The Charlotte Hornets were an
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 in the short-lived professional
World Football League. Despite their brief existence, the Hornets were North Carolina's first attempt at a major league football team, predating 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. ...
by two decades. They were relocated to
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
, from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in the middle of the 1974 season.
History
Origins in Boston
The Charlotte Hornets franchise began in 1973 in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
as the Boston Bulldogs, which was also the name of the relocated
Pottsville Maroons, Boston's first professional football franchise. The name was shortened in October to Bulls. They were owned by
Howard Baldwin
Howard Lapsley Baldwin[Rose Weld Baldwin obituary](_blank)
ccgfuneralhome.com; acce ...
, president and minority owner of the
New England Whalers
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
of the
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...
. Unlike most other WFL owners, he didn't have to pay a franchise fee because of his close ties to WFL founder and Commissioner Gary Davidson. He hired
Vito "Babe" Parilli, who had been a backup to
New York Jets quarterback
Joe Namath in
Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III was an American football game played on January 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was the third AFL–NFL Championship Game in professional American football, and the first to officially bear the trademark name "Su ...
, as head coach.
Baldwin was unable to find more investors, or even a suitable place to play. Realizing that he had no hope of putting together a viable product in Boston, Baldwin opted to merge with the WFL's as-yet-unnamed New York franchise on January 26, 1974. That team was owned by Whalers and
Boston Celtics majority owner
Bob Schmertz and three of his New York-based limited business partners; Henry Fujawski, John Lander and Steven Cohen who together made up the core of the Stars ownership and like Baldwin hadn't had to pay a franchise fee. The two teams had already worked together very closely in the draft. The merged team took the name New York Stars.
New York Stars
Finding a home field for the fledgling team in New York also proved difficult, partly due to bad timing.
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...
was closed for renovations right after the
Yankees finished the 1973 season in October; it would not reopen until 1976.
Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. was fully booked as the Yankees shared the park with the
Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
as well as the
NFL's
Jets and
Giants
A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore.
Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to:
Mythology and religion
*Giants (Greek mythology)
*Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
. (
Giants Stadium, future home of both New York football teams, wouldn't open its doors until 1976.) The Stars had only two other options in the city proper:
Downing Stadium, a 22,000-seat facility built during the Depression as a WPA Project on
Randall's Island near the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...
, or
Baker Field, the 32,000-seat wooden stadium that served as the home of Columbia University's teams. Unable to come to terms with Columbia, Downing Stadium was ultimately chosen. The legendary
Bob Sheppard, longtime voice of the
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...
, handled public address duties for the Stars.
Parilli signed a number of former
Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III was an American football game played on January 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was the third AFL–NFL Championship Game in professional American football, and the first to officially bear the trademark name "Su ...
Jets including wide receiver
George Sauer
George Henry Sauer Sr. (December 11, 1910 – February 5, 1994) was an American football player, coach, college sports administrator, and professional football executive.
Career
Sauer attended the University of Nebraska where he was an All-Amer ...
, who was coming out of retirement after three years, and former All-Pro defensive men
Gerry Philbin, as well as
John Elliott.
The WFL needed New York in order to have a presence in the largest U.S. media market. The Stars sold between 5,500 and 8,000 season tickets. After losing 14-7 at
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
in front of a league high crowd of 59,112 at the
Gator Bowl, the Stars' first home game against the
Birmingham Americans
The Birmingham Americans were a professional American football team located in Birmingham, Alabama. They were members of the four-team Central Division of the World Football League (WFL). The Americans, founded in late December 1973, played in th ...
attracted 17,943 New Yorkers. After leading 29-3 at halftime, the Stars were toppled by the efforts of Americans quarterback
George Mira, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another as Birmingham pulled out a 32-29 comeback win. The Stars achieved their first win as kicker Moses Lajterman kicked the winning field goal for a 17-15 win at
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. The Stars and Bell performed in front of the largest-ever WFL crowd, with 64,179 on hand; it later came out that most of the tickets were sold at large discounts or were given away free, to make the league appear more successful than it was.
New York then went on a tear, winning five in a row. Among the victims were the
Jacksonville Sharks
The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional indoor football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, playing their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Beginning in 2017, the Sharks began play as charter members of the National Arena Leag ...
