The Memphis Showboats were an American football franchise in the United States Football League. They entered the league in its expansion in 1984 and made the 1985 playoffs, losing in the semifinal round to the Oakland Invaders. Perhaps the most prominent players on the Showboats' roster during their two seasons of existence were future Pro Football Hall of Fame member Reggie White and future professional wrestler "The Total Package" Lex Luger.
History Memphis food manufacturer Logan Young was awarded an expansion franchise for Memphis on July 17, 1983.
The team name was selected on August 14 via fan contest in The Commercial Appeal. "Showboats", a reference to the floating theaters and Memphis' music history, was suggested by 45 of the 21,052 submissions. It was one of three finalists alongside "Hound Dogs" and "Mudcats".
However, soon after hiring Memphis native and former college coach Pepper Rodgers as head coach and signing a lease to play in the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Young discovered that most of his assets were tied up in a trust fund that he couldn't access. Ultimately, he was forced to take on limited partners, then sell controlling interest to cotton magnate William Dunavant, remaining as team president.
Despite White's play, the Showboats finished fourth in the Southern Division and missed the playoffs. Like the rest of the division, they were left far behind by the Birmingham Stallions and Tampa Bay Bandits. However, like most of the USFL's other Southern teams, they were a runaway hit at the box office. Indeed, they were one of the few teams whose crowds actually grew as the season progressed.
The Showboats broke through in 1985, finishing fourth in the East and earning a playoff berth. They should have traveled to Denver's Mile High Stadium to face the Denver Gold. However, the Gold were forced to travel to Memphis under pressure from ABC Sports. The Gold's local support had all but vanished due to the USFL's planned move to the fall, and ABC did not want the embarrassment of showing a half-empty stadium. It forced Commissioner Harry Usher to give Memphis home-field advantage in the first round, since the Showboats had been among the league's attendance leaders once again. ABC had an outsize influence on the USFL due to the structure of the league's television contract. The Showboats thrashed the Gold 48–7 before losing to the Oakland Invaders 28–19 in the semifinals.
The Showboats represented a serious attempt to form a viable professional football organization, and seemed to have a realistic chance to have been a viable business if the overall management of the USFL had been more realistic and financially sound. Indeed, like the World Football League's Memphis Southmen before them, the Showboats appeared to be on more solid footing than the league as a whole. The Showboats' attendance figures made Dunavant a supporter of the USFL's move to the fall. Although Memphis was only a medium-sized market (while Memphis proper had 650,000 people, the surrounding suburbs and rural areas are not much larger than the city itself), Dunavant believed his team's popularity would have made it very attractive to the NFL in the event of a merger. After the USFL's antitrust lawsuit failed, the Showboats threw their support behind Charlie Finley's proposal to convince the Canadian Football League to expand into the U.S. market; the CFL rejected the plan, bringing the Showboats' operations to an end.Will Birmingham play in the North American Football League? via BirminghamProSports.com
Legacy Despite the eventual failure of the original USFL, the success of the Showboats franchise was noticed by the NFL, indicating a viable market in Tennessee. Dunavant placed a bid for a Memphis team in the NFL's 1993 expansion derby; he chose not to use the Showboats name and instead partnered with Lisa Marie Presley and the estate of her father to propose the Memphis Hound Dogs. The Hound Dogs, one of five proposed franchises, were not chosen, as the NFL went forward with the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. In 1997, the Houston Oilers franchise would move to Nashville, though they played their first season in Memphis, before moving to Nashville and being renamed the Tennessee Titans in 1999.
Rodgers and general manager Steve Ehrhart would later emerge with the Memphis Mad Dogs, a Canadian Football League franchise that played one season in 1995; Ehrhart would also manage the Memphis Maniax of the original XFL in 2001.
The Memphis Showboats name was revived for the 2023 season of the USFL's second iteration.
In popular culture In the SpongeBob SquarePants Season 2 episode "Band Geeks", the band led by Squidward Tentacles plays at the "Bubble Bowl", during which clips of a Showboats game (vs. the Tampa Bay Bandits at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis on May 25, 1984) are shown.
A player from the Memphis Showboats appeared as a contestant on Press Your Luck in 1985.
