USFL: Revisiting The Glory Days
It won’t be your father’s USFL, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
As the rebooted United States Football League kicks off 39 years after the original version did, fans are likely wondering what to expect from the spring football league.
No one truly knows what the on-field product will look like when the USFL kicks off again on April 16, but it’s safe to say that the league won’t closely resemble its predecessor.
The original USFL was much more than a developmental spring league.
“The old USFL was the real deal,” said Paul Dottino, a long-time football radio personality in the New York market. “I was at every Generals home game with about 35,000 people in Giants Stadium. It wasn’t the NFL, but the football was good.”
The new USFL has resurrected the old team names and logos, but it will struggle trying to match the old USFL’s talent pool.
“It wasn’t just retreads. It wasn’t just NFL hopefuls,” explained Dottino, who was on the beat for the Generals from 1983-85. “There were your Triple A minor-league types, but there were also aging NFL veterans, who still had something left, along with legitimate up-and-coming prospects. That combination made for a tasty product.”
The USFL became a destination of sorts, luring future, and former, NFL Pro Bowlers into the upstart league.
Rejecting the college eligibility requirement for NFL players, the USFL landed its foundational centerpiece.
Georgia’s Herschel Walker, whom Dottino deemed “the greatest running back in the college game at the time,” signed a record contract with the Generals in one of the world’s largest media markets.
After becoming the highest paid football player in professional sports history at the time, the 1982 Heisman Trophy recipient went on to rush for more than 5,500 yards while scoring 61 total touchdowns in three USFL seasons.
In addition to securing a premier up-and-coming running back, the USFL was able to add a highly-touted quarterback to help market its product prior to the 1984 season.
Miami Hurricanes signal-caller Jim Kelly was drafted by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in 1983, but showed little interest in playing for a cold-weather city, particularly Buffalo.
Kelly, who famously asked reporters, “Would you rather be in Houston or Buffalo?,” opted to sign with the USFL's Houston Gamblers instead of shuffling off to Western New York.
In 1984, he led the Gamblers’ high-powered run-and-shoot attack to a league-record 618 points in 18 regular season games under future Houston Oilers head coach Jack Pardee.
Although Kelly, who would eventually go on to take the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls, was the USFL’s superstar signal-caller, he certainly wasn’t the only exciting field general on the circuit.
The original USFL employed names such as 1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers first-round pick Doug Williams.
In the post-USFL era, Flutie piled up six Most Outstanding Player awards in the CFL and also made the 1998 Pro Bowl as the Bills’ starting quarterback.
Williams, who was drafted by the Buccaneers out of Grambling in 1978, worked his way back into the NFL, landing with the Washington Redskins. He went on to become the first-ever Black starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl, throwing four second-quarter touchdown passes en route to the SB XXII MVP award.
Brigham Young quarterback Steve Young, who eventually enjoyed a Hall of Fame career primarily with the San Francisco 49ers, was at the controls for the Los Angeles Express prior to entering the NFL.
Prior to playing 12 years in the NFL and making it to a Pro Bowl, Bobby Hebert quarterbacked the Michigan Panthers to the inaugural USFL championship title in 1983. Hebert passed for more than 3,500 yards in each of his three seasons in the league.
Arguably the most staggering Panthers statistic from the inaugural season is the attendance figures for the team’s two postseason games. Michigan drew 60,237 fans to the Pontiac Silverdome for a playoff win over the Oakland Invaders on July 10, 1983.
One week later, the Panthers topped the Philadelphia Stars, 24-22, in the USFL title tilt before 50,906 attendees at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
Whether or not they were paying attention, those 50,000-plus fans saw arguably the top center in professional football. BYU alumnus Bart Oates played three seasons for the Stars, snapping to former Penn State star quarterback Chuck Fusina.
After winning the 1984 and 1985 USFL titles with the Stars, Oates signed with the New York Giants and proceeded to earn three Super Bowl rings. He was a five-time Pro Bowler.
