July 11

In this episode we discuss the opening days of the WFL way back in 1974, the anniversaries of some Super Bowl studs retiring and a study on the original NFL team called the Buccaneers! We will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia. This daily football history segment features the Great events, Franchise formation anniversaries as well as the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches or anyone else in our great game and many more  Legendary stories of the Gridiron.

The picture in the banner above was taken by Darin Hayes at the Harbor Creek , PA Recreational Park youth football field in 2021.

• July 11, 1926 - Los Angeles Buccaneers franchise forms. The team dissolved after playing just one season. 

The Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the July 11, 1974 edition of the Daily Reporter in Dover Ohio when they printed these block letters at the top of the page:

The World Football League debuts as teams play in the new leagues first games. Now the bulk of the opening games were played the night prior on Wednesday July 10, 1974 but the final action of the inaugural week was scheduled for Thursday. The WFLFootball.tripod.com says the scores for week one were as follows:
Memphis 34 knocking off Detroit 15 in front of a crowd of 30,122            

Hawaiians lost at Florida 7-8 as 18,625 looked on.

Houston 0 at Chicago 17     with 42,000    in attendance.

Portland got beat up at Philadelphia 8-33 with a crowd of 55,534 watching       

Southern California 7 at Birmingham 11 with a nice group of fans numbering 53,231 in the stands.

Thursday, July 11 in the week one finale New York was at Jacksonville and took one on the chin 7- 14 in front of a summertime crowd of    59,112.

• July 11, 1976 - The first American football club formed in Austria called the FAAFC. Football in Austria has since developed into a league that plays according to NCAA rules.
• July 11, 2007 - Ladainian Tomlinson wins honors at the 15th Annual ESPY Awards.
• July 11, 2000 - Future Hall of Fame Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin retired.  According to the NFL.com Michael was 3-time Super Bowl Champion, 5-time Pro Bowl selection, 1991 1st-Team All-Pro  the year he ended up leading the NFL with 1,523 receiving yards. He was also selected to the 1990's All-Decade Team.Number 88 played for 12 seasons with the Cowboys and retired as Cowboys all-time leader in receptions with 750 & 11,904 receiving yards (now 2nd behind Jason Witten in both categories). 
• July 11, 2011 - Linebacker Mike Vrabel retired as a player. Vrabel too was 3-time Super Bowl Champion but with the Patriots. NFL.com informs the readers that Mike was a 2007 1st-Team All-Pro & 2008 Pro Bowl selection. The great backer played 14 seasons in the League with the Steelers, Patriots & Chiefs. He currently is the head coach of the Tennessee Titans.

• July 11, 1915 - Houston, Texas - Purdue University’s halfback from 1935 through the 1937 season, Cecil Isbell was born. The National Football Foundation in their web bio on Cecil say that this player excelled as a runner, passer and punter. In 1936, he was responsible for 15 of Purdue's 23 touchdowns; in 1937, he received All-America mention. In 1938, he was named Most Valuable Player as the College All-Stars beat the Washington Redskins 28-16. Cecil Isbell received the great honor of being selected for inclusion into the College Football Hall of Fame in  1967. After his college playing days were over he played for the Green Bay Packers 1938- 42 and went into coaching in both the college and professional ranks.

• July 11, 1935 - Darrell Dess was an Offensive Lineman from North Carolina State University that played in the NFL for Pittsburgh, NY Giants and Washington.
• July 11, 1959 - Jeff Kemp was a QB out of Dartmouth that played in the NFL for the Rams and the Niners.
• July 11, 1981 - Miami, Florida - Wide receiver Andre Johnson who played for the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts and the Tennessee Titans
• July 11, 1990 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson was born.
• July 11, 1995 - Miami, Florida -LA Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa arrived into the world.

For more stats on football people born on July 11th check out Pro Football Reference.

See something that happened on this date that we missed? Please let us know via email at PigskinDispatch@gmail.com.