June 30

What happened in football history for June 30? Well we the story on how the city of Atlanta got a pro football team; the WFL MVP embroiled in controversy; and a Hall of Fame contributor named Dan Reeves celebrating a birthday that isn't who you think he is. 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 Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio showing one of the original helmets and color scheme used by the Atlanta Falcons in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the July 1, 1965 edition of the Atlanta Constitution when they described in print:

Atlanta Selects NFL After Rankin Smith is Awarded Franchise: AFL Bows Out As Lease is Granted at $9 Million

The Atlanta franchise that would soon be called the Falcons was officially opening up shop. Original franchise owner Rankin Smith was offered to become an NFL expansion team to help prevent him starting his club in the rival AFL. The AFL agressively pursued to get a team in the Atlanta market as they staged two pre-season tilts in the city in 1962 to attract interest. The big battle was on who could secure a lease with the Atlanta Stadium Authority. As a matter of fact the article makes one beleive that the Stadium Authority ultimately chose which of the rival Leagues would be playing in Atlanta. Commissioner Pete Rozelle personally flew to the Georgia city and urged the powers that be in Atlanta to make a choice between the two leagues and eventually the NFL was chosen. The brand new 57,000 seat stadium had just been built at a price tag of $18 million and now half of its cost would be paid for by the the new Rankin franchise. This was son after the Milwaukee Braves had moved to Atlanta too. 1966 would indeed be a banner year for sports fans in that area!

WFL Fines Express Over Signing Reamon

A newspaper report in Reno, Nevada's  Nevada State Journal on July 1, 1975 said that the WFL was fining their Jacksonville Express franchise for prematurely signing running back Tommy Reamon on June 30, 1975. Reamon was the MVP and leading rusher of the World Football League the season before as part of the then recently defunct Orlando Blazers. When the Blazers went under there was apparently a decision by the WFL to assign this player to the San Antonio Wings franchise, but when they were unable to sign him they notified the other teams in the League that he was available for trade or purchase. However Jacksonville signed the coveted player before finalizing a deal with the Wings. The penalty...well the Express faced losing a percentage of their gate revenue for two regular season games for the violation. Both of the games that they lost gate revenue from were against the Wings during the 1975 season, 10% in the first meeting and 6% for the second game. On Wednesday, October 22, a few days before the start of week 13, the WFL went out of business. The Birmingham Vulcans, by virtue of their league-best record of 9–3 at the time of the shutdown, were proclaimed league champions. And what happened to Tommy Reamon? Well according to Wikipedia, after the WFL folded in 1975, Reamon joined the Pittsburgh Steelers, who drafted him in the 1974 NFL Draft and retianed his rights. That same draft class for the Steelers included the likes of future Hall of Famers Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster. Tommy scored a touchdown for the Steelers in the last game ever played between the NFL Super Bowl Champions and College All-Stars. During the 1976 pre-season the Steelers traded Reamon to the Kansas City Chiefs.

June 30, 1912 - Dan Reeves, the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined contributor was born. No this is a different Dan Reeves than who we may think. This one was a great contributor all to himself in a different generation of football. This Dan graduated from Georgetown University amd became one of the great innovators of the NFL. His first claim to fame was when he helped to move the Rams franchise from Cleveland to Los Angeles to become the first NFL team on the West Coast. This move in 1946 not only shifted attention to the Pacific Coast in pro football but also opened up avenues for all major sports to make the jump west according to the ProFootballHOF.com website. Dan Ferrell Reeves also was the first owner to sign an African-American player after World War II when he inked Kenny Washington in 1946 in LA. His other great ideas were to be the first to hire and employ a full time scouting department and founded the Famous Kids Attendance program at Rams games. The Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrined Dan Reeves in 1967.

June 30, 1966 - Louie Aguiar  was an NFL Punter that played for the Jets, Chiefs, Packers and Bears during his 10 seasons in the League. Mr. Aguiar hails from the Utah State University football program.

For more stats on football people born on June 30th 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.

To continue reading, go on to July

The American Football History by month and day segments are to provide a daily remembrance of events significant in the game of American Football. We hope you enjoy these short reads everyday during the month of July.