By Phil Hecken, with Aaron Johnson.This article has literally been over a year in the making, with Aaron Johnson first approaching me last summer to do a World Football League piece. It’s finally coming to fruition today! I’ve always had a great interest in the WFL; in fact, was on the Southern California Sun. It’s a league a vaguely remember (I was 8 and 9 at the time), but it always fascinated me since it was my first experience with a pro league that wasn’t the NFL (I wasn’t really old enough to remember the NFL & AFL as two distinct entities). It was a league fraught with too much difficulty and peril to document here, lasting only one full and one partial season. And while there is a lot of information out there about the WFL, one of the more frustrating things I’ve found over the years are the lack of color photographs of games and uniforms.

World Football League. This page is dedicated to the 1974-75 World Football League Web site. We will post updates to this page when we update our WFL site.

Compared to today’s hyper-information age, 1974/75 was like the stone age.That being said, I have attempted to find at least a few color photographs or images of each uniform worn by the teams in the league. I’ll also point you to the wonderful work of the lads at the Gridiron Uniform Database, who’ve put together the, documenting (as best as possible) all the uniforms worn by the teams in the WFL. Each of the “year” designations before each team come from the GUD’s WFL site. Thanks, guys!All of this will be leading up to A NEW UNIFORM DESIGN CONTEST, but those details will come shortly — so designers — pay close attention, because you’re going to have another opportunity to show your chops on Uni Watch. But first, let me now turn this over to Aaron, who’ll set up the teams and uniforms of the WFL:40 years ago the World Football League kicked off. Some of you may be familiar with the short-lived league while others may be hearing of it for the first time.In July of 1974, 12 kicked off the inaugural WFL season and it was the start of a wild ride — two teams moved mid-season, two teams didn’t make it through the season, and due to financial reasons many players weren’t paid! Despite all the turmoil, the league was able to put things together in time to kick off the 1975 season — but ultimately financial reasons forced the league to fold mid-season.On the field the WFL went with and flashy uniforms.

At the time they were very unique; most notably the Southern California Sun and Portland Thunder. The league also wanted to based on the player’s position but that never took off. Finding color images of each team is a bit challenging, but here’s a look back at each teams uniforms.Some of the images below can viewed at larger size.

Many are full size. Hover your mouse over each picture to determine if a photo can be enlarged.Southern California Sun The Southern California Sun were of the WFL squads, wearing a bright magenta jersey over orange pants at home, and white jersey over orange on the road.

Their had a, with a magenta/orange/magenta stripe pattern. Socks were white with alternating orange/white stripes, with magenta tops.Detroit Wheels The Detroit Wheels represented the motor city wearing black. Their yellow helmets had a They also alternated between grey or yellow facemasks. Socks were red at the top and white at the bottom.

At one point this short lived franchise was even lucky to have uniforms”¦ the team had one time they couldn’t afford to get their uniforms back from the cleaners!Houston Texans / Shreveport Steamer ( & )The Houston Texans played the first half of their season in Houston before they moved to Louisiana and were. Each wore green or white jerseys with gold pants. In Houston they wore a yellow helmet with the state of Texas with a lower case “h” on the right side of the state”¦ each with a. In Shreveport they had two helmets.

The first was a, and the other was a boat sailing in the water surrounded by the shape of a football. Socks were white with alternating green/yellow stripes.New York Stars / Charlotte Stars / Charlotte Hornets ( & )The Charlotte Hornets franchise and when the team moved they kept the teams colors. In New York the franchise wore yellow or white jerseys over black pants. Their helmet was black with a yellow star with an “NY” in it.In Charlotte the team started with yellow jerseys over black as well before changing to black or white jerseys over yellow pants. Their helmets were also a work in progress.

