Arizona Wranglers
| Arizona Wranglers | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Relocated | 1985 Merger with Oklahoma Outlaws: Arizona Outlaws |
| Based in | Tempe, Arizona, United States |
| Home field | Sun Devil Stadium |
| League | USFL |
| Conference | Western |
| Division | Pacific Division |
| Team History |
Arizona Wranglers (1982–1985) Arizona Outlaws (1985) |
| Team colors |
Flag Blue, Red, Copper, Yellow, White |
| Head coaches |
1983 Doug Shively (4-14) 1984 George Allen (12-9) |
| Owner(s) |
1983 Jim Joseph 1984 Dr. Ted Diethrich |
| Conference championships | 1984 |
| Division championships | 1984 |
The Arizona Wranglers were a professional American Football team in the United States Football League that, name-wise, existed from late 1982 to mid 1985. They played at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.
History
Founding
The team that would eventually become the Arizona Wranglers was originally supposed to be the USFL's Los Angeles franchise. The team's planned original owner, Alex Spanos, pulled out of his USFL commitment and instead bought a minority stake in the NFL's San Diego Chargers.
The owners of the Oakland Invaders, Bay Area real estate executives Jim Joseph and Tad Taube, flipped a coin to decide who would take action to become the new owner of the USFL's Los Angeles franchise. Joseph won the flip and got the USFL rights to Los Angeles, while Taube retained full ownership of the Invaders.
A few months later, fate shuffled the deck. The owners of the USFL's San Diego franchise, cable television pioneers Bill Daniels and Alan Harmon, could not secure access to Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. (The USFL would never be able to successfully negotiate a lease to the Chargers' home stadium, a situation that would force a second USFL team, the Outlaws, to leave San Diego for another city before playing a down.)
USFL officials felt that Daniels and Harmon's ties to the cable industry would be better suited for the country's second-largest market. The league forced Joseph to surrender rights to Los Angeles to Daniels and Harmon, whose franchise became the Los Angeles Express. Joseph finally settled on a move to Phoenix, bringing professional football to that Arizona city for the first time.
1983 season
Joseph appeared to hold fast to the USFL's original blueprint. He aggressively marketed the team in Arizona while keeping a tight rein on spending (including player salaries). The results were a mixed bag. The roster was a young team with some talent at the skill positions, but fewer quality starters in the starting lineup and less depth of talent than their opponents. Due to a weaker product, the ticket sales were only in line with most other teams in the league.
The Wranglers were quite competitive at first, posting a 4-4 record and moving into a four way tie for first in their division. However, they lost their last 10 games—tied for the longest losing streak in league history—finishing in a tie for the worst record in the league.
The 1983 Wranglers featured some talent on offense including the League's 6th ranked passer in rookie QB Alan Risher, 12th ranked rusher in 3rd year vet Leon Calvin Murray, and the league's #7, #10, #11 receivers (1983 rookies TE Mark Keel, WR Jackie Flowers, and WR Neil Balholm, respectively).
Their defense was not as strong, although it looked fairly strong on paper before the season. The Wranglers signed San Francisco 49er ILB Jeff McIntyre and ILB Glen Perkins from the University of Arizona. But during pre-season McIntyre, who had a personal services contract with Joseph, asked to be traded because of contract issues. Perkins suffered a knee injury that slowed his play and development.
The Wranglers probably benefited early on from the league's decision not to have a preseason. When the rest of their opponents reached mid-season form, the undermanned Wrangler defense appeared to have trouble keeping the games within reach of the offense. The Wranglers gave up 442 points, easily the most in the league. The Wranglers only scored more than 23 points once all season --- in their week 2 upset of George Allen's Chicago Blitz.
In hopes of avoiding Arizona's often-oppressive summer heat, the league scheduled 6 Wranglers home games in the first half of the season. The team only played 3 of their last 9 games at home.