Then, there was Mississippi State’s Kent Hull, who blocked for Walker for all three years of the league’s operation. In 1986, the center teamed up with Kelly in Buffalo and earned four NFL All-Pro selections while playing 121 consecutive games for the Bills.
“Honestly, Hull and Oates were two of the smartest, most technically sound centers you'll ever find,” said Dottino.
Long-time Dallas Cowboys stalwart Nate Newton first played professionally in the USFL. The former Florida A&M lineman was cut by the Redskins prior to the 1983 NFL season and landed on his feet with the Tampa Bay Bandits in 1984. Newton inked a free-agent deal with Dallas after the USFL folded. He eventually won the starting left guard spot, going on to garner six Pro-Bowl selections and winning three Super Bowls.
“The offensive line play was much better than most anticipated, but it really had to be in order to support some of the star running backs and to protect slinging quarterbacks like Kelly and Hebert,” said Dottino.
Before making 169 NFL starts, offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman protected Young with the Express. The back-to-back All-USFL selection (1984, 1985) was an eight-time NFL All-Pro and earned a ticket into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
The Memphis Showboats featured a future Hall of Fame enshrinee in the trenches on the defensive side of the ball.
Reggie White, dubbed as the “Minister of Defense,” racked up 23.5 sacks in two USFL seasons. The former Tennessee Volunteer kicked off his professional career in his home state before moving onto the Philadelphia Eagles in 1985. White proceeded to make the Pro Bowl 13 times and log 198.5 sacks in the NFL.
Linebacker Sam Mills, who earned an invitation to Canton this past February, established himself as an elite defender with the Stars. After being released by the Cleveland Browns and CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in back-to-back years, the undersized Division III player (Montclair State) earned a spot on the All-USFL team in three straight seasons (1983-85).
When Stars head coach Jim Mora Sr. signed on to take the reins of the New Orleans Saints, Mills joined him. Mora publicly called Mills “the best player I ever coached.”
The old USFL was as close to a true competitor with the NFL as there has been during the Super Bowl era. After making three Pro Bowls with the Buffalo Bills, running back Joe Cribbs left the NFL over a contract dispute and signed with the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions for a reported $2.6 million ahead of the 1984 season.
“I don’t think the modern-day business and economics of pro football will allow for a league like the original USFL to exist ever again,” said Dottino.
Ultimately supporting the long-time radio announcer’s point, Fox Sports, which is scheduled to televise six games over the first three weeks of the regular season, put out a promotional graphic through its @CFBONFOX Twitter account on Thursday.
The tweet, which the official @USFL account re-tweeted, featured players such as Generals running back Mike Weber and Gamblers quarterback Clayton Thorson.
Unfortunately, the next Herschel Walker or modern-day Jim Kelly were nowhere to be found.
Be sure to follow Ralph Ventre (@RealestRalph)
NOTABLE USFL ALUMNI
QB Jim Kelly (Houston Gamblers)
Four Super Bowl Appearances; Pro Football Hall of Fame (2002)
RB Herschel Walker (New Jersey Generals)
1982 Heisman Trophy; 2-time NFL All-Pro
DL Reggie White (Memphis Showboats)
13-time Pro Bowler; Pro Football Hall of Fame (2006)
LB Sam Mills (Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars)
5-time Pro Bowler; Pro Football Hall of Fame (2022)
QB Steve Young (Los Angeles Express)
2-time NFL MVP; Pro Football Hall of Fame (2005)
QB Bobby Hebert (Michigan Panthers)
1993 Pro Bowl; New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame
QB Doug Williams (Oklahoma/Arizona Outlaws)
Nine NFL seasons; Super Bowl XXII MVP
QB Doug Flutie (New Jersey Generals)
3-time CFL Grey Cup champion; 1998 NFL Pro Bowl
OT Gary Zimmerman (Los Angeles Express)
8-time NFL All-Pro; SB XXXII Champion
C Kent Hull (New Jersey Generals)
4-time NFL All-Pro; Four Super Bowl starts
C Bart Oates (Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars)
3-time Super Bowl champion; 5-time Pro Bowler
