A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
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| Sport | American football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1965 |
| Ceased | 1969 |
| No. of teams | 22 |
| Countries | United States Canada Mexico |
| Last champion(s) | Indianapolis Capitols |
| Most titles | Orlando Panthers (2) |
| Related competitions | United Football League, North Pacific Football League, Professional Football League of America, Texas Football League, Trans-American Football League |
The Continental Football League (COFL) was a professional American football minor league that operated in North America from 1965 through 1969. It was established following the collapse of the original United Football League, and hoped to become the major force in professional football outside the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It owed its name, at least in part, to the Continental League, a proposed third Major League Baseball organization that influenced MLB significantly, although they never played a game.
Four Continental Football League contributors are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the most of any league not considered a major league: coach Bill Walsh, quarterback Ken Stabler, Doak Walker and Steve Van Buren (the last two of whom were inducted as players but were coaches in this league). Sam Wyche, Bob Kuechenberg, Garo Yepremian and Otis Sistrunk were among the other players and coaches who would later gain fame in the NFL, while a few others, such as Don Jonas and Tom Wilkinson, would emerge as stars in the Canadian Football League.
History
1965 season
The formation of the Continental Football League (COFL) was announced on February 6, 1965. The league was primarily formed by minor-league teams that had played in the United Football League and Atlantic Coast Football League.[1]
A. B. "Happy" Chandler, former Kentucky governor, U.S. senator, and retired Major League Baseball commissioner, was named COFL commissioner on March 17, 1965.[2]
The league originally adopted a "professional" appearance. Teams were sorted into two divisions and each team had a 36-man roster with a five-man "taxi" squad. The rules were primarily those of the NFL except that a "sudden death" overtime period was employed to break ties, which was not part of the NFL during the regular season at that time.
To reinforce an image of league autonomy, teams were restricted from loaning players to, or receiving optioned players from, the NFL or AFL.
The first COFL season opened with three games played on August 14, 1965. Before the season began, the Springfield, Massachusetts, franchise moved to Norfolk, Virginia. The Norfolk club went on to become the most successful team in the league at the box office and held several minor league attendance records throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
1966 season
Eastern Division
Western Division
In 1966, the league began abandoning the "league autonomy" posture by striving to establish working relationships with NFL and AFL clubs. Commissioner Chandler, charging that the league was altering the terms under which he had accepted the position, resigned on January 20, 1966. He was replaced by COFL Secretary Sol Rosen, owner of the Newark Bears. Rosen sold the Bears to Tom Granatell, who promptly moved the team to Orlando.
The league engaged in some unsuccessful preseason negotiations with the Empire Sports Network to obtain a television broadcasting agreement. However, it was able to get ABC to broadcast the championship game on the Wide World of Sports; ABC paid the league $500 for the rights to the game.[3]
The Brooklyn Dodgers, although under the general managership of baseball Dodgers player Jackie Robinson,[4] failed to attract at the gate. Part of the problem was that they were playing nowhere near Brooklyn: their home games were at Downing Stadium on Randall's Island.
Evidently, the Dodgers had trouble securing home dates at Downing; a season-ticket application showed only five home games[5] in a fourteen-game schedule. In any event, small crowds (only 29,500 combined for four games, including 12,000 for an exhibition contest) caused the franchise to become a league-operated "road club" in October; one home game against Hartford was moved to Connecticut, and their final "home" contest was shifted to Memorial Stadium in Mount Vernon, New York.[6]
Charleston's Coy Bacon, 1966 COFL All-Star end, went on to play for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins.
The league also established farm team relationships with semi-pro clubs (for instance, the Dodgers affiliated with the Liberty Football Conference's Long Island Jets in 1966).[7]
x = Division Champion
y = Clinched playoff berth
| Eastern Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| xy-Toronto Rifles | 9 | 5 | 0 | .643 | 344 | 280 | |||||
| y-Philadelphia Bulldogs | 9 | 5 | 0 | .643 | 410 | 355 | |||||
| Norfolk Neptunes | 8 | 6 | 0 | .571 | 297 | 294 | |||||
| Hartford Charter Oaks | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | 293 | 353 | |||||
| Brooklyn Dodgers | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 296 | 359 | |||||
| Western Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | |||||
| xy-Orlando Panthers | 12 | 2 | 0 | .857 | 485 | 227 | |||||
| y-Charleston Rockets | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 357 | 267 | |||||
| Montreal Beavers | 7 | 7 | 0 | .500 | 317 | 331 | |||||
| Richmond Rebels | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 229 | 367 | |||||
| Wheeling Ironmen | 0 | 14 | 0 | .000 | 205 | 400 | |||||
Home team in CAPITALS
Semifinals
- Philadelphia 31, TORONTO 14
- ORLANDO 31, Charleston 24
League Championship (December 4, 1966)
- PHILADELPHIA 20, Orlando 17 (OT)
1967 season
Atlantic North Division
- Akron Vulcans
- Hartford Charter Oaks
- Montreal Beavers
- Norfolk Neptunes
- Philadelphia Bulldogs
- Richmond Rebels
- Toronto Rifles
Atlantic South Division
Western Division
- Eugene Bombers
- Long Beach Admirals
- Orange County Ramblers (Anaheim, California)
- Sacramento Buccaneers
- San Jose Apaches
- Seattle Rangers
- Victoria Steelers
The COFL added a Pacific Division for the 1967 season, adding three teams from the Pacific Football League to its ranks - Eugene Bombers (Oregon), Seattle Rangers (Washington) and Victoria Steelers (British Columbia), while the rest of the division comprised from four minor-league teams in California. The Pacific Division was basically a league-within-a-league and played exclusively against other Pacific Division opponents. The remaining teams in the league split into an Atlantic North Division and an Atlantic South Division.
