Chicago Winds

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The Chicago Winds was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was named the Winds (note: plural, not singular) because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City." The team played at Soldier Field. The team was assigned to the WFL's Western Division for 1975 (the WFL having shrunk from 12 teams to 11, and from three divisions to two).

[edit] Pursuit of Joe Namath

Prior to the 1975 season opener, Winds owner Eugene Pullano attempted to sign New York Jets star quarterback Joe Namath to a contract. Namath, who had helped establish the Jets and the old American Football League, was wavering about re-signing with New York after the 1974 season. Reports had him retiring, being traded to another NFL team -- or jumping to the WFL, perhaps as a player/coach/co-owner. Namath's agent Jimmy Walsh asked the Winds for a $500,000 signing bonus, a three-year contract worth $500,000 a year, and a $2 million annuity ($100,000 per year for twenty years) and even terms for Namath's eventual ownership of a WFL franchise in New York. According to Mark Kreigel's biography, Namath, the Winds apparently accepted these terms -- until Walsh also demanded 15 percent of the WFL's total TV package. The deal was off, and Namath stayed with the Jets.

The team did, however, hire former Charlotte Hornets head coach Babe Parilli as its head coach and general manager. A number of old Fire players returned as members of the Winds, including running backs Mark Kellar and Cyril Pinder, center Guy Murdock (the Fire's MVP), plus receivers Steve Wright and Chuck Kogut, to name a few. With Namath out of the picture, the Winds acquired veteran passer Pete Beathard from the Portland Storm, and wide receiver John Gilliam, originally signed with The Hawaiians, Gilliam's contract was transferred to Chicago.

[edit] 1975 season

The Winds did not have much success of the field, nor at the box office. They lost both pre-season games, to Jacksonville and Charlotte (Parilli's old team). Unlike the defunct Chicago Fire, which sold 15,000 season tickets in 1974, the Winds only sold 1,600. In late July, the league took swift action by firing Parilli and replacing him with Abe Gibron, who had been fired from the Chicago Bears after the 1974 season. (A macabre typo in a New York Times story indicated Gibron had become coach of the Chicago Winos.) A very reluctant Leo Cahill left a (relatively) comfortable position as Memphis Southmen GM to the precarious situation with the wobbling Winds. Gibron only had 48 hours or so to learn about his new team.

The Winds lost their first two regular-season contests, 10-0 in Birmingham and 38-18 in Shreveport, before beating the Portland Thunder, 25-18 in overtime, in front of just 3,501 fans at Soldier Field. After two more road losses (at Hawaii and Memphis), the team was swimming in red ink; after just a month of play and a 1-4 won-lost record, two major investors withdrew their $175,000 deposit in order to keep the team solvent. The September 6th game at Soldier Field against the Southern California Sun was cancelled, and the Winds had died down.

[edit] The end

The WFL voted 10-1 to remove Chicago from the schedule, with only the Winds voting to continue. A team folding in mid-season was not unusual for the WFL (the Jacksonville Sharks and Detroit Wheels had folded 14 games into a 20-game regular season in 1974), so the league was prepared. Since there were 11 teams, one team had a bye each week. With the Winds having folded, the bye team each week was slated to take the Winds' place in the schedule. Meanwhile, John Gilliam was selected by the Philadelphia Bell in a dispersal draft, but returned to the NFL Minnesota Vikings instead, much to the WFL's chagrin. Even this arrangement didn't last too long, as the entire WFL collapsed at the end of October 1975.

World Football League

Birmingham Americans (1974) | Birmingham Vulcans (1975) | Charlotte Stars (1974) | Charlotte Hornets (1974-75) | Chicago Fire (1974) | Chicago Winds (1975) | Detroit Wheels (1974) | Florida Blazers (1974) | The Hawaiians (1974-75) | Houston Texans (1974) | Jacksonville Sharks (1974) | Jacksonville Express (1975) | Memphis Southmen (1974-75) | New York Stars (1974) | Philadelphia Bell (1974-75) | Portland Storm (1974) | Portland Thunder (1975) | San Antonio Wings (1975) | Shreveport Steamer (1974-75) | Southern California Sun (1974-75)