Desire of USFL to Directly Compete...

Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the July 5, 1984, Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, when they posted:

Fall May Keep USFL from Stumbling

The report was a story about how on the Saturday prior to the USFL's playoff game between the New Jersey Generals and the Philadelphia Stars had to be relocated from Philly's Veterans Stadium to the old Franklin Field because the Philadelphia Phillies had a home game on the diamond. Generals owner Donald Trump, an avid proponent of moving the USFL to a fall schedule had this to say, "Sure the Stars had a conflict of dates in Vets Stadium with the Phillies, and they tell me if we played in the fall they would have a similar conflict in September or October, but that's my point. If we played in the fall, we wouldn't have a baseball conflict later when it's our playoffs." The outspoken businessman went on to state,"Our attendance is up, but it's up despite the spring season, not because of it."

This issue would soon be discussed at the USFL meetings in August, with the question of whether the USFL would adopt a fall schedule to challenge the NFL head-to-head.

Trump was not on the fall bandwagon by himself, though. Birmingham Stallions owner Marvin Warner and J. William Oldenberg of the LA Express also supported the change in schedules to a more traditional football season. Davis Dixon, the author of the USFL plan, clearly intended for the League to be a spring phenom, and history tells us that he was probably right in thinking so. It is believed that the USFL will return after a 30-year hiatus in 2022, adopting a spring format.