The Jersey Jays 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 Jersey City, New Jersey. They began play in 1969 as a member of the Continental Football League, and were a

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

of the NFL's

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

. The Jays played their home games in

Newark Schools Stadium Newark Schools Stadium (originally named City Field, nicknamed "The Old Lady of Bloomfield Avenue") is the name of two stadiums that were both located on Bloomfield Avenue between Abington and Roseville Avenues in the Roseville section of Newark, ...

in 1969.

History

The Jays were the second team in the COFL to play in Newark. The

Newark Bears The Newark Bears were an American minor league professional baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They were a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and, later, the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. T ...

were a charter member of the league when it debuted in 1965 before it relocated to become the

Orlando Panthers The Orlando Panthers were a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida. Founded in 1958 as the Franklin Miners, the team spent its first four years in the Eastern Football Conference, then three further years in the Atlantic Coa ...

in 1966. The Jays were established to take the place of the

Charleston Rockets The Charleston Rockets were a professional American football team based in Charleston, West Virginia. They began play in 1964 as a member of the United Football League, and became a charter franchise in the Continental Football League The Con ...

, who left the league following the 1968 season. The Jays moved to the

Atlantic Coast Football League The Atlantic Coast Football League (ACFL) was a professional american football minor league that operated from 1962 to 1973. Until 1969, many of its franchises had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams to serve as farm clubs. The league paid ...

in the 1969-70 offseason, just before the COFL folded. That season the team also moved to nearby

Roosevelt Stadium Roosevelt Stadium was a baseball stadium at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey. It opened in April 1937 and hosted high-minor league baseball, 15 major league baseball games, plus championship boxing matches, top-name musical acts, an ...

in Jersey City. The Jays ceased operations after one year in the ACFL, and their players were distributed as part of a

dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team ceases to exist or is merged with another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in North America. ...

in May 1971.

Season-by-season

References

Continental Football League teams Atlantic Coast Football League teams Defunct American football teams in New Jersey Jersey City, New Jersey American football teams established in 1965 American football teams disestablished in 1971 1965 establishments in New Jersey 1971 disestablishments in New Jersey {{NewJersey-sport-team-stub