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Minor League Football System
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Minor League Football System (MLFS) was a semi-professional American football league that operated during the summers of 1989 and 1990. It was established with the goal of becoming a nationwide feeder system for the National Football League (NFL).[2][3]
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History
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The MLFS was created in 1989 with the intent of serving as a nationwide minor league for players seeking NFL exposure and marketed itself as having "major league ambitions" while operating on a semi-professional financial model.[4] Players were not paid, instead, it established a Job Placement Program to help players secure employment in the cities where they played.[2] The league plan was to play a 12-game season under NFL rules from late July through mid-October.[2] Teams were based in multiple states throughout the country, with early press described the MLFS as a structured alternative to the scattered semi-pro circuits of the era.[5][6]
On February 10, 1989 the league announced that representatives from 14 franchises completed two days of meetings in which they discussed logistics and operational plans for the league’s inaugural season. The teams were slated to be based in Birmingham, Seattle, West Palm Beach, Hayward (California), Fairfax, Portland, Wilmington, Raleigh, Colorado Springs, Omaha, Tulsa, Scranton, Lowell (Massachusetts), and Ottawa, Canada. The league planned to divide the franchises into West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast divisions. Each franchise paid a $10,000 league entry fee, along with an additional $2,000 to attend the initial organizational meetings. A month later the MLFS releases a list of only 11 franchises (only five teams - Seattle, Hayward, Fairfax, Colorado Springs and Scranton - were at the original announcement) that will play in the 1989 inaugural season.[7]
A retrospective in The New York Times characterized the league's inaugural season as a difficult effort to establish a structured national minor league system.[8]
The league continued in 1990 but financial struggles, uneven attendance, and travel costs destabilized the organization. Several franchises folded during the season.[9] By the end of 1990, the MLFS ceased operations.
1989 season
The 1989 season marked the league's debut, with teams competing in a summer schedule designed to avoid conflict with the NFL and college football seasons. The league emphasized player development but struggled financially throughout the year.[3] Nine of the original 11 teams were semipro teams that have played in other leagues.[2][10]
The Colorado Springs Spirit included a transgender cheerleader in their squad, Shannon Ireland Trump, who stated that she was a niece of former USFL's New Jersey Generals owner and future U.S. President Donald Trump.[11]
Playoffs
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | MLFS Championship[17] | ||||||||||||
| E1 | Charlotte | 12 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | W3 | Pueblo | 20 | |||||||||||
| 5 | W2 | Colorado Springs | 14 | |||||||||||
| W3 | Pueblo | 21 | ||||||||||||
| W1 | San Jose | 7 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | W2 | Colorado Springs | 19[18] | |||||||||||
| 6 | ||||||||||||||
1990 International Friendlies
During the 1990 preseason, five MLFS teams played exhibition games against the visiting Moscow Bears, the first gridiron football team formed in the Soviet Union as part of Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost initiative.[19] The Bears team was coached by John Ralston, and all players were former athletes in other sports who were recruited to play football and earned 400 to 800 rubles a month (twice the average Soviet wage at the time), which was sponsored by various American corporate sponsors.[20][21]
The MLFS teams won the first four matchups, with Moscow held scoreless in each contest, by a combined score of 185-0.[22] In their last game they played against the Charlotte Barons "development squad" - a group of amateur players who were not good enough to make the Barons team, and won 2-0.[23]
1990 season
The league returned for a second season in 1990 with a revised structure. Despite attempts to stabilize operations, multiple clubs folded mid-season and the MLFS was unable to sustain play beyond the year.[9] The Colorado Springs Spirit opened the season with a 7–0 record before head coach Pete Riehlman resigned, citing health reasons. On the same day, the league’s leading rusher, Rick Gales, along with three-fifths of the offensive line, departed the team. With the roster reduced to 22 players, the Spirit forfeited their next game and were subsequently expelled from the MLFS. The league continued to destabilize, as the Tacoma Express folded after eight games, prompting the MLFS to cut-short the regular season after 10 weeks.[11]
The Charlotte Barons won the 1990 MLFS championship, defeating the Pueblo Crusaders 24–18.[22]
Playoffs
| Semifinals | MLFS Championship | ||||||||
| E1 | Charlotte | 21 | |||||||
| E2 | Bay State | 20 | |||||||
| E1 | Charlotte | 24 | |||||||
| W1 | Pueblo | 18 | |||||||
| W2 | Oklahoma City | 10 | |||||||
| W1 | Pueblo | 21 | |||||||
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Teams
The MLFS featured 11 teams in 1989 and 12 teams for the 1990 season:[22]
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Legacy
Though short-lived, the MLFS is remembered for its attempt to create a national, structured minor league at a time when most semi-pro football was regional and loosely organized. The league folded after the 1990 season without achieving its aim of becoming the NFL's official minor league. In 1991, the NFL launched its own development league, the World League of American Football (WLAF), which debuted with six teams in the United States, one in Canada, and three in Europe.[3]
In addition, the MLFS was the first ever American football league to play against a Soviet Union team.
References
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