The Eighties

The Euclid Tavern is one of Cleveland's most important and legendary live music venues. Opened in 1909, the "Euc" became a storied venue on the Cleveland music scene. Early in their career, Green Day performed there and got paid $100. Scenes for the 1987...

The Hudepohl Brewing Company was established in Cincinnati in 1885 by Ludwig Hudepohl II, the son of Bavarian immigrants. In 1986, Schoenling Brewing Company, makers of??Little Kings, acquired Hudepohl, forming the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company. After being purchased by a Cleveland-based company in the late...

The Tulsa Roughnecks played in the old North American Soccer League from 1978 until the league folded after the 1984 season. The club started as the San Antonio Thunder in 1975. In 1977 it became Team Hawaii but moved to Oklahoma after playing just...

Burger Queen was a popular fast food chain in the Louisville area. It was founded in 1963 and its mascot was Queenie Bee,??? with it's roots going back to 1956 in Winter Haven, FL.??In 1981 it became Druther's Restaurant to reflect a broader menu...

Beefsteak Charlie's was founded in Manhattan in 1910 and became a chain in 1976 with locations through out the New York metropolitan area. The chain went out of business in 1987, but a few locations soldiered on, the last one, in Nassau County, closed...

The Arena Football League was founded in 1986 by Jim Foster, who had gotten the idea from watching a Major Indoor Soccer League game earlier in the decade. After two test games in 1986, the league kicked off in 1987 with four teams travelling...

It was a miracle season for New York's senior circuit team. It's 25th, the campaign ended with a world championship, the franchises second.

On September 11, 1985, Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's all-time record for most career hits.??His teammates mobbed him at home plate, while then Reds owner Marge Schott presented him with a red Corvette, driven in from behind the outfield fence. The sellout crowd of...

The Indianapolis Clowns a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. They came to Indianapolis in 1946 after stints in Cincinnati, Miami, and as a barnstorming team. They left the Negro American League in 1954 but continued to play exhibition games into the...

KYAC was Seattle's soul station from 1965, when it first signed on, until 1981 when it became KKFX.

The Chicago Horizons were members of the original Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). Taking their name from their home arena, The Rosemont Horizon (now the Allstate Arena), they played only one season, 1980-81.

In September of 1988, Pittsburgh's alternative music station WXXP, Double X, switched its format to adult contemporary. On April 15, 1989, WXVX 1510 A.M. in suburban Monroeville, which had been playing '50s and '60s oldies, flipped its format to modern rock under new program...

After the original Cleveland Force of the MISL folded in 1988, the city was granted an expansion franchise to begin play the following season. The Crunch played for 3 seasons in the MISL before jumping to the NPSL in 1992. They joined the second...

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

The Starwood Ampitheater was an outdoor music venue in Nashville. For a generation it was greater Nashville's outdoor concert hot spot. It opened June 20, 1986 with concert called??One for the Sun, featuring, among others, rock & roll legend Carl Perkins.??Blue Oyster Cult performed...

ON TV was an over-the-air subscription TV service that started broadcasting in 1977. With the use of a set-top descrambler, subscribers could watch movies, sports, and other premium content. By 1985, competition from cable TV forced ON TV and similar services out of business.

The original San Diego Sockers began as the Baltimore Comets in the old North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1974. The team moved to San Diego in 1976, becoming the Jaws. A year later, they were the Las Vegas Quicksilvers, before returning to Southern...

Idora Park began welcoming visitors in 1899 and was a beloved destination for folks in the Youngstown/Warren area for generations. However, a devastating fire in 1984 destroyed the park's signature ride, the Wildcat roller coaster. The park soldiered on for one more season before...

The original Tacoma Stars joined the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 1983 as an expansion team. They hold the record for largest ever to see an MISL game as 21,728 witnessed a Game 7 loss to the Dallas Sidekicks in the 1987 MISL...

The Rike-Kumler was established in Dayton in 1853. David L. Rike and his associates started their venture near Third Street and Main downtown.??The business started when the firm of Prugh, Joyce & Rike was formed. This organization continued for a short time until the...

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 sold...

Westaland Mall opened in 1969 as an open-air, plaza-style shopping center, much like the Northland Mall five years earlier. Lazuras had a free-standing store on the site beginning in 1962 and became one of the mall's anchors. In the 70s, the mall was the...

The Montreal Concordes were a continuation of the original Montreal Alouettes. The name change was necessitated when the Alouettes' owner folded the team in 1982 but asserted his rights to the name and logo. The team reverted back to the Alouettes name in 1986.

The Phoenix Inferno joined the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 1980. In 1983 new ownership renamed them the Pride. They folded after that season.

Queenie Bee was the the beloved mascot of the Burger Queen fast food chain. She retired in 1981 when the chain changed its name to Druther's.

Riverfront Stadium, later Cinergy Field, was the home of the Cincinnati Reds (and Bengals) from 1970 until 2002. The Reds captured three World Series titles (1975, 1976, and 1990) while playing there. The Bengals won the AFC Championship there in 1981 in a game...

In the '80s and '90s, the Animal House was the place in St. Louis for young people to dance and see live music. It was originally located on Chambers Road, later moving to Lewis and Clark Boulevard, and finally to North Hanley.

SkyDome opened in 1989 as the new home of Toronto's baseball and football teams. The city's basketball team played there from 1995 to 1999 while a new arena was being built downtown. The football team got the boot in 2015, leaving the baseball team...

Game on '90s kid! Turbo Grafx-16 was the world's first 16-bit video game system. Produced by the NEC, it debuted in 1989 and was discontinued in 1994 but not before moving over 5 million units worldwide.

Rich's was a department store chain headquartered in Atlanta. It opened in 1867 and was absorbed by Federated Department Stores, operators of Macy's, in 2005. In 1968, it launched the Richway brand, a chain of stores. Their slogan was,??"We don't look like a discount...