The Southern California Sun 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 with ...

team based in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

that played in the

World Football League The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest th ...

in 1974 and 1975. Their records were 13-7 in 1974 and 7-5 in 1975. Their home stadium was

Anaheim Stadium Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California. Since its opening in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), and was also the home stadium to the Los Angel ...

. They were coached by former Rams great and Hall of Famer

Tom Fears Thomas Jesse Fears (December 3, 1922 – January 4, 2000) was a Mexican-American professional football player who was a split end for the Los Angeles Rams in the National Football League (NFL), playing nine seasons from 1948 to 1956. He was lat ...

and owned by trucking magnate Larry Hatfield. Former USC greats

Anthony Davis Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays the power forward and center positions. Davis is an eight-time N ...

and

Pat Haden Patrick Capper Haden (born January 23, 1953) is the former athletic director at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles from August 2010 to June 2016. He played quarterback for the USC Trojans before playing professionally in ...

played for the Sun in 1975 along with former Oakland Raiders QB

Daryle Lamonica Daryle Pasquale Lamonica (July 17, 1941 – April 21, 2022) was an American football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. He spent ...

, also known as the "Mad Bomber." The Sun won the 1974 Western Division title, but lost their playoff game against The Hawaiians when three of their best players-- Kermit Johnson, James McAlister and Booker Brown—sat out the game. The three players were owed back pay, and claimed the missed checks breached their contracts. This episode aside, the Sun were one of the WFL's better-run teams, and at least had the potential to be a viable venture had the WFL been run in a more realistic and financially sensible manner. A year later, they were leading the West when the league folded on October 22, 1975 in midseason.

Schedule and results

1974 regular season

Playoffs

1975 regular season

References

External links