The Eighties

Winky's was a hamburger chain that at its height had over 42 restaurants in Greater Pittsburgh, as well as stores in West Virginia and Ohio. The company went out of business in 1982.

The Rochester Lancers played in the American Soccer League from 1967 until 1969 and the North American Soccer League from 1970 to 1980. Though they played in a small market, they were one of the league's most popular teams.

The Memphis Rogues played for three seasons in the old North American Soccer League (NASL), 1978, 1979, and 1980. Their home field was the Liberty Bowl. They played one season of indoor soccer, 1979/80 also in the NASL. In 1981, the team moved to...

The 1980 Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, NY from??February 13 to 24. One of the many highlights of the games was the US Men's Hockey Team winning the gold medal. Eric Heiden won five gold medals in speedskating for the U.S.

PB Max appeared in 1989 and featured creamy peanut butter on top of a square-shaped whole grain cookie, enrobed in milk chocolate. Despite robust sales, it was discontinued after only a few years on the market.

Established in 1965 as the Houston Apollos in the Central Hockey League, the club known today as the Laval Rocket moved to Montreal in 1969 to become the Voyageurs. They also jumped to the American Hockey League that year. In 1971, they moved to...

The Big Bad Wolf was a second-generation suspended roller coaster designed and built by Arrow Manufacturing.?? It opened in 1984 and took its last run through the Virginia woods in 2009. Did YOU survive?

Mother Goose Land was a theme park in Canton, Ohio that opened in 1954. It featured attractions based on storybook characters such as??characters as Humpty Dumpty and the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe. In the 1980s, the park fell into disrepair and...

Based in Cleveland, Millbrook Bread was sold throughout the Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, it's parent brand opted to go with another name nationwide in an apparent attempt to have a more consistent feel in product offerings.

The Minnesota Norseman were members of the??American Professional Slo-Pitch League??from 1977-1980. In their first season they were known as the Goofy's. A new owner changed the name to Norsemen for the 1978 season. Their home field was Midway Stadium in St. Paul.

M105 was born when WKYC-FM was sold to Nick Mileti and??Jim and Tom Embrescia in 1972. The call letters were changed to WWWM, the station was branded M105, and the format, at first, was syndicated beautiful music.In 1975, the format was flipped to AOR....

The Portland Pirates were members of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1993 to 2016. The team started in Erie, PA as the Blades, members of North American Hockey League and later the Northeastern Hockey League. In 1981 they joined the AHL, then moved...

A mall staple in the 1970s and 1980s, Chess King was founded in 1968 in Boston. At its peak it had over 500 stores. However, it was so closely identified with those two decades, soon into the 1990s it was no longer considered hip.

Jungle Jim's was an iconic Central Florida restaurant with locations in downtown Orlando in the Church Street Station, on 535 near I-4, and Merritt Island on the Space Coast. It opened in the late 1980s and closed in the early 2000s. The restaurant was...

The Boston Braves hockey team was established in 1971 and named for the city's former baseball team. They played in the American Hockey League (AHL) for three seasons and were the farm team of the Boston Bruins. For three years, Boston had three hockey...

Hippo Hamburgers opened in 1950 at the corner of Van Ness and Pacific and served a variety of gourmet hamburgers before gourmet hamburgers were a thing. Their vast collection included, the French Connection, the Stroganoff, the Welsh, the Ole, and the Nude Burger. The...

Do frogs eat cicadas? We're going to find out soon as Brood X of the 17-year cicadas comes back to the Tristate in 2021.

P.O.C. stood for "Pilsner of Cleveland" not "Pride of Cleveland" as some mistakenly believe today. Pilsner Brewing Company, located at Clark Avenue and West 65th Street, made P.O.C. Bohemian brewer Wenzel Medlin founded the company in 1892. It was bought by Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Brewing...

From 1971 to 1982, Swingos, at the corner of Euclid Avenue and east 18th Street in downtown Cleveland, was the place where rock & roll royalty stayed and partied--- hard. Everyone from Elvis and Led Zeppelin to Cher and Kiss stayed there. Even Frank...

Burger Chef was a fast-food hamburger chain that started in Indianapolis in 1958. At its peak in the mid 1970s, it was second only to McDonald's in the number of nationwide locations. The chain even made inroads into Canada. In 1982, the chain was...

The Tea Men played in the old North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. They played one season in the NASL's indoor league (1979-80). Failing to resolve nagging stadium issues, the team moved to Jacksonville in the fall of 1980.

The Baltimore Blast were members of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) from 1980 to 1992. The team was founded as the Houston Summit, charter members of the MISL in 1978.?? The made the playoffs in 11 of their 12 seasons, winning the championship...

The Fog began as the Detroit Lightning, an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for the 1979-80 season. They moved to Northern California in the summer of 1980. In 1981, the team moved again, this time to Kansas City, where they...

Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit from 1924 until 2007. It's iconic radio commercials, heard on stations such as CKLW, announced the store's weekly deals as "Farmer Jack savings time." Popular throughout the second half of the 20th century, the chain...

WYDD first signed on in 1967 as a jazz station. In the '70s it switched to a more progressive, free-form AOR format, before flipping to top 40 in the '80s. As top 40 stations go, though, it was pretty adventurous, playing songs that were...

East Towne Mall opened in 1984 as??Knoxville Center in North??Knoxville,??Tennessee.?? Despite being in one of Knoxville's most vibrant and fastest growing areas, the mall succumbed to the changing taste of shoppers and closed for good on January 31, 2020.

A Des Moines institution for over 50 years, Wimpy's first opened its doors in 1931. After serving generations of Iowans, it closed in 1980.

Jungle Jim's was an iconic Central Florida restaurant with locations in downtown Orlando in the Church Street Station, on 535 near I-4, and Merritt Island on the Space Coast. It opened in the late 1980s and closed in the early 2000s. The restaurant was...

The Imperial Brewing Company was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1902. It's two main offerings were Mayflower and Imperial Seal which it brewed until the mid 1980s when it closed.??

Founded in 1967 in Columbus, Gold Circle??was a discount department store chain??that grew to 76 locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Western New York State. The chain was dissolved in 1988.