Schedule
| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular season | ||||
| 1 | March 6, 1983 | Oakland Invaders | L 0-24 | 45,167 |
| 2 | March 12, 1983 | Chicago Blitz | W 30-29 | 28,434 |
| 3 | March 19, 1983 | Los Angeles Express | W 21-14 | 29,335 |
| 4 | March 26, 1983 | at Birmingham Stallions | L 7-16 | 5,000 |
| 5 | April 3, 1983 | New Jersey Generals | L 21-35 | 31,382 |
| 6 | April 11, 1983 | at Washington Federals | W 22-21 | 13,936 |
| 7 | April 17, 1983 | Boston Breakers | L 23-44 | 20,911 |
| 8 | April 23, 1983 | Denver Gold | W 24-3 | 21,557 |
| 9 | May 2, 1983 | at Oakland Invaders | L 20-23 | 27,460 |
| 10 | May 7, 1983 | Michigan Panthers | L 10-21 | 20,423 |
| 11 | May 15, 1983 | at Tampa Bay Bandits | L 14-20 | 32,327 |
| 12 | May 22, 1983 | Philadelphia Stars | L 7-24 | 18,151 |
| 13 | May 30, 1983 | at Chicago Blitz | L 11-36 | 13,952 |
| 14 | June 6, 1983 | at Los Angeles Express | L 13-17 | 13,826 |
| 15 | June 11, 1983 | Washington Federals | L 11-18 | 16,656 |
| 16 | June 17, 1983 | at Denver Gold | L 6-32 | 42,621 |
| 17 | June 25, 1983 | at New Jersey Generals | L 14-21 | 30,612 |
| 18 | July 3, 1983 | at Michigan Panthers | L 7-33 | 31,905 |
1983 USFL Draft
| Draft order | Player name | Position | Height | Weight | College | Contract | Notes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round | Choice | Overall | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | Traded to the Chicago Blitz | |||||||||||||
| 1 | 6 | 6 | Received from the Chicago Blitz | Eric Dickerson | RB | 6'2" | 190 | Southern Methodist | ||||||||
| 2 | 23 | 23 | Gary Williams | WR | 6'2" | 215 | Ohio State | |||||||||
| 3 | 26 | 26 | Sid Abramowitz | OT | 6'6" | 280 | Tulsa | |||||||||
| 4 | 47 | 47 | Rob Fada | OG | 6'2" | 265 | Pittsburgh | |||||||||
| 6 | 27 | 196 | Jamar Wall | CB | 5'10" | 204 | Texas Tech | |||||||||
| 7 | 27 | 234 | Sean Lissemore | NT/DE | 6'4" | 298 | William & Mary | |||||||||
Transaction with the Chicago Blitz
Joseph lost millions of dollars in the 1983 season. Like most of the other owners, he'd bought into the league knowing to expect years of losses. However, he was disappointed in the team's attendance and unwilling to stick it out in Arizona.
In a stroke of luck for Joseph, Chicago Blitz owner Dr. Ted Diethrich (a Phoenix resident and founder of the Arizona Heart Institute) wanted a chance to move closer to his business interests in the Phoenix area. Diethrich had lost millions of dollars when he built a team many considered to be an NFL-caliber unit, only to be rewarded with lackluster attendance.
Diethrich thought he had a solution to both his and Joseph's problems—an unprecedented swap of franchises. Diethrich sold the Blitz to fellow surgeon James Hoffman, then bought the Wranglers from Joseph. Hoffman and Diethrich then engineered a swap of assets in which Allen, the Blitz coaching staff and most of the Blitz players moved to Phoenix while most of the Wranglers roster moved to Chicago. (The most notable exception was that Wrangler triggerman Alan Risher stayed in Arizona to back up former Blitz quarterback Greg Landry). The deal allowed Allen to keep virtually all of the NFL veteran loaded Blitz roster that he had painstakingly assembled in 1983.
The deal transformed the Wranglers from a cellar-dweller to a league powerhouse almost overnight. However, trading a team that had been, at worst, the third-best team in the league for a lesser version of one of the worst teams in the league raised questions about the USFL's credibility—especially in Chicago. The Blitz would never recover, and would be effectively euthanized at the end of the season (Eddie Einhorn was awarded a replacement Chicago franchise, but it never played a down).
While the USFL was active, the league considered the 1983 and 1984 Wranglers to be the same franchise, even though almost all the players were different.
1984 season
The 1984 Wranglers finished in a tie for first in the Western Division. In the playoffs, they upset the powerful Houston Gamblers, then defeated the Los Angeles Express for the conference title. Although the Express had a better record, the game was played at Sun Devil Stadium because the Express' home field, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was being readied for the 1984 Summer Olympics. To accommodate the oppressive summer heat in the state, as well as the ABC Sports television schedule, the game kicked off at 8:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. Eastern time).
