The Memphis Mad Dogs were a
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...
team that played the
1995 season in the
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 ci ...
. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to
expand the CFL into the United States. They played at
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 st ...
.
The team's principal owner was
Fred Smith, founder of
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...
.
Franchise history
Prior to the Mad Dogs, Smith fronted an ownership group (along with such entities as former
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 mo ...
owner
William Dunavant and the estate of
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
) that tried to get a
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
team into Memphis in 1993. The
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 ...
, 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
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. T ...
and
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 play ...
. Smith, after briefly considering a proposed "new league" backed by
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, 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
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...
or
Calgary Stampeders
The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...
to Smith. After those teams resolved their ownership situations, Smith's group was granted an expansion franchise for 1995. With Presley's estate no longer involved, the team eschewed "Hound Dogs" in favor of "Mad Dogs," ostensibly through a name-the-team contest.
On the field
The Mad Dogs hired
Pepper Rodgers
Franklin Cullen "Pepper" Rodgers (October 8, 1931 – May 14, 2020) was an American football player and coach. As a college football player, he led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to an undefeated season in 1952 and later became their head ...
, a Memphis native, as their first head coach. Rodgers was familiar to Memphis pro football fans as he was the head coach of one of the city's previous pro football team, the
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 mo ...
of the
USFL
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
; the Mad Dogs had also hired Steve Erhart, the Showboats' general manager, in the same capacity. Erhart had been trying since 1987 to get the CFL to expand into the United States.
[ Will Birmingham play in the North American Football League?]
via BirminghamProSports.com The team's mascot was a black
Labrador retriever named Alien, who was known for charging the field and retrieving the kicking tee following each kickoff.
The Mad Dogs tried to copy the
Baltimore Stallions
The Baltimore Stallions (known officially as the "Baltimore Football Club" and previously as the "Baltimore CFL Colts" in its inaugural season) were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, which played ...
' blueprint by getting staff and players who had previous CFL experience. As part of that blueprint, the Mad Dogs hired former CFL coach
Adam Rita
Adam Rita (born September 21, 1947) is a gridiron football coach & general manager, most notably in the Canadian Football League. He has served as the head coach of the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Rough Riders, and BC Lions and as general manage ...
to become their new offensive coordinator. Rita had coached the
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
and the
Edmonton Eskimos
The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...
to
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
championships in 1991 and 1993. The Mad Dogs then signed veteran QB
Damon Allen
Damon L. Allen (born July 29, 1963) is a former professional quarterback who played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is currently fourth in all-time professional football passing yards and second in all-time CFL passing yards after he ...
, who won the
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
with the Eskimos in 1987 and 1993 (the latter with Rita), earning Grey Cup MVP honors in both years. Other notable players on offense included
Eddie Brown (SB),
Joe Horn
Joseph Horn (born January 16, 1972) is a former American football wide receiver and current assistant coach at Northeast Mississippi Community College. He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL Draft, and also ...
(WR) and former
NFL kicker
Donald Igwebuike
Donald Amechi Igwebuike (born December 27, 1960) is a Nigerian-born former American football kicker who played professionally for the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1985 to 1989. He is the fourth place all-time scorer for t ...
.
However, the offense was only able to score a total of 346 points, last in the CFL behind the
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
. On a positive note, the Mad Dogs were known for their strong defense that was rated second, behind Edmonton, in the CFL for giving up the fewest points with 364, due in large part to the strong defensive play of
Tim Cofield and
Rodney Harding.
One of the reasons for poor offense and great defense was the size of the field. The Liberty Bowl was not as well suited to the Canadian game, as the stands were very close to the field of play, making it difficult to reconfigure the field to CFL standards. As a result, even with the addition of
AstroTurf
AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...
cutouts to widen and lengthen the field, it was still narrower and shorter than all other CFL fields, including other US fields which were not regulation. In order to shoehorn even an approximation of a Canadian field onto the playing surface, the end zones became half-grass/half-Astroturf pentagons that were only nine yards long in the middle and seven yards long at the sidelines. CFL rules call for a 20-yard end zone, and no other stadium had end zones shorter than 15 yards. The stands jutted into the corners of the end zones, creating a clear safety hazard.
Memphis ended the
1995 CFL season with a 9–9–0 regular season record, which placed them fourth in the South Division and one game out of the playoffs.
