Been feeling very nostalgic lately and two events on Sunday have really fueled my retrospective fire. the first was a documentary about the USFL and the second was the Eagles/Bears game on Sunday Night Football.
When the USFL in 1983, I was in my formative years and hoovering everything sports related. ESPN has just come into existence and I was a hard core junkie. In the early years, which I'll get to eventually, ESPN was bereft or mainstream programming and the USFL might have been the first "major" sporting events that the network covered.
The games were exciting. The teams had stars. They signed three Heisman Trophy winners in a row: Herschel Walker from Georgia, Mike Rozier from Nebraska and Doug Flutie from Boston College. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Jim Kelly played for the Outlaws. Steve Young signed a 40 million dollar contract to play for the LA Express. There was Reggie White, Doug Williams, Anthony Carter, Rick Neuheisel, Billy Sims and many, many more great players that eventually went on to play in the NFL. Jim Mora coached the Stars, Marv Levy the Blitz and Stever Spurrier the Bandits. Walt Michaels coached the Generals. Lee Corso coached the Renegades. Even George Allen coached two teams.
The league came crashing down when the league tried to move games from the Spring to the Fall to go up against the NFL. There was an antitrust lawsuit brought by the USFL against the NFL, which the league but was only awarded 3 dollars in damages, after which the league folded.
The fascinating history of the USFL is revisited in ESPN's documentary, Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?. The answer, according to the film is Donald Trump, the owner of the Generals. While his ego and blind ambition helped drive the league into the ground, he was only part of the problem that included major financial problems. After only three years, the league was snuffed out and what was a great experience for many fans came to a grinding halt.
Back in those halcyon days of ESPN when it was desperate for programming and showing things like rodeo, Formula One, Davis Cup Tennis and fast pitch softball. In amongst the mix was Australian Rules Football.
As a devotee of all things sports, I was immediately fascinated with Aussie Rules. The pace, the action, and the very foreignness of the game was a real attraction. In the early 80s when the games were being shown here, there were two teams at the top of the ladder, Hawthorne and Essendon. Knowing absolutely nothing about these places (they are suburbs of Melbourne, I chose Essendon as my team, I guess I liked their uniforms.
Cut to ten years later and I'm leaving in Melbourne doing a year abroad at Melbourne University— a lucky accident since I wanted to be in Sydney. I could walk to three of the major stadiums: Princes Park, home the Carlton Blues, Victoria Park, home to the Collingwood Magpies and the Melbourne Cricket Ground, home to a myriad of teams including my Essendon Bombers (Carn the Bombers!).
I went to games just about every weekend. Tickets were cheap, about 3 bucks for a student. The atmosphere was electric. The games were incredible. Really, truly incredible. There's really nothing like sitting in the stands at the MCG on a sunny afternoon with a Victoria Bitter in one hand and a Four'N Twenty in the other watching two teams battle it out on the massive pitch.
That year, 1993 was a great one for Essendon. After starting with 2 loses and a draw, the finished on 16-5 tear and made it to the the AFL Grand Final, which was between my team Essendon and Carlton, where I lived. I couldn't have asked for more, especially when Essendon won, 133-89.
That year, I saw Collingwood play several times, including a memorable visit to their very intimate Victoria Park. This park was extremely provincial. There were no seats in the general seating section so we stood the whole game which only added to the crazy atmosphere.
Collingwood had a pretty stellar full forward by the name of Saveiro Rocca. In 1993, he kicked 73 goals, which put him 6th among the top scorers that year. The reason I mention Sav is that he is now the punter for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Seeing Sav Rocco kick for the Eagles takes me back to the days of walking to the massive MCG to take in a game with my friends. Live sports has never been as accessible or interesting and probably never will be.
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