The Wranglers' run ended in the championship game with a 23-3 defeat by the Philadelphia Stars in what would be Allen's last game as a professional coach. QB Greg Landry retired after the season. Allen retired as coach in September 1984, but remain involved with the team. Allen named assistant coach Paul Lanham as head coach.
The Wranglers intended to change to Red jerseys for the 1984 season, but the league office had put in a rule that stated any team changing jersey colors (in this case, blue to red) had to wait one season before doing so.
1984 Arizona Wranglers Roster
(Games Played/Games Started in parenthesis), Height, Weight, Age, College
1. MINNIFIELD, Frank CB (18/15), 5.09, 180, 24, Louisville; 38 tkl, 13 ast, 7 PDs, 2 FR, 4 ICs/74 yds
2. JOHNSON, Trumaine WR (18/18), 6.03, 193, 23, Grambling; 90 receptions, 1,269 yds, 14.1 avg, 13 TDs
3. CORRAL, Frank K/P (18/0), 6.02, 210, 28, UCLA; 11/21 FGM, 63/65 PATs, 96 pts, 69 punts, 41.4 avg, 58 long, 6 TB, 17 In-20
7. RISHER, Alan QB (18/0), 6.02, 190, 23, Louisiana State; 64/104, 61.5%, 728 yds, 3 TDs, 7 ICs
8. PORRAS, Tom QB (IA/18G), 6.02, 193, 26, Washington
11. LANDRY, Greg QB (18/18), 6.04, 207, 37, Massachusetts; 283/449, 63.0%, 3,534 yds, 26 TDs, 15ICs
20. McNair, David FS (15/0), 6.00, 190, 22, University of Florida; 13 tkl, 3 ast, 2 FR
21. DENNISON, Doug RB (13/0), 6.01, 200, 32, Kutztown State, 8 car., 48 yds, 1 TD, 30 rec., 244 yds 22. SHIELDS, Lance CB (18/6), 6.00, 175, 23, Drake; 27 tkl, 10 ast, 2 PDs 24. JOHNSON, Randy RB (7/0), 5.11, 205, 21, Texas-Arlington; 13 car., 53 yds 25. Barbieri,Ryan (safety) SS/LB (5/4) 5.11, 224,scottsdale community college
