'85 USFL-Championship Game

Event Date: July 14th, 1985

Event Description: USFL Championship Game

Source ABCTV

'85 USFL: Championship Sunday

 

'85 USFL-Battle Royale

 

'85 USFL: Shake, Rattle and Roll

Event Date: July 13th, 1985

Event Description: USFL Shaky, But Determined

Source: United Press International

Author: Joel Sherman

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The U.S. Football League's farewell to spring football Sunday points up the bouncing-ball history of the league.

With a bit of imagination, the title game between the Oakland Invaders and Baltimore Stars becomes a rematch of the first USFL final when the Michigan Panthers defeated the Philadelphia Stars 24-22 in 1983.

For as followers of the UnSteady Football League know, there are no franchises above making a move, or two, or even three.

Prior to the 1985 season, Michigan and Oakland merged, forming the current Invaders. Nine Panthers on the roster for the championship victory over the Stars will suit up Sunday.

Meanwhile, there seemingly have been more Stars on Interstate-95 than in the sky. The Stars, residents of Philadelphia in the league's first two seasons, were evicted from Veterans Stadium and began calling Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md., home, sort of. They worked out in Philadelphia and needed to make a 2-hour, 40-minute bus ride to reach their 'home' stadium on game day.

The team, which is planning a move to Baltimore's Memorial Stadium for the fall of 1986, got a workout just finding practice sites, using the infield of Baltimore's Pimlico Race Track at one point.

“We were the I-95 team,” said Carl Perterson, the Stars' president. “We'd practice in Philadelphia. Our offices were in Baltimore. We played at College Park. But we held together. You know, I think adversity does bring people together.”

If that is true the USFL would be a league of glue.

The league's 3-year history has been outlined with abundant franchise movements and current fiscal problems would seem to indicate more are on the way if indeed there is a fall league in 1986.

The Portland Breakers had been the New Orleans and Boston Breakers. The Arizona Outlaws have had three sets of owners and coaches, and a revolving door of players.

The San Antonio Gunslingers and Tampa Bay Bandits missed pay checks at the end of the season. The Los Angeles Express and Houston Gamblers leaned on financial support from the league for survival. All of those teams plus the Denver Gold and perhaps the Birmingham Stallions will be potential parts of mergers or folds.

The league no longer boasts franchises in media capitals such as Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington and Chicago.

Only three of 14 teams showed an increase in attendance in 1985, television ratings on both ESPN and ABC have decreased in each year and no network televsion contract has been signed for 1986.

The league has drawn more attention for such things as the Jacksonville Bulls cutting of quarterback Robbie Mafhouz a week before the end of the season to avoid paying a bonus in his contract for finishing the year as for its attempts at instant replays to decide controversial calls or the use of the 2-point conversion.

“The media seems to take a gleeful delight in poking fun at the trials and tribulations of a new league,” USFL commissioner Harry Usher said. “This does not really show the attitude of a competing league.

“What is missed and what perhaps I am failing to get across is that the quality of play from the first year until now has greatly improved. This is an entertainig well-played style of football.”

The final chance to see this style of play in the spring, and possibly forever, will be Sunday at Giants Stadium. After that, as history has shown, no one can ever know where the USFL will pop up next.

(Article property of UPI: All rights reserved).

'85 USFL: Championship Preview #4

Event Date: July, 1985

Event Description: USFL Championship Preview

Source: ESPN

'85 USFL: Championship Preview #3

Event Date: July, 1985

Event Description: USFL Championship Preview

Source: ESPN

'85 USFL: Championship Preview #2

Event Date: July, 1985

Event Description: '85 Championship Game Preview

Source: ESPN

'85 USFL: Championship Game Preview #1

Event Date: July, 1985

Event Description: '85 Championship Game Preview

Source: ESPN

'85 USFL-Good Tickets Still Available

Event Date: July, 1985

Event Description: '85 Championship Game Tickets

Source: ABC Sports

1986 USFL: The Season That Never Was

Join us here for a look at what the 1986 USFL could have looked like.