They started off with a over the, changed it to a white “C” before finally putting an image of a hornet on it. Socks were white with a single black stripe around the top.Memphis Southmen The Memphis Southmen wore burnt orange jerseys over white pants with brown trim at home and white jerseys over white pants on the road. They had a white helmet with. Because of the bear on the helmet many fans started to refer to the team as the They wore white socks with alternating burnt orange/brown stripes.One of the more famous images from the WFL is of wearing their Southmen uniforms. There’s also another memorable image out there of a couple members of the Southmen.

This was an experiment by the WFL to use color-coded pants by position so fans could always see where a certain player at a certain position was on the field. Needless to say”¦ this plan never took off.Birmingham Americans The Birmingham Americans wore red, white and blue of course! The jerseys were blue or white with white pants (each had red trim). The white helmet had with a blue and red stripe pattern.

Their socks were white with a blue stripe and red stripe pattern as well. The Americans won the one and only “World Bowl””¦ but when they returned to the locker room they were not greeted with champagne. Rather, the sheriffs department was waiting for them to confiscate all their uniforms and equipment to make up for.Birmingham Vulcans In 1975, under new ownership the WFL returned to Birmingham, this time dubbed the Vulcans. The Vulcans went with very similar uniforms with the same blue or white jersey over white pants. The white helmet had a blue “V” with a football shape inside of it and a red flame coming out of the top. The socks remained red, white and blue with more blue near the top.Jacksonville Sharks The Jacksonville Sharks wore a black jersey with white and silver numbers over silver pants.

Their helmet was silver with a black shark. Socks were white with black stripes at the top. It is said the Jacksonville Sharks based their color scheme off the Oakland Raiders.Jacksonville Express Despite the Sharks franchise being removed from the league in 1974, the Jacksonville Express joined the WFL in 1975. The team wore black jerseys over gold pants.

With the word “Express” in place of the wheels on the gold helmet. Socks were white with thin alternating red/black/red stripes near the top.Chicago Fire The Chicago Fire wore red jerseys with white and black numbers/stripes around their sleeves over white pants with red and black stripes down the side. For their helmets they put a red flame outlined with black and white stripes over a red helmet. The socks were white with red and black stripes at the top.Chicago Winds When the WFL returned in 1975 Chicago got a new team”¦ and what better name for the “Windy City” than the Chicago Winds!

At home the Winds donned green jerseys with white pants and on the road white jerseys over white pants. The helmets were white with a simple green “W” on them. Socks were also white with a single green stripe hear the top. Fans didn’t have long to see this team in action as the WFL kicked the team out of the league after five regular season games.The Hawaiians The Hawaiians played in Honolulu but left their “location” out of the official team name.

The team’s colors were red, gold and brown. They wore a brown jersey over white pants. Their helmet was gold. Socks were brown near the top and white at the bottom.Philadelphia Bell The Philadelphia Bell, much like, wore blue and gold. Hey wore blue jerseys over gold pants at home and white jerseys over gold pants at home. The helmet was yellow with a blue image of the Liberty Bell on it.

They wore white socks with the upper portion of them blue.Portland Storm You couldn’t miss the Portland Storm on the field! They wore a lime green jerseys over blue pants. Their white helmets had the blue and lime green in the shape of a football with an “S” carved out in the middle. Socks were white with a lime green stripe near the top. Their colors were very similar to the current Seattle Seahawks colors.Portland Thunder The following season Portland was able to secure another franchise with new ownership. The team was named the “Thunder” and they darkened their colors to green and navy.

The Thunder wore green jerseys over navy pants. They kept the concept of having a football on the side of their helmet but put a “T” in the middle of it shaped as a lightning bolt. Socks were white.Florida Blazers The Florida Blazers were the runners up in the one and only “World Bowl.” They wore red jerseys over navy pants. Their helmet was navy blue with Perhaps their logo could best be described as a comet’s tail.

Their socks were plain white.San Antonio Wings For the 1975 season the Florida Blazers were purchased and moved to San Antonio and re-named the “Wings.” The Wings wore Blue jerseys over silver pants at home and white jerseys over silver pants on the road. Their helmet had blue wings over the front/sides of their helmets.