,
Southern California Sun,
Portland Storm
The Portland Thunder (originally Portland Storm) was an American football team in the World Football League based out of Portland, Oregon. When the World Football League was created in October 1973, the Storm was the original New York franchise. ...
, and
Houston Texans. Coincidentally, the team's winning streak was stopped by those same Texans a week later, with a surprise addition to the Houston roster:
John Matuszak
John Daniel Matuszak (October 25, 1950 – June 17, 1989) was an American football defensive end in the National Football League who later became an actor.
Matuszak was the first overall pick in the 1973 NFL Draft and played most of his career ...
, who had been AWOL from 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 a ...
just 48 hours earlier. The Stars had mixed results in the next few weeks, beating Portland again, but losing to
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
in the rain and
The Hawaiians in the sun. To improve the roster, New York picked up several NFL players from the waiver wire, including cornerback
John Dockery (who played with Parilli for the Jets) and
Don Highsmith, a running back released by Oakland who turned out to be a great addition to the Stars running attack. The Stars performed better on the field and were a nice alternative to the more expensive, yet losing, Giants and Jets.
For all their on-field success, the Stars were dragged down by serious off-field financial problems. Like most WFL teams, they were badly under-capitalized. Their fiscal structure began to founder when Schmertz's construction company ran into trouble. He was also involved in a nasty divorce, as well as a legal dispute over his ownership of the Celtics.
The Stars' biggest problem was Downing Stadium. Located on an island in the East River and accessible primarily on foot, it was nearly inaccessible from most parts of the city, and it had not been well maintained in at least 20 years. (Indeed, it had hosted little football in that time, most notably a partial season of the old
Continental Football League.) Schmertz pumped over $200,000 into renovations, but it wasn’t enough to bring it to anything even approaching professional standards. The field was mostly sand and dirt, and amenities for fans, players and the press were virtually nonexistent. The toilets in the locker room frequently overflowed. During the home opener, the Stars' radio announcers
John Sterling and
Matt Snell
Matthews Snell (born August 18, 1941) is a retired professional football player who played for the New York Jets. He was Jets' owner Sonny Werblin's first coup, prior to his 1965 acquisition of Joe Namath. A powerful fullback out of Ohio Stat ...
had to sit on orange crates because there were no chairs in the press box; their Birmingham counterparts had to stand. Lighting was provided by four-decade-old light towers from
Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five pro ...
that were not nearly strong enough to completely illuminate the field. The lights were so dim that WFL's national television broadcaster,
TVS, pronounced them unfit for broadcast and refused to air any games from the stadium.
It soon became obvious that Schmertz and Baldwin were in no position to finish the season. With the Stars over a million dollars in debt and a stadium that was inadequate even for temporary use, the WFL resigned itself to abandoning the nation's biggest market.
September 24, 1974 was their final game at New York, against the
Detroit Wheels
The Detroit Wheels were an American football team, a charter member of the defunct World Football League.
Founding
Soon after Gary Davidson announced the WFL's formation in October 1973, he was approached by a man named Bud Hucul about putting ...
(the game was moved from Wednesday because of
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...
). Coincidentally, that same day, the Wheels' 33 owners filed for bankruptcy, leading reporters to call the game the "Bankrupt Bowl." The Stars blew out the destitute Wheels, 37-7. (The game was originally scheduled to be carried nationally by TVS, but the network begged off as both teams were near extinction, to say nothing of the poor lighting at Downing.)
Charlotte Stars/Hornets
While they were packing up for the next night's game against the
Chicago Fire, Parilli announced the team was moving to Charlotte for the rest of the season as the Charlotte Stars. Part-owner Bob Keating told reporters that Downing Stadium’s poor attendance and substandard playing conditions made it impossible for the team to go on in New York.
The league had found a buyer in
Upton Bell
Upton P. Bell (born 1937) is an American former National Football League (NFL) executive, talk show host, and sports commentator. He is the son of former NFL commissioner Bert Bell and Broadway theatre actress Frances Upton.
Football executive B ...
