American Football Association (1977)
Encyclopedia
The American Football Association was a professional
American football
league that operated from 1979 to 1982. It was concentrated in the southern United States
and served as an interregnum
in the second tier of professional football between the World Football League
, which folded in 1975, and the United States Football League
, which began play in 1983. Unlike the WFL or USFL, the AFA always fashioned itself as a minor league
, and never planned to rival the National Football League
for "major league" status. Players were paid one percent of gross gate revenue, which often meant players were paid only menial sums for their service (often comparable to minimum wage
for three hours of work), and the league struggled to acquire recognizable players. The league played its games on Saturday nights in the summer (beginning its season Memorial Day weekend and ending in August) to avoid direct competition against other football in the fall, a move that foreshadowed the USFL's similarly inspired spring football schedule. The AFA ended operations in 1982, unable to take advantage of the looming strike
that hit the NFL that year.
Teams included those in Tulsa, Oklahoma
(the Tulsa Thunder and the Tulsa Mustangs), Birmingham, Alabama
(the Alabama Vulcans
and Alabama Magic), Louisville, Kentucky
(the Kentucky Trackers), Jacksonville, Florida
(the Jacksonville Jaguars and Jacksonville Firebirds), Charlotte, North Carolina
(the Charlotte Chargers, a.k.a. the Charlotte Storm), Orlando, Florida
(the Orlando Americans), San Antonio, Texas
(San Antonio Charros), Austin, Texas
(Austin Texans), Dallas, Texas
(Dallas Wranglers), Houston, Texas
, Little Rock, Arkansas
, Jackson, Mississippi
(Mississippi Stars), Virginia (Virginia Hunters), Shreveport, Louisiana
(Shreveport Steamers) and Charleston, West Virginia
(West Virginia Rockets, 1980 and 1981 champions). Its northernmost team, and largest major market, was Chicago, Illinois, where the Chicago Fire played. Many of the names came from previous leagues, with minor alterations to avoid trademark disputes: the Steamers, Vulcans and Fire all took their names from WFL teams, while the Rockets borrowed their name from a Continental Football League
and United Football League team of the same name. The Jaguars name would later be recycled for a National Football League team in 1995. The operations were often fly-by-night, with most teams lasting only one season or less before folding. Despite its minor league status, the league's teams often were able to secure leases for unusually large stadiums, often those used by the WFL and the USFL: the Orlando Americans, in their lone season, played in the 70,000-seat Citrus Bowl
, while the Vulcans and Magic played at similarly-sized Legion Field
, Houston played at 73,000 seat Rice Stadium
, and the Fire played at Soldier Field
. The Mustangs played at 30,000-seat Skelly Stadium.
The league was founded in February 1978 and began play in summer of 1979. It was formed to take advantage of the places where the WFL was the most popular, while avoiding the overspending that led to that league's demise. Billy Kilmer
, former NFL quarterback (and a man who coached the AFA's Shreveport Steamers in 1979), was named commissioner in 1981. After failing to come to terms with a television contract, the decision of the Carolina Chargers (one of the more stable franchises, and one that had come in second place in the 1979 and 1980 championships) to disband midseason, a scandal in which a player named Robert Lee Johnson misrepresented himself as former NFL lineman Randy Johnson
, and a lack of payment, he quit. In 1982, with former San Antonio Wings
executive Roger Gill at the helm, the league attempted to expand by absorbing other semi-pro teams in Buffalo, New York
, Racine, Wisconsin
and Canton, Ohio
. The USFL's securing of a television contract, especially after the AFA had failed to do so (the AFA was only able to get a few of its teams onto local cable stations), led to the AFA folding.
The modern American Football Association, a sanctioning body for semi-pro and amateur football, is unrelated to the former AFA.
Professional football
In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
league that operated from 1979 to 1982. It was concentrated in the southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
and served as an interregnum
Interregnum
An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order...
in the second tier of professional football between the World Football League
World Football League
The World Football League was a short-lived gridiron football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The...
, which folded in 1975, and the United States Football League
United States Football League
The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
, which began play in 1983. Unlike the WFL or USFL, the AFA always fashioned itself as a minor league
Minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...