They went with plain white socks.OK, and.whew. If that’s not enough photos for you, you can check out my. Big thanks to Aaron for the writeups for all those teams.Hard to believe it’s been 40 years since this league was founded.Now, everyone — if you’re still with us — pay attention to all of the teams just listed and shown above, because on Thursday, we’ll be announcing a WFL Uniform Design Contest. Jewel quest solitaire free online. You might be able to figure out where we’re about to go with this, but we’ll hold off on the official rules and announcement until then.

Sand-Knit made the Technicolor uniforms for the Sun and the Storm. Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston/Shreveport and Florida also wore Sand which was then the Nike of the day with wacky designs and colors. I’ve got a ’75 Sand-Knit catalog. Magenta was called “Bright Red.” Lime Green was named “Bright Green.” Base team price for a Sandaire Warp-Knit Pro-Mesh jersey before decoration was $14.65. That’s around $65.50 today.Russell Athletic had a couple of teams with Birmingham (no surprise) and the Sharks.

Wilson outfitted the hometown Chicago Fire.One observation on the whole WFL uniform look was that even though some teams used wild color schemes the designs were pretty basic stuff. As one who lived and worked through that era I miss those days when teams still looked like football teams. Thanks for the great comprehensive post about the WFL!The only thing I can add is that the odd nickname “Southmen” came about because the team’s Canadian owner, John Bassett, intended it to be the Toronto Northmen. But the Canadian government threatened legislation to block any non-CFL team in a Canadian city.

Because of the the possibility of this law (which was in fact never actually passed), Bassett decided at a late date to move the team to Memphis, and simply changed “Northmen” to “Southmen”.Bassett later owned the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL.Here is the radio broadcast of a game from Week 6 of the 1974 season between the Philadelphia Bell and the Chicago Fire. It took place at Soldier Field on Wednesday, August 14 (most of the league’s games were played midweek). It’s over Chicago station WJJD-FM; the play-by-play announcer is Eddie Doucette, with analyst Mike Pyle. Wow, I have to say that I’m surprised to see my alma mater mentioned today. But, the school is actually “Nicholls State”I don’t care how much the AD there wants to try and drop the “State” from the name.In case anyone didn’t know what Nicholls State wore in the past:It’s a silver shell with metallic specks, a gray facemask and older version of the logo with 3D beveling. Then they changed to a flat version of the logo sometime during the season last year.

Then tweeted this pic showing the new shell, red facemask and old logo:Looks like they FINALLY have the correct logo in place for the season. The WFL logos were all designed to have a similar “corporate” feel.

The uniforms were all laid out the same too, but Birmingham used a different company so they designed their own striping from what I understood. The coolest thing to me was the helmet striping. Way wide center stripe flanked by thinner stripes. And they put the WFL logo on the backs of the helmets.

That was way before the NFL did. The NFL also took the the WFL idea of having the goal posts back and out of the endzone. I remember reading about a team showing up to play Florida, and they were still cementing the goal posts in:).

Bill Bergey was drafted by the Cincy Bengals in 1969. He then signed a contract with the WFL which was described as a “futures contract,” which basically stated that once his NFL contract was up, he could make the move to the WFL.The Bengals sued Bergey, claiming that signing the future contract would hurt his motivation to perform under the current contract and asked the court in Ohio to cancel his contract. The court refused, stating that a contract taking place in the future had no effect on a contract currently in force.(Ok, not uniform related, but seeing the post reminded me of that case, which I had to study in sports law.).

