USFL Championship Game 1983

The Newspapers.com football History Headline of the Day comes from the Fort Lauderdale News in the July 18, 1983, Sports edition,n where they put up the headline of:

ABC takes a subtle approach to the USFL's historic title game

July 17, 1983 - The very first USFL Championship game was played as the Michigan Panthers defeated the Philadelphia Stars 24-22. Bobby Hebert and Anthony Carter led the Panthers' attack on offense. Quarterback Hebert went 20 of 39 for 314 yards and three touchdowns to garner the Most Valuable Player honors of the then-nameless summer time bowl game. Nine of Bobby's pases were caught by Carter who posted a very impressive 179 yards of receiving including a 48 yard scoring play with just 3;01 remaining in the game to seal off what looked like it may be another Stars comeback. Philly was coming off a rally from three scores back to knock off Chicago in the semi-final just a week earlier. Keith Jackson and Lynn Swann were in the broadcast booth, utilizing the expertise of Tim Brant on the sidelines to gather information from players on various topics, including injuries. As for the Michigan Panthers, they had some great talent on the roster besides Anthony Carter and Bobby Hebert. According to the StatCrew.com website, their leading rusher that season was Ken Lacy, who carried the ball for a team-best 1,180. John Corker topped the defensive unit with 28.5 quarterback sacks, part of an overall team total of 74 sacks. They had a strong leader patrolling the sidelines too, as Jim Stanley coached the team.

The StatCrew site tells us that the '83 Stars were loaded too. Besides being coached by Jim Mora, the Philly team featured running back extraordinaire, Kelvin Bryant, who carried the ball for a team-leading 1,442 yards. Signal caller, Chuck Fusina, threw for 2,718 yards while wideout Willie Collier added 771 receiving yards.

The USFL was founded in 1982 and played for 3 seasons (1983 through 1985). It now looks like, after more than 30-some odd years, that the Spring League may return as the USFL in 2022. For more on the USFL, please click here.