Sports - Defunct Sports Teams, Retro Leagues

Soccer Bowl '83 was the penultimate championship game played by the original North American Soccer League (NASL). The NASL was??formed in 1967 when the competing United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League decided to join forces. For the next 12 seasons, it...

The Oakland Stompers played in the original North American Soccer League for just one season. Founded as the Hartford Bicentennials??in 1975, the team moved to Oakland in 1978. In 1979, the team was purchased by Peter Pocklington, who also owned the Edmonton Oilers hockey...

The Memphis Pharaohs played in the Arena Football League in 1995 and 1996. In 1997, they moved to Portland to become the Forest Dragons, before moving to Oklahoma in 2000 to become the Wranglers. They folded in 2001.

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers joined the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1977. Their home was Lockhart Stadium which is considered to be America's first-ever soccer-specific stadium. In 1984, the team moved to Minnesota. Two subsequent, but unrelated, soccer teams have used the Strikers...

The London Monarchs were charter members of the World League of American Football in 1991. They captured the World Bowl title in their first season and played until 1998.

The Amsterdam Admirals played in the World League of American Football (WLAF) from 1995 until 2007. They won the World Bowl title in 2005, and were runners-up in 1995 and 2006, losing to Frankfort both times.  OS10160

  The Montreal Machine played in the World League of American Football (WLAF) in 1991 and 1992. When the league decided to focus on Europe, all of the North American teams, including the Machine were folded.

The World League of American Football (WLAF) was established in 1989 by America's top pro football league. It served three main purposes: One, it supplied the top league with talent and helped players develop. Two, it helped promote North American football in Europe. Three,...

The Barcelona Dragons were charter members of the World League of American Football (WLAF) and played from 1991 until 2003. They won the World Bowl in 1997. OS10161

The Cologne Centurions played in the World League of American Football (WLAF), from 2003 until the league folded in 2007. OS10162

The London Monarchs were charter members of the World League of American Football in 1991. They captured the World Bowl title in their first season and played until 1998.

The Scottish Claymores played in the World League of American Football (WLAF), later called NFL Europe, from 1995 until 2004. Based in Edinburgh, they won a World Bowl title in 1996.

The Berlin Thunder played in the??World League of American Football (WLAF)??in 1999, right after the league changed its name to NFL Europe. They played until the league folded in 2007. They captured the World Bowl title in 2001, 2002, and 2004.

The New Orleans Night in the Arena Football League starting in 1991 and 1992. Their home field was the Superdome. The team folded before the start of the 1993 season. In 2004, the city welcomed a new Arena League team, the VooDoo, who played...

The??1967 International and Universal Exposition??or??Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was a World's Fair held in Montreal??from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century??with the most attendees to that date...

The??1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply??Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver??from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair's theme was "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion ??? World in Touch." It coincided with Vancouver's centennial and was...

Founded in 1959, A&B Sound??was a??home electronics retailer based in Vancouver.??Its flagship store was downtown. Over the years, it??expanded to other cities in B.C. and western Canada, but the company began struggling in the early 2000s and went out of business in 2008.

The Vancouver Grizzlies first hit the court in 1995 and spent six seasons in Canada's Pacific Northwest before heading to Memphis, TN.

The Vancouver Grizzlies first hit the court in 1995 and spent six seasons in Canada's Pacific Northwest before heading to Memphis, TN.

After the demise of the city's North American Soccer League team, the Whitecaps, a new club was founded in B.C.'s largest city. Originally, the team was going to be called the United. That name was rejected, though, in favor of Eighty-Sixers (also stylized as...

The Bisons were Buffalo's American Hockey League (AHL) team from 1940 to 1970 and the formation of the city's major league club. The new squad placed it's farm team in Cincinnati.

McNichol's Sports Arena opened in 1975 and was the home to several Denver sports teams including the city's pro basketball team. Other tenants included the Avalanche, Rockies, Spurs, Flames, and Grizzlies hockey teams, as well as the Denver Dynamite indoor football team and indoor...

The Portsmouth Spartans were established in 1928 and played in pro football's national league starting in 1930. In 1934, the team was bought and relocated to Detroit, where they became the Lions.

The Stingers were Cincinnati's only major league hockey team. The team played at Riverfront Coliseum (now U.S. Bank Arena) from 1975 to 1979, and they were members of the World Hockey Association (WHA). When the WHA merged with the National Hockey League in 1979,...

The??Toledo Spitfire was women???s professional football team that played in the National Women???s Football Association (NWFA). The league's first season was 2001. The Spitfire joined the NWFA for the 2003 season as an expansion team. The team later moved to Ann Arbor and became...

In 1920, the Dayton Triangles were founding members of the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The team played in the very first game between two league teams when they met the Columbus Panhandles on October 3, 1920 in Dayton's Triangle Park. They played their home...

The Detroit Caesars were a men's professional softball team that began play in the American Professional Slo-Pitch Softball League (APSPL) in 1977. They won the championship in 1978 and were owned by Mike??Ilitch, whose heirs currently own the Detroit Tigers. Ilitch was also an...

They were named for Fordham's football team, but who's to say that they couldn't be named for a microchip?

The championship of the North American Soccer League (NASL), the 1981 Soccer Bowl was contested between the New York Cosmos and the Chicago Sting. It was played at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto on September 26, 1981. Chicago won in a shoot-out, 2-1 in front...

The Toledo Mercurys played in the International Hockey League (IHL) from 1947 until 1962. It was the league's first franchise outside of the Detroit Metro area. The team won the league championship, the Turner Cup, in its first season. They won again in 1951...