Los Angeles Express

The Los Angeles Express was a team in the United States Football League based in Los Angeles, California. Playing at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Express competed in all three of the USFL seasons played, 1983-1985.

History

1983-1984

Cable television pioneers Alan Harmon and Bill Daniels were awarded a USFL franchise for San Diego when the league announced its formation in 1982. However, the city refused to grant the team a lease to play at Jack Murphy Stadium under pressure from the stadium's existing tenants--baseball's Padres, the NFL's Chargers, and the NASL's Sockers. The only other outdoor facility available in the area was Balboa Stadium, the original home of the Chargers. However, it was a relatively antiquated facility (built in 1915) that hadn't had a major tenant since the Chargers moved into the Murph in 1967, and was now largely used by high school teams. This was an untenable situation for a team that was aspiring to be part of a major sports league.

With only eight months before the season was to start, Harmon and Daniels decided to move to Los Angeles--in the process, forcing Jim Joseph, owner of the original Los Angeles franchise, to move his team to Phoenix as the Arizona Wranglers.

The Express made a serious run at Eric Dickerson, and actually matched the Los Angeles Rams' offer for him. However, Dickerson signed with the Rams, apparently because family members were skeptical about the USFL. They also signed Dan Marino, who made some appearances on behalf of the Express before signing with the Miami Dolphins.

Despite losing two defensive backs to knee injuries, the Express finished fifth in the league in total defense. However, a patchwork offensive line limited the team's offensive firepower; they finished last in rushing (Herschel Walker rushed for 72 more yards than the entire Express team). They finished one game out of the playoffs.

In 1984, billionaire investor and vacuum cleaner salesman J. William Oldenburg bought the team and hired veteran executive Don Klosterman as general manager. Klosterman assembled an impressive stable of young talent. This included the greatest player in Express history, Steve Young, a quarterback who had played at the namesake university of his lineal ancestor, Brigham Young University. Agent Leigh Steinberg negotiated for Young what was then reported to be the largest professional sports contract ever signed up until that point--a 10-year deal worth over $40 million. However, it was revealed that the payments were actually to be in the form of an annuity set up to pay him $1,000,000 annually for the next 42 years, so the current value of the contract was considerably less than stated. The team tied the Arizona Wranglers for the Pacific Division title and advanced all the way to the Western Conference championship game. They owned a tiebreaker advantage over the Wranglers and should have hosted the game, but were forced to play in Arizona because the Coliseum was being readied for the 1984 Summer Olympics. They lost to the Wranglers, 35-23.

However, the team struggled to compete with the popularity of the Los Angeles Rams and the newly found Raiders, who also played in the Coliseum, as many in the country didn't take the new league seriously. On three occasions, the team drew crowds of fewer than 11,000 people. A playoff game against the Michigan Panthers drew only 7,900 fans. As it turned out, that game was the longest in professional history--a three-overtime, 93 minute and 33 second affair won by the Express 27-21.

1985-1986

Things started to worsen for the Express in 1985. Oldenburg had lost a reported $15 million, and several of his financial dealings had caught up with him. He'd tried to sell the team after the 1984 season, but was delayed when a savings and loan sued him for breach of contract. He was eventually cleared to sell the team, but couldn't find a buyer and turned the team over to the league. The league couldn't fold the team because of a clause in its television contract with ABC requiring the league to have teams in the nation's three largest markets. While ABC hadn't concerned itself with the demise of the Chicago Blitz after the 1984 season, the league's owners feared that ABC would pull its contract if the Express were shut down--an action that would have probably killed the league.

Not surprisingly, the 1985 season was an unmitigated disaster. The injury bug bit the team hard, decimating the roster. At one point, Young had to play at running back. Attendance continued to plummet; they only drew 8,500 fans per game. It was so embarrassing that the team had to play its last home game at Shephard Stadium on the campus of Los Angeles Pierce College, a junior college in the San Fernando Valley. [ [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/YESTERDAY+IN+L.A.+:+HERE+COMES+KAREEM%3B+THERE+GOES+O.J-a083616133 Yesterday In L.A. : Here Comes Kareem; There Goes O.J. - Free Online Library ] ] . The stadium was expanded to 16,000-person capacity for the game, but was still not a sell-out as 8,200 actually attended to see Young and the Express lose 21-10 to Doug Williams and the Arizona Wranglers. The final record was 3-15, dead last in the league.

The Express announced that they would suspend operations for the 1986 season, which was never played. However, it is very unlikely the Express would have returned even if the league had succeeded in the two projects that were its eventual undoing, the proposed move to fall play effective with the 1986 season (which never actually happened), and its protracted anti-trust suit against the NFL, which resulted in its eventually being awarded a token $3. Steve Young went on to a Hall of Fame career in the NFL, and is apparently still receiving $1,000,000 a year from an annuity purchased by a team in a league that hasn't played a down of football in almost two decades. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2124295&type=story ESPN.com - Persistence and patience lead Young to Hall ] ]

ingle season leaders

*Rushing Yards: 830 (1984), Kevin Nelson
*Receiving Yards: 889 (1984), Jojo Townsell
*Passing Yards: 2361 (1984), Steve Young

eason-by-season

-
1983 || 8 || 10 || 0 || 2nd Pacific || --
-
1984 || 10 || 8 || 0 || 1st WC Pacific || Won Quarterfinal (New Jersey)
Lost Semifinal (Arizona)
-
1985 || 3 || 15 || 0 || 7th WC || --
-!Totals || 22 || 34 || 0
colspan="2"| (including playoffs)
###@@@KEYEND@@@###

Trivia

*The Express lost the right to host the 1984 conference championship game because of a scheduling conflict with preparations for the Summer Olympics. The game was played at Arizona instead.

*One last-ditch marketing move by the Express just before the league folded was a solicitiation to students at USC (located adjacent to the Coliseum) of season passes for $100.

*The Chief Operating Officer of the Express was former NFL star Fred "Curly" Morrison.

*While playing for the Express, Steve Young became the first quarterback in professional football history to pass for 300+ yards and rush for 100+ yards in a single game. Fact|date=May 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.remembertheusfl.8m.com/teams/losangeles.html Remember the USFL: Los Angeles Express]