Off the field
Pepper Rodgers was known around the football world as a likable man. However, he often made uncomplimentary remarks about the Canadian Football League, which also showed signs that the CFL's foray into the United States was doomed to failure from the start.
The team drew relatively well during the first two months of the season. While the crowds were not nearly as large as those the Showboats or
Southmen had drawn, they were still comparable to those for the established CFL franchises. However, the Mad Dogs had their legs cut out from under them by quirks in the CFL schedule. The CFL traditionally plays on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays — the same days as high school and college football games in the United States - largely to avoid competing on television (both in its native country and the U.S.) with the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
. Smith knew that the Mad Dogs could not hope to draw respectable crowds if they had to go head-to-head with high school games on Fridays and
Tennessee Volunteers
The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity college athletics, intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in NCAA Division I, ...
and
Ole Miss Rebels football
The Ole Miss Rebels football program represents the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss". The Rebels compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of ...
on Saturdays. The
Birmingham Barracudas
The Birmingham Barracudas were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Barracudas were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States.
Franchise history
In the beginning
Ins ...
faced the same problem. With this in mind, Smith and Barracudas owner
Art Williams
Arthur T. Williams (September 29, 1939 – September 27, 2018), also known as Hambone Williams, was an American professional basketball player.
A 6'1" guard from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Williams played seven seasons (19 ...
persuaded the CFL to let their teams play late-season home games on Sundays. They apparently believed that attempting to compete with NFL broadcasts in markets that did not support any one NFL team in particular was the more sensible risk to take. It did not work; several late season games in Memphis drew crowds of fewer than 10,000, dropping the team's average attendance to around 14,550 by the end of the season. As early as September, Smith was blaming community indifference and outright hostility from the media for the team's steep decline at the gate.
Tim Cofield became the only Mad Dogs player to win the
James P. McCaffrey Trophy
The James P. McCaffrey Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy, awarded to the outstanding defensive player in the East Division. Each team in the East division nominates a candidate, from which the winner is chosen. Either the winner of thi ...
as the Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the South Division.
In the end
Due to massive losses and the late-season attendance collapse, the Mad Dogs folded at the December 1995 CFL meetings.
It is likely they would have been forced out of town in any event by the impending arrival of the
NFL's
Houston Oilers
The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...
, who were planning to play at the Liberty Bowl while
their new stadium in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
was being built. Sharing the Liberty Bowl with the Oilers would have caused serious logistical problems in September and October, and no other stadium in the Memphis area was suitable even for temporary use. The Stallions faced a similar situation when the
arrival
Arrival(s) or The Arrival(s) may refer to:
Film
* ''The Arrival'' (1991 film), an American science fiction horror film
* ''The Arrival'' (1996 film), an American-Mexican science fiction horror film
* ''Arrival'' (film), a 2016 American science ...
of the
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
forced them to move out of town after winning the Grey Cup.
By February 1996, the Barracudas, Texans and
Shreveport Pirates
The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, in 1994 and 1995. Despite a relatively strong fan base, they were one of the least successful of the CFL's A ...
had also folded while the Stallions had reconstituted themselves as the third incarnation of the
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...
, ending the CFL's three-year experiment south of the border.
Besides financial and attendance problems, the Mad Dogs were hobbled by the promotional efforts of the CFL itself. The league positioned itself directly against the NFL when it attempted to move south of the border. The CFL adopted the marketing slogan, "Longer, Wider, Faster" to appeal to the American football market. Rodgers had expressed frustration in the efforts to market the Mad Dogs and Canadian football to the Mid-South.
After the Mad Dogs
The city of Memphis would go on to host several more professional football franchises. The most notable was the Liberty Bowl's hosting of the NFL's Tennessee Oilers for the 1997 season. The plan was for the Oilers, who were to be based in Nashville once a new stadium was ready, to play two full seasons in Memphis because the city had the state's only stadium that was ideally sized for the NFL at the time. The largest stadium in Nashville at the time,
Vanderbilt Stadium
FirstBank Stadium (formerly Dudley Field and Vanderbilt Stadium) is a football stadium located in Nashville, Tennessee. Completed in 1922 as the first stadium in the South to be used exclusively for college football, it is the home of the Vander ...