Thanks for the coverage of the WFL. While I don’t remember the league while they were in actual existence, Pro Football Magazine did a little retrospective on them in about 1976 or so, and the article included all of the teams logos (rendered in black & white of course).Anyways, that spurred my imagination, and while I was already into logos and uniforms, it just further reinforced my love for them.It’s important to note that in 1974, the home WFL team wore white in almost all cases. I believe there were just 2 games where this was not the case.Thanks again.Lee. As an ASU student and Arizona native, I have pretty mixed feelings about the new uniform. On the one hand, I think the helmet is awesome, and I don’t hate the grey, but wish that the pants were white. Also, that the number was a solid copper, not a gradient.As for the whole color issue, I’ve been expecting this since they unveiled their new pitchfork helmets a few years ago, so that has softened the blow for me, so it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, as long as they only where it once. I don’t want it to be a regular rotation uniform.Also, for what it’s worth, this is way better than the flame helmets from last season.

Hey everyone,Just wanted to say “Thanks” for all the kind words about today’s post.Aaron was the man behind all of the writeups, and I found the photos and links to a lot of what he wrote about — I knew much of the WFL, but not like he did and I’m glad this post FINALLY happened (told you it was over a year in the making!). The teenage uni geek of my teens (I was 13 when the WFL started) is SO glad you devoted a column to the WFL. There’s been so little in one place for so long, though that seems to be changing. It’s defnitely the most WFL photos I’ve ever seen in one place, and of all the teams. (Favorite unis: the Storm and the Fire, neck-and-neck, and the Sharks a close third.)I watched Wiffle Ball (as it was sometimes derisively called) that first season, as Hughes, I believe, carried a game of the week on a local channel. (I remember the intro with the cartoon stork delivering a baby to the voiceover: “It’s the new kid in town!” and have occasionally searched for it in vain on YouTube.) I remember seeing the opener, a win by the Sharks in Jacksonville (a month later, the family drove from Connecticut on vacation, and we passed the Gator Bowl, with the sign on the press box saying “WELCOME TO THE GATOR BOWL” and beneath, another sign: “HOME OF THE SHARKS”).

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Also remember seeing one Stars game on TV from Randall’s Island, and the lighting was godawful. I also remember, I think a Blazers game, that was interrupted so that they could cut away to Nixon’s resignation speech.Back in the summer of 1983, I wandered into a long-gone sporting goods store in North Haven, Ct., and saw four unusual jerseys on the pegs in my size (which was medium then — fat chance now, and I do mean that literally). They were $15 a pop.

Within a week, I had all four. Four WFL replica jerseys, all by Medalist Sand-Knit, that I pegged back to 1975, since one of them was the Wings (except that, unlike the photos of actual game jerseys, this one was more of a vivid purple-to-lavender; the silver-on-white numbers were spot-on, though).

I picked up the Wings, the Bell (in equally vivid blue), the Storm/Thunder (in that wonderful green) and the Stars/Hornets (in yellow). The main difference between the replicas and the game jerseys is the lack of TV numbers; there’s a league patch on one sleeve, and the striping is the same for all four, and the screening on both the numbers and stripes is extremely thick. (And still pliable after all these decades.) I make feeble attempts to sell them on eBay occasionally, but no luck.ESPN’s 30 for 30 has shown the USFL documentary occasionally in recent months, and yeah, like the USFL, the WFL has won the battle with the NFL, only it’s not around to see it. More vivid unis (I don’t mind the Seahawks’ snot green trim — a shot of light in the gray darkness of Seattle in the fall), Thursday-night games, no preseason (I think we’ll see a move from 16 to 18 games, with two fewer exhibitions, at some point), a move away from the PAT kick (will the Action Point come to the NFL at some point?) All that’s missing is the Dickerod (the WFL’s unique first-down marker that did away with chains).But seriously, guys, a great look back!.

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Wikimedia list articleThe following is a list of sports competitions by.In this table, the 'Season' column refers to the league season for which financial data is available and referenced, which is usually not the most recently completed season of competition. Number of teams in the season referenced in this table. Due to league expansion and contraction, does not necessarily match the number of current teams. Cited revenue was 15.56B$, exchange rate of 1 USD = 0.8329 EUR used here for end of 2017.

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