The Oakland Invaders 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 with ...
team that played in the
United States Football League
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 ...
(USFL) from 1983 through 1985. Based in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, they played at the
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
Oakland Coliseum, currently branded as RingCentral Coliseum, is a stadium in Oakland, California. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. The Coliseum is the home ba ...
.
The team can trace its history to 1977 when they played in the
California Football League as the Twin Cities Cougars, and won four league championships (1979-1982). During that time, they played their home games at the
Marysville High School field.
History
In reaction to the Raiders relocating to Los Angeles
Oakland had been without a football team since the
Oakland Raiders relocated to Los Angeles before the
1982 NFL season. The Invaders stepped in to fill the void; the similar name was no accident. One of the Invaders' first player signings was former Raider and
49er Cedrick Hardman
Cedrick Ward Hardman (October 4, 1948 – March 8, 2019) was an American Football defensive end who played for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders and the United States Football League's Oakland Invaders. Hardm ...
, who came out of a one-year retirement to serve as player-coach.
The team was originally owned by Bay Area real estate magnates
Jim Joseph
Jim or JIM may refer to:
* Jim (given name), a given name
* Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James
* Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy
* OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism
* ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring
* ''Jim ...
and
Tad Taube. However, after the original owner of the USFL's Los Angeles franchise,
Alex Spanos, bought the
San Diego Chargers instead, Joseph and Taube flipped a coin to decide who would buy the Los Angeles rights. Joseph won the toss, selling his stake in the Invaders to Taube. As it turned out, Joseph was forced to move his team to
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
as the
Arizona Wranglers.
1983 season
Taube held fast to
David Dixon
David Dixon (born 28 October 1947) is an English actor and screenwriter. He was born at the Nightingale Maternity Home in Derby, near his father's shop in London Road, and brought up there before the family moved to Normanton in 1959.
Dixon's ...
's original blueprint for the USFL, heavily marketing the team in the Bay Area while keeping tight controls on spending (including player salaries).
Led by the league's 2nd ranked passer QB
Fred Besana
Fred Besana (born March 9, 1954) is a former American football player, a quarterback for the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League. He was briefly on the rosters of the Buffalo Bills and the New York Giants of the National Footbal ...
, WR
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...
, and ex-Raiders HB
Arthur Whittington
Arthur Lee Whittington (born September 4, 1955) is a former American football running back. He played for five seasons for the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills, and from 1983 to 1985 with the Oakland Invaders of the USFL.
Career
As a rooki ...
and TE
Raymond Chester
Raymond Tucker Chester (born June 28, 1948) is a former American Football tight end. After graduating from Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland, Chester played college football at the historically Black University, Morgan State. He was a ...
, the Invaders finished with 9-9 record. However, in an extremely weak Pacific Division, this was enough to garner them the division title. In the playoffs, despite a valiant effort, they were overrun by the eventual league champion
Michigan Panthers
The Michigan Panthers were a professional American football team based in the Detroit, Michigan area. The Panthers competed in the United States Football League (USFL) as a member of the Western Conference and Central Division. The team played i ...
, 37-21 in front of 60,237 rabid fans in the
Pontiac Silverdome
The Pontiac Silverdome (also known simply as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, ...
(the largest crowd for any USFL game in the 1983 season).
1983 schedule and results
Sources
1984 season
The Invaders were picked by most to again challenge for a playoff spot in 1984, but their powerful offense fell apart in the first half of the season, scoring only 82 points. The team was unable to run the ball and lost nine straight to open the season. With the emergence of RB
Eric Jordan, the Invaders′ running attack rebounded and the team won seven of its last nine games. The defense was strong throughout the season, finishing seventh in points allowed. However, attendance tumbled to 23,644 per game – nearly 8,000 fewer than in 1983.
1984 schedule and results
Sources
1985 season
As early as 1984, Taube had come to believe the USFL should move to the fall. He began looking for new investors when it became apparent that the USFL was going to vote to switch to fall play in 1986, knowing he would be competing directly with the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
. However, unlike other USFL teams who would be going head-to-head against NFL teams, Taube had reason for optimism. The Raiders had successfully built their own niche market and fan base in Oakland for two decades, and there was at least a chance the Invaders could have survived in the same manner. He nearly merged his team with the
Oklahoma Outlaws
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...
. However, talks collapsed when Outlaws owner William Tatham demanded that his son, Bill Jr., be given control over the merged team's football operations.
Taube then approached the
Michigan Panthers
The Michigan Panthers were a professional American football team based in the Detroit, Michigan area. The Panthers competed in the United States Football League (USFL) as a member of the Western Conference and Central Division. The team played i ...
, who had been one of the league's strongest teams during its first two years. Some observers reckoned them as an NFL-quality team; indeed, the Panthers had made a better account of themselves on the field than the
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...
. However, Panthers owner
A. Alfred Taubman was a strong supporter of spring football, and had no desire to directly compete with the Lions. Knowing that he would not even begin to be able to go head-to-head with the Lions even if he'd been inclined to do so, he had begun putting out feelers for a merger partner when it became clear that the move to the fall was a foregone conclusion.
Taubman and Taube and quickly reached a deal for a merger. The Invaders would be the surviving team, but Taube sold controlling interest in the merged team to Taubman while remaining chairman of the board. The merger was formally announced after the owners approved moving to the fall.
