The Chicago Winds was 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...

's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was named the Winds (plural, not singular) because Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 was nicknamed "The Windy City." The Winds 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...

 and was assigned to the WFL's Western Division for 1975 (the WFL having shrunk from 12 teams to 11, and from three divisions to two).

Pursuit of Joe Namath

Prior to the 1975 season opener, Winds owner Eugene Pullano attempted to sign New York Jets

New York Jets

The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 star quarterback Joe Namath

Joe Namath

Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...

 to a contract. Namath, who had helped establish the Jets and the old American Football League

American Football League

The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...

, was wavering about re-signing with New York after the 1974 season. Reports had him retiring, being traded to another NFL team — or jumping to the WFL, perhaps as a player/coach/co-owner. Namath's agent Jimmy Walsh asked the Winds for a $500,000 signing bonus, a three-year contract worth $500,000 a year, a $2 million annuity ($100,000 per year for twenty years) and even terms for Namath's eventual ownership of a WFL franchise in New York. (The Winds even changed their colours to green and white, the same as the Jets.) The Winds had all but promised that Namath would come to Chicago, and their failure to sign him made them and the league look foolish. When Eddie Einhorn

Eddie Einhorn

Eddie Einhorn is minority owner and Vice Chairman of the Chicago White Sox.Einhorn produced the nationally syndicated radio broadcast of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in 1958...

, head of the WFL's television partner, TVS Television Network

TVS Television Network

The TVS Television Network, or TVS for short, was a syndicator of American sports programming. It was one of several "occasional" national television networks that sprang up in the early 1960s to take advantage of the establishment of independent television stations and relaxation of the AT&T...

, got word that the WFL was going after Namath, he bluntly told league president Chris Hemmeter

Christopher Hemmeter

Christopher Hemmeter was a real estate developer who pioneered the concept of the destination resort in Hawaii and was involved in casino gaming development, primarily in New Orleans and Colorado.-Real estate development:...

 that the league was literally betting its existence on getting Namath. Nearly all of TVS' affiliates refused to commit to air any WFL games in 1975 until Namath's signing was confirmed. According to Mark Kreigel's biography, Namath, Chicago apparently accepted the terms of the contract — until Walsh also demanded 15 percent of the WFL's total TV package. The Winds, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively (as 85% of television revenue for the league would have been better than having no television revenue at all), rejected the deal. Namath stayed with the Jets, and TVS dropped its coverage of the WFL, leaving the league without national television coverage in its final season.

The team did, however, hire former Charlotte Hornets

Charlotte Hornets (WFL)

The Charlotte Hornets were an American football team in the short-lived World Football League. They were relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, from New York City in the middle of the 1974 season.-History:...

 pilot Babe Parilli

Babe Parilli

-Biography:Parilli was born in the Pittsburgh industrial suburb of Rochester, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Kentucky as an All-American starting quarterback for the Wildcats under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant....

 as its head coach and general manager. A number of old Fire players returned as well, including running backs Mark Kellar and Cyril Pinder, center Guy Murdock (the Fire's MVP), and receivers Steve Wright and Chuck Kogut. With Namath out of the picture, the Winds acquired veteran quarterback Pete Beathard from the Portland Storm, while wide receiver John Gilliam

John Gilliam

John Rally Gilliam was an American football wide receiver.Gilliam was a receiver out of South Carolina State University, and was drafted in the second round by the expansion New Orleans Saints. He played his first two seasons in New Orleans, and then had stints with the St...

, originally signed with The Hawaiians

The Hawaiians

The Hawaiians were a professional American football team based out of Honolulu that played in the World Football League. They played two seasons, 1974 and 1975. Their records were 9-11 in 1974 and 4-7-1 in 1975. Their home stadium was Honolulu Stadium in 1974 and Aloha Stadium in 1975...

, also came to Chicago.

1975 season

The Winds did not have much success of the field or at the box office. They lost both pre-season games, to Jacksonville and Charlotte (Parilli's old team). Unlike the defunct Chicago Fire, which sold 15,000 season tickets in 1974, the Winds managed only 1,600. In late July, the league took swift action by firing Parilli and replacing him with Abe Gibron

Abe Gibron

Abraham Gibron was an American football coach and player. He is best remembered for his tenure as head coach of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. He played in the NFL as an offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Bears...

, who had been fired from the Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

 after the 1974 season. (An amusing typo in a New York Times story indicated Gibron had become coach of the Chicago Winos

Town drunk

The town drunk is a stock character, almost always male, who is drunk more often than sober.The town drunk typically dwells in a small enough town that he is the only conspicuous alcoholic...

.) A very reluctant Leo Cahill left a (relatively) comfortable position as Memphis Southmen

Memphis Southmen

The Memphis Southmen were a franchise in the World Football League which operated in 1974 and 1975. They played their home games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.-From North to South:...

 GM to the precarious situation with the wobbling Winds. Gibron only had 48 hours or so to learn about his new team.

The Winds lost their first two regular-season contests, 10-0 in Birmingham and 38-18 in Shreveport, before beating the Portland Thunder, 25-18 in overtime, in front of just 3,501 fans 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...

. After two more road losses (at Hawaii and Memphis), the team was 1-4 and swimming in red ink.

The end

Due to a dispute over partnership arrangements, two major investors withdrew $175,000 that they'd deposited with the league. (In a Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

story on the death of the WFL, a Winds official referred to the investors as "Bob and Rich from California. I don't know their last names, but one's an Arab and the other's a Greek.")

The investors' withdrawal dropped the Winds below league capitalization requirements. Puliano asked for time to find more investors. The WFL owners instead voted 10-1 to expel Chicago from the league, with only the Winds themselves voting to continue. A team folding in mid-season was not unusual for the WFL (the Jacksonville Sharks

Jacksonville Sharks

The Jacksonville Sharks were a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They competed for part of the 1974 season in the World Football League, a failed attempt to launch a major professional football league in the United States in competition with the National Football...

 and Detroit Wheels

Detroit Wheels

The Detroit Wheels were an American football team, a charter member of the ill-fated World Football League.The Wheels were founded December 13, 1973 by ten investors, whose number eventually grew to 33, including singer Marvin Gaye, Motown Records vice-president Esther Edwards, and Little Caesars...

 had died 14 games into a 20-game regular season in 1974), so the league was prepared. The Winds' game against the Southern California Sun

Southern California Sun

The Southern California Sun were an American football team based out of Anaheim, California that played in the World Football League in 1974 and 1975. Their records were 13-7 in 1974 and 7-5 in 1975. Their home stadium was Anaheim Stadium...

 was canceled. Since there were 11 teams, one team had a bye each week; with Chicago out, the bye team simply took the Winds' place in the schedule. Meanwhile, John Gilliam was selected by the Philadelphia Bell

Philadelphia Bell

The Philadelphia Bell was a franchise in the World Football League, which operated in 1974 and a portion of a season in 1975. The Bell played their home games at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. The team logo was a representation of the Liberty Bell....

 in a dispersal draft, but returned to the NFL Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...

instead, much to the WFL's chagrin. Even this arrangement didn't last too long, as the entire WFL collapsed at the end of October 1975.