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Did you know?
Tidbits of info regarding the Americans & Vulcans
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The Americans signed several NFL veterans to futures
contracts to begin in the 1975 or latter seasons. Of Course Ken Stabler
was the biggest name, but there were others. Here is a list of those
players signed. Of course, there may be others that I’m unaware of or
missed, but these are the ones I’ve found. |
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Ken Stabler
Oakland |
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L.C.
Greenwood Pittsburgh |
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Ron
Jessie
Detroit |
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Tim
Foley Miami |
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Bob Kuechenberg
Miami |
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Jim
Mitchell Atlanta |
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Mike
Montgomery
Dallas |
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Rayfield
Wright Dallas |
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Jethro
Pugh Dallas |
When the Birmingham Vulcans played the Jacksonville Express, the game became
dubbed in a small circle of people as the “George Mira Ring Bowl” Why? Because
when Mira signed with Jacksonville in 1975, he did not receive a World Bowl ring
from the previous season with the Americans. There was a friendly wager between
Birmingham & Jacksonville management that the loser of the game would pay for
George a ring. Jacksonville won, but for some unknown reason, Mira did not get
his ring. And he still has not to this day.
  
When radio play-by-play announcer Larry
Matson started out the 1974 season with the Americans, he had no radio color
commentator. So he came up with the idea of guest commentators. Alabama football
legend Fred Sington served as the initial color man, but how did this come to
be? When the Ams first started their radio network, they had no station in the
Birmingham market to carry the games. Matson enlisted Sington, from the Chamber
of Commerce for assistance. Sington helped to secure a station for the
broadcasts, and Matson requested that Sington be his first color commentator for
the inaugural game against Southern California. Because of the crowd noise was
louder than anticipated, Matson had trouble hearing some of Sington’s remarks
and decided to stand next to him so as to hear him better. He found that it
worked well enough that he stood for the remainder of the season when doing
broadcasts, and did so in later years, with the Vulcans and later as the
play-by-play voice of the NFL New Orleans Saints.
The Ams had some really cool stationery as
well.
World Bowl almost didn’t happen.
The Ams staged a walkout three days prior to the game in protest of not being
paid. The Ams had not been paid in several weeks, and the WFL Players
Association President and Birmingham player representative Charley Harraway was
the chief negotiator, although George Mira and Dennis Homan, along with a few
other veteran players also attended the meeting as team representatives. The two
sides worked out a compromise and of course the game was played, but it was
touch & go for a while.
The IRS also had a say in whether the game would go on. There was the issue of
back-taxes that Birmingham owed and was not in a position to pay. Ultimately the
IRS decided that the game would be played and they would get a share of the gate
receipts, deciding a share of something was better than the whole of nothing.
The players got a small percentage, and after expenses were paid, the IRS got
the bulk of what remained. Businessman and team investor Ed Ashton was the one
who was primarily responsible for getting the IRS to see it clear that “a little
was better than none”.
Birmingham Trainer Drew Ferguson got his
start with the Ams, but went on to a distinguished career, as evidenced by his
induction into the Alabama Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame.
Three teams members have been inducted into
the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame; Larry Willingham, Johnny Musso, & Dennis Homan.
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