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The Alabama Hawks were a professional
The Alabama Hawks were a professional American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
team based in Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...
. They were members of various minor league football circuits in the 1960s: the Southern Football League (1963–64); the North American Football League (1965–66), the Professional Football League of America
The Professional Football League of America (PFLA) was an American football minor league that operated in the Midwest region of the United States from 1965 through 1967. With franchises based in the Midwest, the league played three seasons befor ...
(1967), and finally the Continental Football League during the league's last two years (1968–1969). While in the CoFL, the Hawks played in the Eastern Division of the Atlantic Conference. During the 1968 season, the team was also known as the Huntsville Hawks.
In 1967, in the PFLA's last year of operation, the Hawks won the Western Division with a 9–3 record and hosted the league's championship game at Milton Frank Stadium, losing 31–20 to the Joliet Chargers.
The Hawks served as an "unofficial" minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Falcons. On August 2, 1969, the Falcons came to Huntsville to play an exhibition game against the Hawks at Milton Frank Stadium; playing mostly rookies, Atlanta easily beat Alabama, 55–0. The contest marked the only time an NFL squad played a Continental League team. (In 1972, the New York Jets rookies would play the minor league Long Island Chiefs and in 1974, the Houston Oilers rookies would play the minor league San Antonio Toros)
The Hawks sent several notable players on to the NFL including Jeff Van Note, Chip Myers, Glen Condren, and Art Strahan, uncle of Michael Strahan
Michael T. Strahan ( ; born November 21, 1971) is an American television personality, journalist, and former professional football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Giants of the Nation ...
. Hawks running back Billy "Tootie" Hill—who set a record by scoring ten touchdowns in a single game—went on to coach high school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...
in the area and, later, the semi-pro Rocket City Titans of the Gridiron Developmental Football League
The Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL) is a low-level american football minor league based in Memphis, Tennessee, using the franchise model.
, the league has 63 teams. The GDFL plays a playoff format similar to NCAA tournament, as 16 ...
.
References
Continental Football League teams American football teams in Alabama American football in Huntsville, Alabama American football teams established in 1963 American football teams disestablished in 1969 1963 establishments in Alabama 1969 disestablishments in Alabama Professional Football League of America teams {{Alabama-sport-team-stub