History
The Pirates were created when Bernard Glieberman and his son Lonnie, owners of the Ottawa Rough Riders, expressed a desire to move the struggling franchise to the United States.Back in town againFan support
Despite their dreadful on-field record and the Gliebermans' mismanagement, the Pirates had a very loyal following. Shreveport was by far the smallest U.S. market to host a CFL team, and second smallest in the entire league after Regina, Saskatchewan. Also, the Shreveport market had four major college teams with large fan bases in the region–LSU Tigers football, LSU, Texas Longhorns football, Texas, Texas A&M Aggies football, Texas A&M, and Arkansas Razorbacks football, Arkansas. On paper, this should have resulted in attendance severely dropping off once college football started, as was the case with the CFL's other Southern teams, the Memphis Mad Dogs and Birmingham Barracudas. However, Shreveport was far enough away from the campuses of LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, and Arkansas that high school football was the Pirates' biggest local sports competition in the second half of the season. As such, despite winning only eight games in their history, the Pirates' attendance remained roughly comparable with the established Canadian teams throughout their run.Demise
The problems continued off the field as the Gliebermans tried to relocate the team to Norfolk, Virginia. However, officials there broke off talks after learning that Glieberman faced several lawsuits in Shreveport. Notable about the move to Virginia was "the Great Tucker Caper" when the City of Shreveport tried to seize Bernard Glieberman's 1948 Tucker Torpedo, Tucker (which was on loan to a classic automobile museum in downtown Shreveport) for defaulting on debts related to the Pirates' lease at Independence Stadium, including payments for the scoreboard. Glieberman's lawyer, Mark Gilliam, tried to escape with the car and hide the vintage auto, but he ran out of gas along the way. The police spotted him, and took the car back to the museum where it was being stored until the case could be settled. Norfolk was not interested in the team in any event due to the Gliebermans' poor business record. By the end of 1995, anticipating that the Pirates would not continue beyond that season, a group of investors dubbing itself the "Ark-La-Tex Football Association" proposed purchasing the Barracudas and moving them to Shreveport. The Barracudas had compiled a winning record and made the playoffs, winning two more games than the Pirates had won in their entire existence. However, owner Arthur L. Williams Jr., Art Williams had already decided not to bring the team back to Alabama once it became clear the Barracudas could not successfully compete with the state's well-established college football programs for an audience late in the season.Cudas Apparently Through in Birmingham. Gadsden Times, Associated Press, November 7, 1995, accessed 29 January 2014 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19951107&id=KrwfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FNgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4898,678628 The Ark-La-Tex Football association bought the 'Cudas from Williams for a significant discount, provided that the league approve the sale. The sale would have brought the team closer to the San Antonio Texans and what would have been the Baltimore Stallions, Houston Stallions (as Baltimore had proposed moving to Houston after the season) and created a three-team nucleus that would have made the CFL's long-term presence in the U.S. viable. It would have also matched a team that made a good account of itself on the field with a market that was at least potentially capable of supporting it at the box office. Instead, on February 2, 1996, the CFL euthanized four of its American franchises and allowed the owners of the fifth, the Stallions, to resurrect the Montreal Alouettes, ending the CFL's experiment south of the border.Aftermath
The Gliebermans eventually re-emerged in the CFL owning the Ottawa Renegades. Like their previous efforts, the Renegades were a failure. Some notable players include former New Orleans Saints running back Gill Fenerty and defensive end Dexter Manley. Kicker Björn Nittmo was also a fan favorite, both for making some very long field goals and for being friendly to the fans, often attending meetings of their booster club. Jon Heidenreich played two seasons with the club, and later became popular as a wrestler (WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship). Curiously, two players, Joe Montford and Elfrid Payton (Canadian football), Elfrid Payton, later went on to fame as winners of the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award (added to this pair is Greg Stumon, who was a former winner of the same award). Uzooma Okeke went on to become one of the best linemen in the history of the Montreal Alouettes and won the 1999 CFL Most Outstanding Lineman award. He became a scout with the Alouettes in 2007. The Pirates booster club was formed during the team's first season to support the team, and remained active long after the team became defunct, spearheading various later attempts to get another professional football team in the Shreveport area.Seasons
See also
*CFL USA all-time records and statistics *Comparison of Canadian and American football *1994 CFL season *1995 CFL seasonReferences
External links