The Seventies

The Chicago Fire were charter members of the World Football League in 1974. The team started off well, posting a 7-2 record in the first half of the season and drawing an average of 34,000 fans to Soldier Field. However, after a 10-game losing...

The original El Paso Diablos were established in 1892 as the Browns. They were later known as the Mavericks, Texans, and Sun Kings. In 1974, they became the Diablos. The team moved to Springfield, MO in 2005 but were replaced by a new Diablos...

Before the NHL's Islanders called the area home, the Island had this Eastern Hockey League (EHL) team to cheer for. The Ducks played from 1959 until 1973 (a year after the arrival of the Islanders), when the EHL folded. Their home ice was at...

Opened in 1972, The Continent was a forerunner of today's lifestyle shopping centers such as Easton Center. Designed to mimic a French village or neighborhood, the complex mixed shopping, dining, and entertainment. The centerpiece was the French Market. By the early '90s, a few...

The Salt Palace was an arena in Salt Lake City, Utah that was home to the Utah Stars of the??American Basketball Association (ABA)?? after the team moved to town from Los Angeles. While in Utah. The Stars won the 1971 ABA Championship. The Stars...

After the International Hockey League (IHL) Columbus Checkers folded in 1970, the NHL's California Golden Seals??acquired the rights to put an IHL farm team in Ohio's capital. In 1973, the Columbus Golden Seals were sold and renamed the Owls. Their home ice was the...

After spending one season in Minnesota, the Muskies of the American Basketball Association moved south to become the Miami Floridians for the 1968-69 season. They were known simply as the Floridians for their final two seasons starting in 1970.

Max's Kansas City, located at 213 Park Avenue in Lower Manhattan, was one of the most famous rock clubs in America. It was established in 1965 Mickey Ruskin, a Cornell Law School graduate who went on to become a successful restauranteur. As for Max's,...

The Providence Reds (also known as the Rhode Island Reds) started in the Canadian-American Hockey League in 1926. They continued with that circuit when it became the American Hockey League in 1936. In 1976, the became the Rhode Island Reds, before moving to Binghamton,...

Founded in 1972, the Los Angeles Sharks were charter members of the World Hockey Association (WHA). The team was originally going to be called the Aces, but when the San Francisco Sharks were transferred to Quebec to become the Nordiques before the start of...

Baby Doe's Matchless Mine was a theme restaurant popular in the 1970s and 1980s.??The chain was named for Elizabeth McCourt "Baby" Doe Tabor (1854???935), the young bride of Central City, Colorado mine owner Harvey Doe. It was founded by aviation collector David Tallichet Jr....

The New York Arrows were charter members of the original Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 1978. They played their home games at the Nassau County Coliseum on Long Island. In the league's first ever game, baseball legend Pete Rose kicked out the first...

The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) debuted in 1978 with six teams. Playing on a astroturf-covered hockey rinks, the league quickly grew in popularity through the 1980s. Interest began to wane toward the end of the decade. Teams included the very popular St. Louis...

The Chicago Fire were a charter member of the World Football League in 1974. The team started off well, posting a 7-2 record in the first half of the season and drawing an average of 34,000 fans to Soldier Field. However, after a 10-game...

The Carolina Cougars began as the Houston Mavericks, charter members of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967. The club relocated to North Carolina in 1969, splitting home games between Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro. The latter is where they played most of their games...

Daddy's Junky Music store was the premier destination for Boston-area musicians. Staffed by musicians, the store served the scene from 1972 to 2011.

Encouraged by the initial success of his American Basketball Association (ABA), which challenged the National Basketball Association (NBA), Gary Davidson and his cohorts turned their attention to hockey. On November 1, 1971, Davidson announced the formation of the World Hockey Association (WHA) to challenge...

The Oakland Oaks were a basketball team co-owned by singer Pat Boone. They began in 1967 as charter members of the American Basketball Association. They went from worst to first in 1969, capturing the second-ever ABA title. In 1970, the team moved east to...

Family Video was in founded in 1978 in Springfield, Illinois as the Video Movie Club. The idea came about when??Midstates Appliance and Supply Company, owned by Charles Hoogland, found itself stuck with an excess of video movies as a result of being a distributor...

Greezed Lightnin' was a steel coaster at AstroWorld in Houston, Texas that opened in 1978. It closed with the rest of the park at the end of the 2005 operating season. At a height of 137.8 feet, it reached a top speed of 60...

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...

One of Cleveland's all-time most beloved sports franchises, and indeed one of America's most popular soccer teams ever, was the Force. They were a charter member of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 1978 and played 10 seasons before folding in 1988. READ...

A favorite of locals and tourists alike, Wet 'n Wild was America's first water park. Opened in 1977 it welcomed its last visitors on December 31, 2016.

In 1976, America's largest fast food chain introduced the character of Phil A. O'Fish to help sell their fish sandwiches. In recent years it has become the opposite of an urban legend with many asserting Phil A. O'Fish never existed. He did, but he...

It was the jingle you couldn't escape if you watched TV in Cleveland in the early '80s. Channel 43 went on the air in 1968, eight months after the debut of WKBF, Channel 61. Both were independent stations, but only one survived the '70s....

Despite drawing some of the biggest crows in the first season of the World Football League (WFL), and winning World Bowl I (and as it turned out, only), the Birmingham Americans were out of business. In 1975, the entire league reorganized, with the remaining...

Founded in Cincinnati in 1943, King Records was one of the most important independent record labels in music history. One of its sibling labels, Federal Records, was the original home of James Brown. King was purchased by Nashville's Gusto Records in 1974.

Fontaine Ferry Park opened in 1905 at the end of West Market Street in Louisville. It closed in 1969 after a riot on opening day left the park heavily damaged. It re-opened in 1972 as Ghost Town on The River. A year later the...

The Flip Side started selling records & tapes in Chicago in 1971. At its peak, it had over 25 locations throughout the Midwest. However, the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry caused The Flip Side to go out of business in 1992.

Woodsy Owl first appeared in 1971 and asked Americans to take better care of the environment by disposing of trash properly. An??updated version??of Woodsy was developed in the 1990s.