Two of the small western franchises, in Eugene, Oregon, and San Jose, California, left the league after the season, while the franchise in Long Beach only played one game before folding. The Toronto Rifles actually folded mid-season, under unusual circumstances: the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League raided the Rifles roster and signed away the Rifles head coach, starting quarterback and starting running back, leaving the team unable to continue.
The remnants of the Brooklyn Dodgers were sold to Frank Hurn, who moved the team to Akron, Ohio as the Akron Vulcans. Hurn used only $2,000 of his own money and $50,000 of Chicago Outfit funding to buy the team and swindled numerous businessmen into providing lavish benefits for his team for which he would never pay. Under Hurn, the team lost $100,000 after just three weeks of play, forcing his big-budget head coaches, Doak Walker and Lou Rymkus, to front their own money to keep the team afloat; Hurn never paid the either the coaches or players for their services, and the Wheeling Ironmen ended up paying the Vulcans' salaries for what would be the Vulcans' fourth and final game in order to avoid a strike. Hurn would later amass a long record of criminal activity after his time in Akron.[8]
Such instability marked the season for the COFL, particularly because the league could not improve upon its overall "semi-pro" public image. Inability to establish working relationships with NFL and AFL teams was a contributing factor. The league's breakthrough television contract with the upstart United Network was another: the network ended up folding prior to the 1967 season it was supposed to broadcast, leaving the COFL without a television partner yet again.[3][9][10]
The San Jose Apaches in 1967 were coached by Bill Walsh, who later achieved great success as the three-time Super Bowl-winning coach of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.
W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against
x = Division Champion
| Atlantic North Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x-Norfolk Neptunes | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 422 | 289 | |||||
| Hartford Charter Oaks | 5 | 7 | 0 | .417 | 211 | 260 | |||||
| Montreal Beavers | 4 | 8 | 0 | .333 | 175 | 278 | |||||
| Toronto Rifles | 1 | 4 | 0 | .250 | 39 | 52 | |||||
| Akron Vulcans | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 59 | 84 | |||||
| Atlantic South Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | |||||
| x-Orlando Panthers | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 422 | 290 | |||||
| Charleston Rockets | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | 292 | 224 | |||||
| Wheeling Ironmen | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 252 | 395 | |||||
| Pacific Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | |||||
| x-Orange County Ramblers | 10 | 2 | 0 | .833 | 394 | 104 | |||||
| San Jose Apaches | 8 | 4 | 0 | .667 | 310 | 150 | |||||
| Seattle Rangers | 7 | 6 | 0 | .538 | 248 | 236 | |||||
| Eugene Bombers | 6 | 6 | 0 | .500 | 239 | 260 | |||||
| Victoria Steelers | 4 | 8 | 0 | .333 | 120 | 268 | |||||
| Sacramento Buccaneers | 2 | 10 | 0 | .167 | 110 | 352 | |||||
| Long Beach Admirals | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 13 | 37 | |||||
Home team in CAPITALS
Atlantic Playoff
- Orlando 21, NORFOLK 17
League Championship (December 10, 1967)
- Orlando 38, ORANGE COUNTY 14
1968 season
Atlantic Division
- Alabama Hawks
- Charleston Rockets
- Michigan Arrows
- Norfolk Neptunes
- Ohio Valley Ironmen
- Orlando Panthers
Central Division
- Arkansas Diamonds
- Chicago Owls
- Indianapolis Capitols
- Oklahoma City Plainsmen
- Omaha Mustangs
- Quad Cities Raiders / Las Vegas Cowboys
Pacific Division
In February 1968, the COFL merged with the Professional Football League of America (PFLA), in order to expand into the midwestern United States.[11] The Quad City Raiders franchise moved to become the Las Vegas Cowboys after losing their first two games.
Danny Hill succeeded Rosen as COFL commissioner. Hill established a weekly payroll ceiling of $200 per player and $5,000 per team.
Ken Stabler played two games for the Spokane Shockers in 1968. Stabler later became the Continental league's first Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee as a player through his work with the Oakland Raiders of the NFL.
The Michigan Arrows began their season with a soccer-style kicker named Garo Yepremian, who had played the previous season with the Detroit Lions but had found himself out of work because of military service. Yepremian later found Super Bowl fame in the NFL as a member of the Miami Dolphins.
On September 8, 1968, Glen Hepburn, a two-way player for the Omaha Mustangs, suffered an in-game injury from which he died four days later; it would be the only fatality in the league's history.
The Orange County Ramblers were featured in the 1968 film Skidoo, in a credited role as stand-ins for a nude Green Bay Packers team. The Ramblers offense is seen, from behind, wearing nothing but helmets, during a scene in which a security guard is hallucinating due to the effects of LSD.
W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against
x = Division Champion