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Contact Ed Kozak @ Kozak Sports Research! Call me @ (773) 585-0624.Here is a story about Chicago wonderful experience with professional sports teams:
Chicago’s Graveyard of Sports Franchises
Tigers and Cats, Hornets and Vultures, Cougars and Stags, Cardinals, Condors, and Ravens, teams with Spirit and Hustle and Power, teams with bright Horizons, teams of Zephyrs and Winds. Teams that are no more.
Through the years, Chicago has been home for many franchises in many sports at the professional level, but only a handful survive today. For the majority the Windy City was not only a residence, but a final resting place as well. A small number were lucky enough to relocate to another city.
Baseball is Chicago’s oldest pro sport, and hence holds Chitown’s longest deceased clubs. Back in the late 1800’s Chicago saw four different ball clubs fail: the earliest was the Fairbanks, in the League Alliance in 1877. Others that followed in quick succession were the Browns (Unions) of the Union Association in 1884; the Maroons in the minor league Western Association in 1888; and the Pirates of the 1890 Players League. The outlaw United States League fielded a team here in 1912, named the Green Sox, but the team and the association both failed to complete the season. The Federal League posed a major challenge to the majors in the mid-1910’s, especially here in Chicago where the Whales (Chi-feds) played. Although the Whales played their last game in 1915, their legacy lives on in the park that they played in -- Weeghman Park. Now millions each year see the Cubbies play in that very same edifice, known, today, of course as Wrigley Field. Before integration of the major leagues, Chicago was host to three Negro League teams - the American Giants, Giants, and Brown Bombers. And we would be remiss if we did not list the Chicago Colleens, our 1948 franchise in the All-American Girls Professional League.
Second City has even had trouble supporting teams showcasing a sport it loves to play, softball. Failed franchises include the Storm, CNA (a team that featured many local softball legends), and, on the ladies’ side, there were the Ravens.
Professional basketball has seen a host of teams come and go, starting with the Chicago Bruins of the American Basketball League of the 1920’s. This team was owned and coached by a man looking for something to do in the winter months: George "Papa Bear" Halas of the Chicago Bears. Since then the Duffy Florals (of the Midwest Basketball Conference in the ’30s), Bruins (of the NBL), Studebakers (Studebaker Flyers), (American) Gears (of the NBL and PBLA), Stags (of the BAA and NBA), Majors, Packers, Zephyrs (the Packers’ squad renamed), Bombers (of the MPBL and NABL), and Sons have all blown into and out of town. Even the Express, in the men’s 6’ 4" or under league, the World Basketball League, did not survive. The Rockers of the Continental Basketball Association also rocked into and out of town. The latest hoops journal entry is the Skyliners of the ABA2000 league, who like many of its brethren, didn’t complete more than one full season. They moved to Las Vegas in February of 2002. On the distaff side four teams have unsuccessfully tried to make Chicago their home - the Spirit, the Hustle, the Twisters, and most recently the Condors, who expired after only a month and a half on the hardwood.
Professional football has seen quite a few teams kicked out of town. In 1920 the Chicago Tigers were the first team to get the boot. Their footnote in history - they played their home games at Wrigley Field and even hosted the Staleys, the soon-to-be Bears, in a Thanksgiving Day game that year. Also in the twenties the Bulls failed, and in the forties, the Rockets and Hornets. In 1960 the Cardinals flew out of town, and, after a stay in St. Louis, have now nested in Phoenix as the Arizona Cardinals. We cannot forget the Fire and the Winds of the 70’s, and the Blitz of the USFL, who in this author’s opinion were a most interesting and enjoyable club. Minor league pro football has seen a group of teams come and go, including the Bulls, Owls, Hornets, Panthers, and the Fire of the American Football Association, who played in 1981. Another casualty in Chicago sports annals is the Enforcers, who lasted just one season in a league that lasted just one short season, the XFL. Even indoor football, Arena Football, has flunked out once, with the Bruisers.
Even hockey has not been immune to the failed-team syndrome. The Chicago Cardinals, also known as the Americans for the last two weeks of their existence in the American Hockey Association, closed up shop in the late 1920’s, not long after a team called the Blackhawks came into being and signed a bunch of the Cards’ players. The Shamrocks were a pro hockey entry in the early thirties, and forty years after that the Cougars were a coterie in the WHA, playing at the now-torn-down International Amphitheatre. Like so many others, these had their moment in the sun, but ultimately died. The Warriors were formed in 1972, the same year as the Cougars. They were a member of the United States Hockey League, consisting of teams from the upper midwest. This team as well lasted but a few brief seasons before perishing. Besides the Blackhawks, they are the only hockey club to play their games in the venerable old Chicago Stadium. Another entry into pro ice hockey during the seventies were the Wildcats of the Continental Hockey League. The Cardinals were another Chicago franchise in that lower-budget league.
Soccer has not caught on completely in the U.S., but nonetheless Chicago has seen its fair share of teams trying to make it popular. There have been outdoor teams called the Maroons, Vikings, Mustangs, Spurs, Americans, Cats, and most memorably the Sting, who won two league titles, but could not survive. The Stingers were another outdoor club that has gone by the wayside. Indoors, there were the Horizons, Vultures, Shoccers, Sting, and the Power, who also garnered a championship.
For you tennis fans we fondly remember the Aces (in the WTT in 1974 and in Team Tennis in 1982), Fire, and Fyre racquet franchises. Major league volleyball blew out of town when the Breeze’s wind went out of its sails in the late eighties, and again early in the twenty-first century with the Thunder. We have even seen legitimate team wrestling go by the wayside when the Blaze went under. In 1969, team boxing was attempted with the Clippers representing the Windy City. Roller hockey fans had their Cheetahs for two seasons, and the Bluesmen for one, but they too joined the others’ fate.
As you can see, franchise failure is quite common on the sports scene here. Just in the past few years the Bluesmen, Enforcers, Skyliners, and Thunder have all died. Who will be next? Despite a cemetery filled with at least 75 tombstones, teams still look to form in Chicago, as, on the horizon, organizers eye our fair city with a squad in the women’s national fast-pitch softball league (already named the Bandits), and a potential franchise in the new World Hockey Association circuit.
So, beware, all you Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Wolves, Fire, Rush, Blaze, Storm, Soldiers, and Force fans out there -- who knows when any of your beloved teams may some day join Chicago’s graveyard of sports franchises!
Written by:
Ed Kozak
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