tornadoes played in various leagues, including the American Association, of which it was a charter member. The Orange Tornadoes moved back to Newark in 1937 and were eventually bought by the Chicago Bears. Playing under the name Newark Bears (a name previously used by the Newark Bears of the 1926 American Football League), the team played in the AA through 1941.

The team did not return after World War II; instead, George Halas took what was left of the team and split it into the Newark Bombers and the Akron Bears. The Bloomfield Cardinals replaced both teams in 1947. The NFL severed ties with all minor league teams in 1948.

The Newark Bears returned in 1963, when the Atlantic Coast Football League's Paterson Miners (a team that had been in operation since 1958 as the Franklin Miners) moved to Newark and took the Bears name. This version of the Bears was owned by Sol Rosen. In 1965, the team applied to the American Football League to join that league, but were turned down (as the New York metropolitan area already had both the Jets and NFL's Giants, both of which counted North Jersey as their market and would eventually move to New Jersey in later years), and instead joined the upstart Continental Football League, where it played one season in 1965 before moving to Orlando, Florida, and becoming the Orlando Panthers. The Panthers played in the CFL from 1966 to the league's dissolution in 1969; it was consistently one of the most successful teams in that league. When the Continental Football League folded, the Bears returned to the ACFL, playing one more season in 1970. The Panthers were thrown out of the ACFL following the 1970 season, after the ownership group that bought the team attempted to cut the team's budget by simply not paying its expenses.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the ACFL moved the former Charleston Rockets franchise to Newark in 1969, becoming the "Jersey Jays." The Jays played from 1969 to 1971.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

Horrigan, Joe (1982). "National Football League Franchise Transactions" (PDF). The Coffin Corner. 4. Pro Football Research Association. Retrieved May 8, 2022.

 Daly, Dan. The National Forgotten League: Entertaining Stories and Observations from Pro Football's First Fifty Years, p. 38. University of Nebraska Press, 2012. ISBN 9780803244603. Accessed January 17, 2018. "Case in point: the 1929 Orange Tornadoes. The Tornadoes didn't wear numbers on their jerseys, they wore letters. Here's their lineup for the first of two games against the Frankford Yellow Jackets:... C - Heinie Benkert, B, Rutgers"