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Memphis Showboats
The Memphis Showboats were an American football franchise in the United States Football League. They entered the league in its expansion in 1984 and made the 1985 playoffs, losing in the semifinal round to the Oakland Invaders. Perhaps the most prominent players on the Showboats' roster during their two seasons of existence were future Pro Football Hall of Fame member Reggie White and future professional wrestler The Total Package Lex Luger. History Memphis food manufacturer Logan Young was awarded an expansion franchise for Memphis on July 17, 1983. However, soon after hiring Memphis native and former college coach Pepper Rodgers as head coach and signing a lease to play in the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, he discovered that most of his assets were tied up in a trust fund that he couldn't access. Ultimately, he was forced to take on limited partners, then sell controlling interest to cotton magnate William Dunavant, remaining as team president. Despite White's play, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (originally named Memphis Memorial Stadium, and later Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium) is a football stadium located at the former Mid-South Fairgrounds in the Midtown area of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The stadium is the site of the annual Liberty Bowl, the annual Southern Heritage Classic, and is the home field of the University of Memphis Tigers football team of the American Athletic Conference. It has also been the host of several attempts at professional sports in the city, as well as other local football games and other gatherings. History The stadium was originally built as Memphis Memorial Stadium in 1965 for $3 million, as a part of the Mid-South Fairgrounds, then home to one of the South's most popular fairs, but now conducted in neighboring DeSoto County, Mississippi. The fairgrounds also included the now-defunct Mid-South Coliseum (formerly the city's major indoor venue) as well as the now-closed Libertyland amusement p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ESPN On ABC
ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports from 1961 to 2006) is the branding used for sports event and documentary programming televised by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. Officially, the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, in 2006, ABC's sports division was merged into ESPN Inc., which is the parent subsidiary of the cable sports network ESPN that is majority owned by ABC's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with Hearst Communications. ABC broadcasts use ESPN's production and announcing staff, and incorporate elements such as ESPN-branded on-screen graphics, ''SportsCenter'' in-game updates, and the BottomLine ticker. The ABC logo is still used for identification purposes such as a digital on-screen graphic during sports broadcasts on the network, and in promotions to disambiguate events airing the broadcast network from those shown on the ESPN cable channel. The broadcast network's sports event cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spongebob Season 2
The second season of the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', created by Stephen Hillenburg, aired on Nickelodeon from October 20, 2000, to July 26, 2003, and consists of 20 half-hour episodes. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg, who also acted as the showrunner. During the season's run, ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' became Nickelodeon's 2 children's program, behind ''Rugrats''. Nearly 40 percent of ''SpongeBob''s audience of 2.2 million were aged 18 to 34. The show signed a marketing deal with Target Corporation and Burger King, expanding its merchandising, and SpongeBob's popularity translated well into sales figures. In 2002, the show was nominated at the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Program. Tom Kenny and Mary Jo Catlett were individually nominated at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character and his aquatic friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The fifth-longest-running American animated series, its high popularity has made it a media franchise. It is the highest rated Nickelodeon series and the most profitable property for Paramount Consumer Products, generating over $13 billion in merchandising revenue as of 2019. Many of the series's ideas originated in ''The Intertidal Zone'', an unpublished educational comic book Hillenburg created in 1989 to teach his students about undersea life. He began developing ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' into a television series in 1996, and in 1997, a seven-minute pilot was pitched to Nickelodeon. The network's executives wanted SpongeBob to be a child in school, but Hillenb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XFL (2001)
The XFL was a professional American football league that played its only season in 2001. The XFL was operated as a joint venture between the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and NBC. The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended, to take advantage of the perceived lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons conclude. It was promoted as having fewer rules to encourage rougher play than other major leagues, while its telecasts featured sports entertainment elements inspired by professional wrestling (and in particular, the WWF's then-current " Attitude Era"), including heat and kayfabe, and suggestively-dressed cheerleaders. Commentary crews also featured WWF commentators (such as Jesse Ventura, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler) joined by sportscasters and veteran football players. Despite the wrestling influence, the games and their outcomes were L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis Maniax