, seated only 41,000 people and was deemed too small even for temporary use. The state's largest stadium,
Neyland Stadium
Neyland Stadium ( ), is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Footb ...
in Knoxville, seated over 102,000 people, far too large to sell out in time to avoid local blackouts. If successful, it could have set Memphis up to make another bid on the expansion franchise that was to be awarded in the wake of the
Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy - colloquially called "The Move" by fans - was caused during the 1995 NFL season by the announcement from then-Browns owner Art Modell that he intended to move the Cleveland Browns of the National Foot ...
(what eventually became the
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...
).
However, like the Mad Dogs, the Oilers proved to be an attendance disaster in Memphis. Due to Memphians' unwillingness to support a lame-duck team and Nashvillians' reluctance to travel on Interstate 40 to see "their" team play, Oilers games didn't draw much more than the Mad Dogs had drawn even on a good day and often drew more opponents' fans than Oilers fans. The Oilers backed out of the Memphis arrangement after only one season and played the 1998 season at Vanderbilt.
The
Memphis Pharaohs played two seasons in the
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
, their first concurrent with the Mad Dogs, in 1995 and 1996. In 2001, Memphis would host the
XFL
XFL may refer to:
Sports
* XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001
* XFL (2020), a professional American football league
Vehicles
* Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...
's
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 playe ...
, the
AAF
AAF may refer to:
Aviation
* Aigle Azur (ICAO code), a French airline
* Apalachicola Regional Airport (IATA code), in Apalachicola, Florida
Corporations
* American Air Filter, today a part of HVAC-equipment-maker Daikin
Military
* Albanian Arm ...
's
Memphis Express
The Memphis Express was a professional American football franchise based in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a member of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) during its single season in 2019. They played their home games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stad ...
and the
AF2
The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...
's
Memphis Xplorers
The Memphis Xplorers were a professional arena football team. They were a 2001 expansion member of the af2. They played their home games at DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi (a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee). The team's logo featu ...
. The Xplorers would last for six seasons. Memphis would also have success in other professional sports, landing another Canadian export with the relocation of the
Vancouver Grizzlies
The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along w ...
in 2001, which became the
Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...
that have been playing there ever since.
Seasons
Players of note
*
Gary Anderson, running back
*
Derrick Atterberry, cornerback
*
Eddie Brown
*
Bobby Dawson, defensive back
*
Alex Gordon
Alexander Jonathan Gordon (born February 10, 1984) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played his entire career for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2007 to 2020. Prior to playing professio ...
, linebacker
*
Joe Horn
Joseph Horn (born January 16, 1972) is a former American football wide receiver and current assistant coach at Northeast Mississippi Community College. He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL Draft, and also ...
, wide receiver
*
Donald Igwebuike
Donald Amechi Igwebuike (born December 27, 1960) is a Nigerian-born former American football kicker who played professionally for the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1985 to 1989. He is the fourth place all-time scorer for t ...
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...
rs
*
Damon Allen
Damon L. Allen (born July 29, 1963) is a former professional quarterback who played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is currently fourth in all-time professional football passing yards and second in all-time CFL passing yards after he ...
, quarterback
*
Greg Battle
Greg Battle (born April 14, 1964) is a former Canadian Football League linebacker for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
He graduated from Arizona State University. He had a tryout with the Denver Broncos of the NFL but turned north to Canada in 1987.
...
, linebacker
*
Rodney Harding, defensive tackle
See also
*
CFL USA all-time records and statistics
This list combines the statistics and records of the seven CFL American teams from 1993 to 1995: Baltimore Stallions, Birmingham Barracudas, Las Vegas Posse, Memphis Mad Dogs, Sacramento Gold Miners, San Antonio Texans, and the Shreveport Pirates. ...
*
Comparison of Canadian and American football
American and Canadian football are gridiron codes of football that are very similar; both have their origins in rugby football, but some key differences exist between the two codes.
History
Rugby football was introduced to North America in C ...
*
1995 CFL season
References
External links
Memphis Mad Dogs team profile including game results
{{CFL USA
American football teams established in 1995
American football teams disestablished in 1995
Defunct Canadian Football League teams
Defunct American football teams in Tennessee
American football teams in Memphis, Tennessee
Defunct Canadian football teams in the United States
1995 establishments in Tennessee
1995 disestablishments in Tennessee