26. BROWN, Eddie SS (16/4), 5.11, 190, 31, Tennessee; 31 tlk, 17 ast, 4 PDs, 1 FR, 2 INT, 20 PR, 11.0 avg.
27. BRADLEY, Luther FS (18/18), 6.03, 197, 28, Notre Dame;
28. SCHWARTZ, Don SS (IA/2G), 6.01, 195, 28, Washington State
29. WALTON, Ted SS (11/1), 5.10, 198, 26, Connecticut
32. ALLEN, Carl CB (11/11), 6.00, 175, 28, Southern Mississippi
33. LONG, Kevin FB (18/18), 6.01, 219, 29, South Carolina
40. LAIRD, Bruce SS (13/13), 6.01, 195, 33, American International
42. CLARK, Allan RB (18/0), 5.10, 190, 26, Northern Arizona
43. BOATNER, Mack FB (18/0), 6.00, 220, 25, Southeastern State (La.)
44. SANCHEZ, Lupe CB (9/4), 5.10, 197, 22, UCLA
46. SPENCER, Tim RB (18/18), 6.01, 216, 23, Ohio State
50. OHTON, Dave LS (5/0), 5.10, 220, 22, Arizona State
51. SULLIVAN, Gerry C (18/18), 6.04, 250, 31, Illinois
52. WHITE, Stan LB (18/18), 6.01, 225, 34, Ohio State
53. MELONTREE, Andy LB (18/0), 6.03, 214, 26, Baylor
54. CASEY, Derrick LB (5/0), 6.01, 230, 23, San Francisco State
55. FAHNHORST, Jim LB (18/18), 6.04, 230, 25, Minnesota
56. SMITH, Ed LB (18/18), 6.02, 218, 26, Vanderbilt
57. FIELD, Doak LB (14/0), 6.02, 224, 25, Baylor
58. GHEESLING, Bruce LB (18/0), 6.01, 212, 23, Furman
59. PIETTE, Tom LS (17/0), 6.04, 243, 23, Michigan State
61. THAYER, Tom G (16/16), 6.04, 261, 22, Notre Dame
62. KEHR, Rick G (IA/2G), 6.03, 270, 24, Carthage
63. BUBEN, Mark DE (18/1), 6.03, 260, 27, Tufts
64. LEE, John DE (18/17), 6.02, 261, 31, Nebraska
65. KIEWEL, Jeff G (IA/18G), 6.04, 254, 23, Arizona
67. STADNIK, John T (13/10), 6.04, 278, 24, Western Illinois
68. HUFFMAN, David G (18/18), 6.07, 255, 26, Notre Dame
70. LATHROP, Kit DT (18/18), 6.04, 254, 27, Arizona State
71. LORCH, Karl DE (18/18), 6.04, 235, 33, Southern California
72. HICKMAN, Dallas DE (14/0), 6.06, 234, 28, California
73. STEVENSON, Mark G (IA/3G), 6.03, 276, 28, Western Illinois
74. EHRMANN, Joe DT (14/9), 6.03, 248, 34, Syracuse
75. TAYLOR, Rob T (18/18), 6.06, 280, 23, Northwestern
76. GIDDENS, Frank T (15/8), 6.07, 320, 24, New Mexico
77. THOMAS, Todd T/LS (5/0), 6.06, 270, 24, North Dakota
79. SMITH, Robert DE (4/0), 6.07, 256, 22, Grambling
80. HILL, Al (IA/8G), 6.03, 205, 24, Arizona
81. WRIGHTMAN, Tim TE (IA/9G), 6.03, 225, 24, UCLA
82. DOUGLAS, Larry WR (16/2), 6.01, 192, 26, Southern
83. LOCKLIN, Kerry TE (2/0), 6.04, 235, 30, New Mexico State
85. BROWN, Clay TE (2/0), 6.03, 220, 25, Brigham Young
85. TOLBERT, Mark WR (10/0), 5.09, 175, 25, Cal-Poly Pomona
86. RICKER, Paul TE (18/18), 6.03, 233, 27, Norwich
87. COZEN, Doug TE (4/0), 6.04, 241, 26, Illinois
88. BUGGS, Wamon WR (4/4), 6.02, 198, 23, Vanderbilt
89. WILLIS, Lenny WR (18/14), 5.11, 188, 30, Ohio State
91. EPPS, Nick DE (4/0), 6.03, 247, 21, Illinois
99. YOUNG, Wilbur DT (15/9), 6.06, 285, 34, William Penn
HEAD COACH: GEORGE ALLEN
Quarterbacks Coach: Roman Gabriel
Offensive Line: John Payne
Secondary: Donald "Deek" Pollard
Defensive Line: John Teerlinck
Offensive Backs: Ray Wietecha
Strength & Conditioning: Warren Anderson
Merger with the Oklahoma Outlaws
Despite making it to the Championship game, Diethrich was bleeding in red ink. He expected his all-star team's attendance to be much greater than the 25,776 fans per game the no-name Wranglers averaged in 1983. Despite fielding a winning team, the Wranglers' 1984 attendance figures (25,568 fans per game) were actually lower than the 1983 numbers, as fans were slow to warm to the new players.
After losing millions for the second year in a row, Diethrich decided to get out. He found a willing buyer in Oklahoma Outlaws owner William Tatham, who was looking for a larger market with an acceptable stadium. The two men reached a deal in which Tatham acquired the Wranglers' assets. Since Tatham acquired all the Wranglers' player contracts, the deal was widely reported as a merger. Tatham relocated the Outlaws to Arizona for the 1985 season, merging the rosters into the Arizona Outlaws.
Single season leaders
Rushing Yards: 1207 (1984), Tim Spencer
Receiving Yards: 1258 (1984), Trumaine Johnson
Passing Yards: 3534 (1984), Greg Landry
Season-by-season
| Season | W | L | T | Finish | Playoff results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 4th Pacific | - |
| 1984 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2nd WC Pacific | Won Divisional (Houston) Won Conference (Los Angeles) Lost USFL championship (Philadelphia) |
| Totals | 16 | 23 | 0 | (including playoffs) | |
Head coaches
- Doug Shively (1983)
- George Allen (1984)