The Memphis Maniax were an American football team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The team was part of the XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. Home games were played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. History The team's name and logo were designed to lead the team's fans into calling the team "The Ax", a shortened form of the word "maniacs". The Maniax Director of Player Personnel was Steve Ortmayer, who had become respected in the pro football world for helping to build the Super Bowl XVIII-champion Los Angeles Raiders. Steve Ehrhart, who had managed both the Memphis Showboats and Memphis Mad Dogs, returned as general manager for the Maniax. The head coach was Kippy Brown. At slightly over 20,000 fans per game, the Maniax were in the lower half of league average attendance; this figure was higher than the Mad Dogs had drawn, and comparable to that of the NFL's Tennessee Oilers during their lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis Mad Dogs
The Memphis Mad Dogs were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States. They played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The team's principal owner was Fred Smith, founder of FedEx. Franchise history Prior to the Mad Dogs, Smith fronted an ownership group (along with such entities as former Memphis Showboats owner William Dunavant and the estate of Elvis Presley) that tried to get a National Football League team into Memphis in 1993. The Memphis Hound Dogs, as the proposed team was to be called, was one of five teams to be considered, but was passed over in favor of the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. Smith, after briefly considering a proposed "new league" backed by CBS, then turned to the CFL. The league was very impressed with Smith; his group was the richest in CFL history at the time. It seriously considered selling either the Hamilt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team plays its home games at TIAA Bank Field. Founded alongside the Carolina Panthers in 1995 as an expansion team, the Jaguars competed in the AFC Central until they were moved to the AFC South in 2002. The franchise is owned by Shahid Khan, who bought the team from its original majority owner Wayne Weaver in 2012. The Jaguars saw early success, making the playoffs in each of their second through fifth seasons, a four-year span in which they won two division titles and appeared in two AFC Championship Games. They are the youngest NFL expansion team to appear in a conference championship (by their second season in 1996, along with the Panthers) and clinch their conference's top seed (by their fifth season in 1999). The Jaguars have been l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The team is headquartered in Bank of America Stadium in Uptown Charlotte; the stadium also serves as the team's home field. The Panthers are supported throughout the Carolinas; although the team has played its home games in Charlotte since 1996, they played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina during its first season. The team hosts its annual training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Along with the New England Patriots, it is one of only two teams representing multiple states. The Panthers were announced as the league's 29th franchise in 1993 and began playing in 1995 under the original owner and founder Jerry Richardson. The Panthers played well in their first two years, finishin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis Hound Dogs
The Memphis Hound Dogs were a proposed NFL team in the early-1990s. Former Memphis Showboats owner William Dunavant, Paul Tudor Jones, Fred Smith and Elvis Presley Enterprises were the members of the potential ownership group. In 1993, the NFL invited potential owners from five finalists to make a presentation, after which two teams would be selected as expansion teams. Along with representatives from the Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Cougars, Baltimore Bombers and St. Louis Stallions, the potential franchise owners gave a presentation to NFL owners in hopes of attracting an NFL team. Carolina (later renamed the Panthers) and Jacksonville were chosen to become expansion teams and started in 1995. After the NFL bid failed, Smith continued his desire to form a football team and contacted the Canadian Football League, then expanding into the United States, who gave him an expansion franchise that would be known as the similarly named Memphis Mad Dogs (the name change is presu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a city in Canada. They are divided into two divisions: four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and five teams in the West Division (CFL), West Division. As of 2022, it features a 21-week season (sport), regular season in which each team plays 18 games with three bye (sports), bye weeks. This season traditionally runs from mid-June to early November. Following the regular season, six teams compete in the league's three-week #Playoffs, playoffs, which culminate in the Grey Cup championship game in late November. The Grey Cup is one of Canada's largest annual sports and television events. The CFL was officially named on January 19, 1958, upon the merger between the East Division (CFL), Interprovincial Rugby Football Union or "Big Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Finley
Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918 – February 19, 1996), nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, moving it to Oakland in 1968. He is also known as a short-lived owner of the National Hockey League's California Golden Seals and the American Basketball Association's Memphis Tams. Early life Finley was born in Ensley, Birmingham, Alabama, attended Ensley High School but was further raised in Gary, Indiana, and later lived in La Porte, east of Chicago. In 1946, he suffered a bout of tuberculosis that nearly killed him, until his wife's obstetrician, H. Close Hesseltine, convinced him that he could beat it, if he put his mind to it and he successfully did. Finley made his fortune in the insurance business, being among the first to write group medical insurance policies for those in the medical profession. Finley showed a pencha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
