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On the cover of Sports Illustrated's July 21, 1986 issue is quarterback Jim Kelly in a New Jersey Generals uniform. The Houston Gamblers merged with the Generals as the USFL prepared to move to a fall schedule in 1986. The merger teamed Kelly with the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner and USFL all-time rushing leader - Herschel Walker.
Long before Kelly led the Buffalo Bills to four Super Bowls, he threw 83 touchdowns and passed for more than 9,800 yards during his two years as the quarterback of the Houston Gamblers.
Twenty years later, Kelly still feels like he missed a great opportunity to bring the Gamblers' Run-and-Shoot offense to New York and play alongside a back of Walker's caliber. "Without a doubt, talk about a dream team—what do you think?" said Kelly, when asked if he would have liked to play for the Generals.
But the USFL never kicked-off the 1986 season. No passes were thrown, no quarterbacks sacked, no points were scored in another USFL game.
Yet the USFL is still alive and thriving within the modern day NFL. The controversial use of instant replay and the two-point conversion were used long before the NFL adopted these changes. The USFL was also a test-market for pro football in cities like Phoenix, Ariz., Memphis, Tenn., and Jacksonville, Fla. Players like Steve Young, Reggie White, Kelly and Walker had a tremendous impact on the NFL landscape for years to come.
In addition to instant replay and the two-point conversion, the league was a breath of fresh air with innovations like the 18 game schedule, drafting underclassmen and "territorial" college drafts—meaning teams like the Arizona Wranglers would have more leverage in signing players from Arizona State and the University of Arizona.
Unlike the NFL, the USFL wanted to promote and spotlight its players. The NFL wanted the team's logo to be the only identifiable source for its fans, but the USFL wanted college stars like Walker, Young, Kelly and White to be the face of the new spring league.
In the 2005 NFL draft, more than 30 college players were underclassmen—a prime example of the lasting effects the USFL continues to have on professional football today.
More than 9 million fans passed through the turnstiles to watch USFL games, but when the Baltimore Stars beat the Oakland Invaders 28-24 in the USFL Championship on July 14, 1985, it was the last game ever for the spring league.
It was the end of a dream for many players like Stars QB Chuck Fusina and the start of a brave new world for play-ers like Sam Mills, Bobby Hebert, Bart Oates, Maurice Carthon and more.
At the annual owner's meeting on Aug. 22, 1984 in Chicago, the USFL voted to switch from a spring to a fall schedule be-ginning in 1986. Many owners felt pressure from Donald Trump, owner of the N.J. Generals, to move to the fall and go head-to-head with the mighty NFL. In the spring of 1986, the USFL filed a $1.7 billion antitrust suit against the NFL in a Manhattan District Court. The highly publicized trial had Raiders owner Al Davis testify against the NFL as well as testimony from legendary ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell.
Steve Ehrhart, a former USFL execu-tive and general manager of the Memphis Showboats, still holds the check the NFL had to pay the USFL for violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. According to legal documents retrieved from the case, USFL v. NFL, "the NFL was found guilty of unlawful monopolization of pro-fessional football that injured the USFL, and the jury found the NFL had willfully acquired or maintained a monopoly pow-er in a market consisting of major-league pro football in the United States."
However, the victory didn't mean a landfall of money for the USFL. The jury awarded the USFL $1, which was trebled according to antitrust law to $3. The to-tal, including interest, came to $3.76.
The USFL did collect more than $20 million in court costs a few years later, but by then "the spirit of the league had evaporated," Ehrhart said. The $3.76 check remains in Ehrhart's desk at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn.
Was that all the league was worth?
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