Schedule and results
1984 Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue AttendancePreseason 1Bye 2Bye 3 vs. San Antonio Gunslingers L 3–13 0–1 Shreveport, Louisiana 4 vs. New Orleans Breakers L 0–20 0–2 Lafayette, Louisiana Regular season 1 February 26 Philadelphia Stars L 9–17 0–1 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 28,098 2 March 4 Chicago Blitz W 23–13 1–1 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 10,152 3 March 11 at New Orleans Breakers L 14–37 1–2 Louisiana Superdome 45,269 4 at Birmingham Stallions L 6–54 1–3 Legion Field 41,500 5 March 25 Denver Gold L 24–28 1–4 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 21,213 6 Jacksonville Bulls W 27–24 2–4 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 17,180 7 April 8 at New Jersey Generals L 10–35 2–5 Giants Stadium 43,671 8 at Los Angeles Express L 17–23 2–6 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 10,049 9 at Jacksonville Bulls L 10–12 2–7 Gator Bowl Stadium 36,256 10 Pittsburgh Maulers W 17–7 3–7 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 30,640 11 May 6 at Washington Federals W 13–10 4–7 RFK Stadium 4,432 12 San Antonio Gunslingers W 38–14 5–7 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 32,406 13 at Oakland Invaders L 14–29 5–8 Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum 22,030 14 Tampa Bay Bandits W 31–21 6–8 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 27,422 15 New Orleans Breakers W 20–17 7–8 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 31,198 16 at Tampa Bay Bandits L 24–42 7–9 Tampa Stadium 48,785 17 Birmingham Stallions L 20–35 7–10 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 50,079 18 at Houston Gamblers L 3–37 7–11 Houston Astrodome 22,963 Sourcesstatscrew.com 1984 Memphis Showboats Game-by-Game Results Retrieved December 19, 2018usflsite.com 1984 USFL Season Retrieved December 19, 2018profootballarchives.com 1984 Memphis Showboats (USFL) Retrieved December 19, 2018
1985 Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue AttendancePreaseason 1 vs. New Jersey Generals L 3–16 0–1 Charlotte, North Carolina 11,667 2 vs. Baltimore Stars L 9–14 0–2 Winter Haven, Florida 3 at Jacksonville Bulls W 13–10 1–2 Gator Bowl Stadium Regular season 1 at San Antonio Gunslingers W 20–3 1–0 Alamo Stadium 10,983 2 at Jacksonville Bulls W 24–14 2–0 Gator Bowl Stadium 40,112 3 Baltimore Stars W 21–19 3–0 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 37,466 4 at Birmingham Stallions L 19–34 3–1 Legion Field 34,500 5 March 24 Oakland Invaders L 19–31 3–2 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 28,773 6 Tampa Bay Bandits L 20–28 3–3 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 23,952 7 at Orlando Renegades L 17–28 3–4 Florida Citrus Bowl 21,223 8 April 14 at Baltimore Stars W 13–10 4–4 Byrd Stadium 15,728 9 New Jersey Generals L 18–21 4–5 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 44,339 10 at Denver Gold W 33–17 5–5 Mile High Stadium 8,207 11 Birmingham Stallions W 38–24 6–5 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 29,025 12 May 12 Houston Gamblers W 17–15 7–5 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 27,325 13 at Tampa Bay Bandits W 38–14 8–5 Tampa Stadium 44,818 14 at Portland Breakers L 14–17 8–6 Civic Stadium 16,682 15 at New Jersey Generals L 7–17 8–7 Giants Stadium 45,682 16 Orlando Renegades W 41–17 9–7 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 23,216 17 Jacksonville Bulls W 31–0 10–7 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 31,634 18 Arizona Outlaws W 38–28 11–7 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 32,743Playoffs Quarterfinals June 30 Denver Gold W 48–7 1–0 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 34,528 Semifinals Oakland Invaders L 19–28 1–1 Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium 37,796 Sourcesprofootballarchives.com 1985 Memphis Showboats (USFL) Retrieved December 19, 2018
Single season leaders Rushing Yards: 789 (1985), Tim Spencer Receiving Yards: 1143 (1985), Greg Moser Passing Yards: 2128 (1985), Mike Kelley
Season-by-season
|1984 || 7 || 11 || 0 || 4th Southern Division || -- |- |1985 || 11 || 7 || 0 || 3rd Eastern Conference || Won Quarterfinal (Denver)Lost Semifinal (Oakland) |- !Totals || 19 || 19 || 0 |colspan="2"| (including playoffs)
References
External links http://www.remembertheusfl.8m.com/teams/memphis.html USFL.info - Memphis Showboats