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The WFL Folds
Coach Bass with Cantrelle, Reed, Profit
& Musso in happier preseason days
- On Wednesday October 22nd, 1975 Head
Coach Marvin Bass assembled the Vulcans players for a hastily called
closed-door meeting. In it he broke the sad news that the WFL had folded.
The WFL had conducted a teleconference with all of the league’s teams and
voted to “cease operations”, as worded in a teletype sent out by the WFL
office that day. Only Birmingham and Memphis voted to continue playing.
After the meeting with the players concluded and press conference was held
where Coach Bass addressed the media. “I’ve been in coaching 33 years, but
what I had to do 30 minutes ago makes this the saddest day of my life. I had
to tell my football team they are unemployed”.
- Reaction was swift to the sad news. Players, coaches, fans alike were saddened
by the loss of Birmingham’s professional football team. The suddenness, despite
rumors, made it especially difficult.
- Birmingham, along with Memphis, petitioned the
NFL for admission. While there are varying versions of how this process
went, the outcome is the same in each version, Birmingham’s football team
was gone, and would not return in the form of an NFL franchise.
- Several different leagues have come and gone the way of the WFL. The USFL
brought the Stallions, who lived here three seasons; the Fire was a WLAF entry,
lasting two. The CFL tried the experiment of basing teams in the U.S. It failed,
with Birmingham’s Barracudas going down with it after one season. The XFL
brought forth the Thunderbolts, which lasted only one season as well. The
Alabama Vulcans came about in the late ‘70’s as a member of the American
Football Association, but this league was not on the scale or caliber of the
USFL, WFL, etc.
- This incarnation of the Vulcans lasted only the 1979 season. The Alabama Magic
was born of this league as well for one season, 1982. The only other sustained
football is the present-day Steeldogs of the Arena Football League 2, who have
been in town since 2000.
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