The new team, bolstered with key players from the Panthers such as
Bobby Hebert
Bobby Joseph Hebert Jr. (surname pronounced ; born August 19, 1960) is an American sportscaster and former professional football quarterback. He played in the United States Football League (USFL) and National Football League (NFL) from 1983 to ...
, went a league-best 13-4-1 in the regular season and advanced all the way to the 1985 USFL championship game. The championship game was a rematch of sorts with
Chuck Fusina
Charles Anthony Fusina (born May 31, 1957) is a former American college and professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and United States Football League (USFL) for seven seasons during the 1970s and ...
's
Stars
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...
, who now played in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
; the Panthers had upended the Stars in the league's inaugural title game. The Invaders were in the midst of a potential game-winning drive when a personal-foul penalty derailed their momentum, allowing the Stars to defeat Hebert's Invaders 28-24, and claim indisputable bragging rights as the league's all-time best team.
Despite reaching the championship game, the team's attendance fell again, to a barely sustainable 17,509. Soon after the championship game, Taubman decided to pull out. The loss of Taubman's wealth left the Invaders without nearly enough resources for the move to the fall, and they suspended operations for the 1986 season. As it turned out, the championship game was the last USFL game ever played, as the league was effectively killed by an antitrust suit against the NFL in which it only won $3 in damages.
1985 schedule and results
Sources
profootballarchives.com 1985 Oakland Invaders (USFL) Retrieved December 30, 2018
/ref>
Past and future National Football League players
*Albert Bentley
Albert Timothy Bentley (born August 15, 1960) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers. He also was a member of the Michigan Panthers and Oakland Invaders ...
*Ray Bentley
Ray Russell Bentley (born November 25, 1960) is a former professional American football linebacker, broadcaster, and author.
Biography
Playing career
Bentley's first three years in professional football were spent with the Michigan Panthers and ...
* Dave Browning
* Anthony Carter
*Raymond Chester
Raymond Tucker Chester (born June 28, 1948) is a former American Football tight end. After graduating from Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland, Chester played college football at the historically Black University, Morgan State. He was a ...
*Cedrick Hardman
Cedrick Ward Hardman (October 4, 1948 – March 8, 2019) was an American Football defensive end who played for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders and the United States Football League's Oakland Invaders. Hardm ...
* Derek Holloway
*Bobby Hebert
Bobby Joseph Hebert Jr. (surname pronounced ; born August 19, 1960) is an American sportscaster and former professional football quarterback. He played in the United States Football League (USFL) and National Football League (NFL) from 1983 to ...
*Alva Liles
Alva Edison Liles (March 6, 1956 – January 7, 1998) was an American football defensive lineman who played one season in the National Football League with the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders. He played college football at Boise State Universi ...
*Dewey McClain
Dewey Loren McClain (born April 25, 1954) is an American former professional football player, labor leader, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, McClain serves in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the 100th distri ...
*Dale Markham
Dale Markham (born July 24, 1957) is a former player in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals in 1980 and 1981 as a tackle and defensive end. He played at the collegiate level at the University of Nor ...
* Ray Pinney
* Gary Plummer
* Mike Shumann
*Angelo Snipes
Angelo Bernard Snipes (born January 11, 1963) is a former American football linebacker in the United States Football League for the Oakland Invaders, and in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins, the San Diego Chargers, and the ...
* Randy Van Divier
*Arthur Whittington
Arthur Lee Whittington (born September 4, 1955) is a former American football running back. He played for five seasons for the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills, and from 1983 to 1985 with the Oakland Invaders of the USFL.
Career
As a rooki ...
Invaders executive William Hambrecht
William R. Hambrecht (born 1935) is an American investment banker and chairman of WR Hambrecht + Co which he founded in 1998. He helped persuade Google to use an Internet-based auction for their initial public offering (IPO) in 2004, instead of a ...
later emerged as a founder of the United Football League.
Single-season leaders
Rushing Yards: 1,045 (1983), Arthur Whittington
Arthur Lee Whittington (born September 4, 1955) is a former American football running back. He played for five seasons for the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills, and from 1983 to 1985 with the Oakland Invaders of the USFL.
Career
As a rooki ...
Receiving Yards: 1,323 (1985), Anthony Carter
Passing Yards: 3,980 (1983), Fred Besana
Fred Besana (born March 9, 1954) is a former American football player, a quarterback for the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League. He was briefly on the rosters of the Buffalo Bills and the New York Giants of the National Footbal ...
Season-by-season
, -
, 1983 , , 9 , , 9 , , 0 , , 1st Pacific , , Lost Divisional (Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
)
, -
, 1984 , , 7 , , 11 , , 0 , , 4th WC Pacific , ,
, -
, 1985 , , 13 , , 4 , , 1 , , 1st WC , , Won Quarterfinal (Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater ...
)
Won Semifinal (Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
)
Lost USFL Championship (Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
)
, -
!Totals , , 31 , , 26 , , 1
, colspan="2", (including playoffs)
References
External links
USFL.info - Oakland Invaders
* https://web.archive.org/web/20050315221943/http://www.remembertheusfl.8m.com/teams/oakland.html
{{USFL
1982 establishments in California
1985 establishments in California