Gridiron America USFL Radio

1983 Week 1 - Sunday, March 6, 1983 Attendance: 34,002,  TV: ABC  

The high-priced running back who left the University of Georgia a year early for a $5 million, three-year contract, did score the game's first touchdown. But he gained only 65 yards on 16 carries and by the second quarter, was largely forgotten by the crowd of 34,002 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum...

For nearly two full years, the mighty NFL sat idly by as the upstart USFL tried to chip away at its status, talent, and reputation as the most powerful sports league on the planet. Now, the NFL is ready to settle the score, once and for all.

The league commissions a Harvard professor to prepare meticulous, 46-page step-by-step plan intended to squash the USFL in its tracks. Commissioner Pete Rozelle prepares himself for battle—but the battle comes sooner than expected...

Description: It’s 1984, and at USFL franchise offices across the country, multi-million dollar contracts are flowing like Gatorade. As the United States Football League prepares for kickoff on its second season, owners race to recruit the best college players, and steal the stars from NFL rosters.

Initially, the NFL dismissed the new league as a sideshow stunt...

By most measures, the USFL’s debut season is a success. The games post solid numbers--in both ticket sales and television ratings--offering undeniable proof that there’s an audience for professional spring football. Still, the league is hemorrhaging money. At a post-season meeting, the twelve franchise owners vote on what to do with their fumbling investments...

The NFL has faced rival leagues in the past, and routinely squashed them without breaking so much as a sweat. The NFL’s powerful commissioner, Pete Rozelle, assumes the USFL will be no different. He sees the rival league as a joke. A blip on the radar. But then the new league does something no one saw coming: it signs University of Georgia junior Herschel Walker, the biggest star in college football...

For years, David Dixon has been trying to convince the National Football League to launch an expansion team in New Orleans, but he always comes up empty-handed. Finally, after one too many letdowns, Dixon realizes his only hope for a hometown team is to start his own football league. Unlike the NFL, his league — the United States Football League — will play its games in the spring, and boast rosters full of hometown heroes from regional colleges...

The story of the rise and fall of the United States Football League, focusing on two owners: John Bassett, who wanted the league to compete in the spring; and Donald Trump, who wanted to take on the NFL and play in the fall.

1983 Week 1 - Sunday, March 6, 1983. Attendance: 38,010. TV: ABC

Rookie Trumaine Johnson caught one touchdown pass and set up a second to lead Chicago past Washington and give Coach George Allen a triumphant return to the nation's capital. Greg Landry, a veteran of 14 years with the NFL's Detroit Lions and Baltimore Colts, repeatedly found the seams in the Federal secondary, completing 19 of 26 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns. The Blitz's No...

Originally broadcast on CFL America Radio and The Sports History Network, "From the 55 Yard Line" podcast cohosts Scott and Greg put on their parachute pants and fire up the Commodore 64 as they sit down with prolific sports author Jeff Pearlman to talk about the United States Football League and stories from his book, "Football for a Buck," about the wild times of a league that left us way to soon and whose impact has gone beyond the field and with us still today, be it in the form of an...