, the son and heir of former NFL commissioner
Bert Bell and himself a former executive with the
New England Patriots, after Charlotte mayor
John M. Belk
John Montgomery Belk (March 29, 1920 – August 17, 2007) was head of the Belk, Inc. department store chain and member of the Democratic Party, he served as the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina for four terms (1969–1977). He was the son of ...
helped engineer a deal that made the move feasible. Forced to find a new logo literally at the last minute, the equipment man simply stuck the
Chicago Bears' "C" logo over the old New York logo. Despite everything, the Stars—renamed the Hornets a few days later—put out the Fire, 41-30. Shortly after they arrived in Charlotte, however, their uniforms were impounded due to an unpaid laundry bill from New York; the Hornets had to practice in shorts and T-shirts until Bell posted a bond for the equipment. The team's first home game at Charlotte (the city's first-ever "big league" franchise) was a rousing success, selling out all 25,133 tickets at
American Legion Memorial Stadium
American Legion Memorial Stadium is a 10,500-seat stadium located on 7th Street in the Elizabeth community of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is located on a complex with the Grady Cole Center. Both are located next to Central Piedmont Community C ...
, leaving some 5,000 out of luck. The visiting
Memphis Southmen ruined their debut, winning 27-23. In four games at Charlotte, the Hornets sold over 80,000 tickets compared to just 75,000 in seven games at Downing Stadium.
Toward the end of the season, the Hornets struggled on the field, losing their last four games. Off the field, things were not much better, as Bell was still scrambling to get more financing; a public offering hadn't attracted any investors. After their penultimate game, a federal judge ordered the seizure of most of the team's equipment (again) to compensate creditors back in New York.
Despite their late-season slump, the Hornets finished second in the Eastern Division behind the
Florida Blazers, earning them a playoff spot and a date against the Blazers in Orlando. Unfortunately, by November 16, six days before the game, Florida had only sold 1,000 advance tickets (the final attendance was reported as 9,712), leading to concerns that the Hornets' cut of the gate would not even begin to meet their travel expenses. The players would have been lucky to get $100 for the game, nowhere near enough to justify the trip. League executive committee chairman and
Memphis Southmen owner
John F. Bassett called Bell and told him that the game was off. Bell had little choice but to agree. The players hadn't been paid since the third week of October, and he still hadn't been able to attract enough financing to field a team for 1975. Additionally, he was still paying Schmertz for buying the team. The
Philadelphia Bell, who finished one game behind the Hornets (and with a losing record) but had somewhat more robust finances, replaced the Hornets as the second Eastern qualifier.
The Hornets returned for the
1975 campaign. Meanwhile, the reconstituted
Chicago Winds
The Chicago Winds was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was so named because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City." The Winds played at Soldier Field and the team was assigned to the WFL's Weste ...
franchise looked to sign quarterback
Joe Namath, offering him a multi-million dollar contract to jump leagues. (Part of the deal called for Namath's eventual ownership of a WFL franchise in New York, which apparently would have involved moving the Hornets back to the Big Apple, perhaps playing in the refurbished
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...
.) But when Namath said no, league television partner
TVS tore up its contract. The Hornets, like the rest of the league, felt the loss of TV coverage and revenue very hard. Despite fielding a competitive team (winning four in a row at one point), the Hornets didn't come close to selling out any of their contests in '75, drawing 43,761 fans for their four home games, less than half of capacity. Finally, the WFL ceased operations in mid-season, and the Hornets finished with a 6-5 record.
Schedule and results
1974 regular season
Source:
:† first game after announcing move to Charlotte
:‡ first home game in Charlotte
1975 regular season
Source:
See also
*
1974 World Football League season
*
1975 World Football League season The 1975 World Football League season was the second and last season of the World Football League. The 1975 season was to be an 18-game season over a twenty-week schedule.
The WFL returned with a massive overhaul under new commissioner, Christoph ...
References
External links
New York Stars on FunWhileItLasted.net*http://www.charlottehornetswfl.com/
*http://wfl.charlottehornetswfl.com/team_pages_1974/09.php
1974 New York Stars / Charlotte Hornets stats & results at ultimate70s.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlotte Hornets (Wfl)
Defunct American football teams
American football teams in Boston
American football teams in New York City
Hornets
American football teams in North Carolina
Boston Bulls
New York Stars
Charlotte Stars