The Eighties

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 Battle of the Network Stars was a series of TV programs that featured stars from the three major broadcast networks of the 1970s, pitted against each other in various athletic events. A total of 19 episodes were produced from 1976 to 1988. OS15000...

The Bohannon Brewing Company was founded in 1988 and is recognized as Tennessee's original micro/pub brewery.

The Force was with soccer fans in Cleveland from 1978 to 1988 as charter members of the Major Indoor Soccer League. The team name was resurrected when the Cleveland Crunch, founded in 1989, changed its name to the Force in 2002.

The San Jose Clash joined the MLS in that league's inaugural 1996 season. After five years, the team changed it's name to Earthquakes after the city's popular original outdoor (and indoor) soccer team that played in the old NASL, the MISL, and the WSA...

The Chicago Bruisers were one of four teams established for the inaugural season of the Arena Football League in 1987. Their homefield was the Rosemont Horizon. After three seasons the team folded.

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...

King Cobra was the first coaster to be designed and built specifically as a stand-up coaster. The ride opened in 1984. The original manufacturer, TOGO, went out of business in 2001 making parts difficult to find causing the ride to close after the 2002...

Channel 48, WKBS, was an independent TV station licensed to Burlington, NJ that served the greater Philadelphia TV market.??The station broadcast from 1965 to 1983.

The Grand Prix of Cleveland was an Indy car event first held on July 4, 1982 as the "Budweiser Cleveland 500." The race was held annually at Burke Lakefront Airport through 2007.

The Detroit Printing Co-Op was founded by Freddy Perlman, a prolific and widely respected political writer and thinker. Perlman and his wife Lorraine printed all the books published by their press, Black & Red, at the co-op from 1970-1980. Other groups made use 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...

The Columbus Magic played in the old American Soccer league in 1979 and 1980. Their home pitch was Franklin County Stadium which was also used by the Clippers at that time.

The first major league pro sports team to call Las Vegas home, the Quicksilvers of the North American Soccer League arrived in 1977 from San Diego where they spent a season as the Jaws. The year before that, they were the Baltimore Comets for...

Rivermen were members of??North American Softball League (NASL). The NASL existed for only the 1980 season, before joining with the American Professional Slow Pitch League (APSPL) to create the United Professional Softball League. Since the Cincinnati Suds were already in existence in the APSL,...

The Detroit Express played in the old North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. Its home field was the Pontiac Silverdome. They also participated in the NASL indoor league during the 1979/80 and 1980/81 seasons.

The original World Team Tennis (WTT) was a pro tennis league formed in 1974 by many of the same people that brought the sports world the likes of the American Basketball Association, the World Hockey Association, and the World Football League. The league folded...

Introduced in 1973, the Marathon bar was advertised with the slogans, "lasts a good longtime" and "nobody eats a Marathon fast." Indeed, its eight inches of chocolate covered caramel could not be consumed quickly, It went out of production in 1981.

WTAM 1100 began broadcasting in 1923 from Cleveland. Over the years the station would also be known as KYW, WKYC, and from 1972 to 1996, WWWE, or 3WE. It was during the 3WE years that the station broadcast the Cleveland Cavaliers Miracle at Richfield, season...

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...

After the Central Hockey League (CHL) version of the Stingers folded 33 games into the 1979/80 season, Cincinnati was left without a pro hockey team for the first time since 1974, when the American Hockey League's Swords folded. The Tigers hit the ice in...

Known as simply The Longhorn to loyal patrons and music fans, Jay's Longhorn was one of the most important rock clubs in America in the 1970s and 1980s. Many national and international acts played their early in their careers as did many well known...

Open Pantry was a chain of convenience stores that operated in the Greater Cleveland area from 1961 until the early 1980s.

In 1989, Oakland finished with 99 wins and 63 losses They won the championship and??are considered to be one of the greatest teams ever.??

The Baltimore Tribe was a member of the short-lived American Lacrosse League, a professional lacrosse league in 1988, that was based in Catonsville, Maryland. The Tribe played their home games at the University of Maryland.

Rain City Video was a small chain of video rental shops that started in 1988. Its last location, in West Ballard, closed in April of 2017.

The Pontiac Silverdome, better known as just the Silverdome, opened in 1975 in suburban Detroit. Its primary tenant was Detroit's pro football team. They left for a new downtown stadium in 2001. The city's pro basketball team played there for a decade (1978-1988). Other...

Gimbel Brothers, better known as Gimbels, was an American department store chain from 1887 until 1987. Though it stared in Indiana it is widely known for creating the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia, the oldest such parade in the country.

The Purple Gator was a concert venue located in the Magnolia Shopping Center off of Kings Highway near Restaurant Row in Myrtle Beach. It operated from 1987 to 1995 and welcomed many of the country's top musical acts.

The Cincinnati Silverbacks were a professional indoor soccer club that competed in the National Professional Soccer League from 1995 to 1998. The team originated in Dayton as the Dayton Dynamo in 1987. They played their first two seasons in Cincinnati at the old Cincinnati...