, and never planned to rival the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
for "major league" status. Players were paid one percent of gross gate revenue, which often meant players were paid only menial sums for their service (often comparable to minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
for three hours of work), and the league struggled to acquire recognizable players. The league played its games on Saturday nights in the summer (beginning its season Memorial Day weekend and ending in August) to avoid direct competition against other football in the fall, a move that foreshadowed the USFL's similarly inspired spring football schedule. The AFA ended operations in 1982, unable to take advantage of the looming strike
1982 NFL season
The 1982 NFL season was the 63rd regular season of the National Football League. A 57-day long players' strike reduced the 1982 season from a 16-game schedule per team to an abbreviated nine game schedule...
that hit the NFL that year.
Teams included those in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
(the Tulsa Thunder and the Tulsa Mustangs), Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
(the Alabama Vulcans
Alabama Vulcans
The Alabama Vulcans were a professional football team which were a part of the American Football Association in 1979. Though the Vulcans used a different color scheme than its predecessors in the World Football League, the team's name was borrowed from the WFL's Birmingham Vulcans and the logo was...
and Alabama Magic), Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
(the Kentucky Trackers), Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
(the Jacksonville Jaguars and Jacksonville Firebirds), Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
(the Charlotte Chargers, a.k.a. the Charlotte Storm), Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
(the Orlando Americans), San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
(San Antonio Charros), Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
(Austin Texans), Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
(Dallas Wranglers), Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
(Mississippi Stars), Virginia (Virginia Hunters), Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
(Shreveport Steamers) and Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
(West Virginia Rockets, 1980 and 1981 champions). Its northernmost team, and largest major market, was Chicago, Illinois, where the Chicago Fire played. Many of the names came from previous leagues, with minor alterations to avoid trademark disputes: the Steamers, Vulcans and Fire all took their names from WFL teams, while the Rockets borrowed their name from a Continental Football League
Continental Football League
The Continental Football League was a professional minor American football 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 of the...
and United Football League team of the same name. The Jaguars name would later be recycled for a National Football League team in 1995. The operations were often fly-by-night, with most teams lasting only one season or less before folding. Despite its minor league status, the league's teams often were able to secure leases for unusually large stadiums, often those used by the WFL and the USFL: the Orlando Americans, in their lone season, played in the 70,000-seat Citrus Bowl
Citrus Bowl
The Florida Citrus Bowl is a stadium in Orlando, Florida, USA, built for football, which currently seats around 70,000 people....
, while the Vulcans and Magic played at similarly-sized Legion Field
Legion Field
Legion Field is a large stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but is occasionally used for other large outdoor events. The stadium is named in honor of the American Legion, a U.S. organization of military veterans. At its peak...
, Houston played at 73,000 seat Rice Stadium
Rice Stadium
Rice Stadium is a football stadium located on the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas. It has been the home of the Rice University football team since its completion in 1950 and hosted Super Bowl VIII in 1974....
, and the Fire played at Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
. The Mustangs played at 30,000-seat Skelly Stadium.
The league was founded in February 1978 and began play in summer of 1979. It was formed to take advantage of the places where the WFL was the most popular, while avoiding the overspending that led to that league's demise. Billy Kilmer
Billy Kilmer
William Orland Kilmer, Jr. was an American football quarterback in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers, the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Redskins...
, former NFL quarterback (and a man who coached the AFA's Shreveport Steamers in 1979), was named commissioner in 1981. After failing to come to terms with a television contract, the decision of the Carolina Chargers (one of the more stable franchises, and one that had come in second place in the 1979 and 1980 championships) to disband midseason, a scandal in which a player named Robert Lee Johnson misrepresented himself as former NFL lineman Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson (American football)
Randolph Klaus "Randy" Johnson was an American football player. He was the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons in their inaugural season of 1966. In 1974 he played with The Hawaiians of the World Football League.Johnson graduated from Sam Houston High School in San Antonio, Texas in 1962...
, and a lack of payment, he quit. In 1982, with former San Antonio Wings
San Antonio Wings
The San Antonio Wings was an American Football team that played in the World Football League in 1974 and 1975. The team started as the Florida Blazers in 1974, then moved to San Antonio in 1975 and became the San Antonio Wings.-Florida Blazers :...
executive Roger Gill at the helm, the league attempted to expand by absorbing other semi-pro teams in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...
and Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. The USFL's securing of a television contract, especially after the AFA had failed to do so (the AFA was only able to get a few of its teams onto local cable stations), led to the AFA folding.
The modern American Football Association, a sanctioning body for semi-pro and amateur football, is unrelated to the former AFA.
External links
- Encyclopedia of Italian Football - includes all schedules of AFA teams, but includes spurious seasons (including 1977, 1983, possibly 1978) that may have been other predecessor or successor leagues.
- American Football Association