World Football League Part I

Author and historian Mark Speck visits the Pigpen to give us a historic walk down memory lane of the World Football League of the mid-1970s. This is part 1 of our chat where the WFL origins and activities leading up to just before the first game was played. Join us in this tremendous gridiron history lesson!

It is a privilage to have the opportunity to talk about the World Football League with guest Mark Speck, who has written numerous books on the league. Here is a list of some of the pieces that Mark has authored on the WFL with St Johann Press:

•  World Football League Encyclopedia
•  WIFFLE
•  Nothing But A Brand New Set of Flat Tires
•  …and a dollar short

As you can see, Mark is one of the foremost experts on the WFL and we are honored to have him share his knowledge with us from this interesting startup league of the mid-1970s in the podcast episode above.

Mark is also a fan of other sports including baseball. A few months back he was a guest in the Pigpen on the Sports Jersey Dispatch Podcast where he discussed a baseball publication that he enjoyed as a kid, check it out here Kessler Baseball Fans Guide.

The info below is just the basics of the WFL's short history, and only scratches the surface of what Mark Speck shares with us in the podcast episode and in his volumes of books on the subject.

The World Football League officially launched in Chicago October 2, 1973. The man behind the idea was Gary L. Davidson, a lawyer by trade but also a fairly popular sports promoter and businessman of the era. Davidson was part of other start up leagues in other sports that competed with the mainstream organizations of the time. The American Basketball Association and the World Hockey Association. He co-founded and served as the first president of the WHA and co-founded, with former Buena Park Mayor Dennis Murphy the ABA. Gary Davidson also served as the WFL's first president and commissioner. 

If you recall the NFL and the AFL had merged just a few years prior. Davidson's theiry was the the newly reformed NFL would become lazy and lethargic if they did not have some competition. He and the group of owners he put together set out to do just that, compete with the NFL in the arean of professional football. Davidson's group was not the first to try and use the name World Football League. As Mark shares with us there were at least two other organizations that were trying to launch about the same time that wanted to use the moniker, but Davidson strategically called a press conference to officially beat the others to the punch on the use of the league name. The initial list of investors sounded promising: 

• Robert Schmertz, who owned the WHA's New England Whalers and NBA's Boston Celtics
• Howard Baldwin  who would be a future owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins
• Ben Hatskin, who owned the WHA's Winnipeg Jets
• R. Steve Arnold, a WHA associate
• John F. Bassett who was a Canadian movie executive
• Chris Hemmeter who operated a large real estate and tourism business in Hawaii

Some of these guys had some large bank accounts, others... well not so much. Each franchise was supposed to pay $100,000 for league fees to join, but alas some did not. The seed money that was paid in for these initiations went as mark describes right into the pockets of the league execs and not into a pool to help set up the fledgling organization. Another issue was that the franchise owners were not properly vetted and some didn't really have the means to even be thinking of trying to fund a professional team.

Initially the 1974 season's franchises consisted of:

• Chicago Fire
• Philadelphia Bell
• Memphis Southmen
• Birmingham Americans
• Florida Blazers
• Hawaiians
• Houston Texans
• Detroit Wheels
• Jacksonville Sharks
• New York Stars
• Portland Storm
• Southern California Sun

There were some new innovations to pro football from the WFL that eventually even the NFL adopted. The points awarded for a TD were 7 without a PAT, moving the goal posts to the endline, free-kicks from the 30 yardline and more. The season was schedule to start in July and end in early November with a title game called the World Bowl. A television broadcast agreement had been worked with TVS.

More to come in the next session with Mark Speck on World Football League 1974 season, coming out soon. Follow the link below.

The picture in the banner above is of Mark Speck's book on the wild stories of the World Football League, titled WIFFLE published by St Johann Press.

Special thanks to Mark Speck and the wonderful knowledge he provided. We salute Mark for preserving football history especially the WFL.