Chicago Blitz

For the indoor football team, see Chicago Blitz (indoor football). For the women's football team, see Chicago Blitz (X League).

The Chicago Blitz was a professional American football team that played in the United States Football League (USFL) in the mid-1980s. They played at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago Blitz
Established 1982 Folded 1984 Played in Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois
League/conference affiliations
United States Football League (1983–1985) Western Conference (1984) Central Division (1983–1984)
Current uniform
Team colors	Red, Blue, Silver, White
Personnel
Owner(s)	1983 Dr. Ted Diethrich 1984 Dr. James Hoffman 1984 The USFL
General manager	Bruce Allen (1983)
Head coach	1983 George Allen (12-7) 1984 Marv Levy (5-13)
Team history
Chicago Blitz (1983–1984)
Championships
League championships (0)
Conference championships (0)
Division championships (0)
Home stadium(s)
Soldier Field (1983–1984)

Team history

The Blitz were one of the twelve charter franchises of the USFL. The owner was originally slated to be J. Walter Duncan, an Oklahoma oil magnate who had grown up in Chicago. However, league founder David Dixon persuaded Duncan to take on ownership of the New York City franchise–which became the New Jersey Generals–after its original owner, Donald Trump, pulled out.

With Duncan's withdrawal, legendary NFL coach George Allen and Southern California developer Willard Vernon Harris, Jr. applied for the vacant Chicago franchise. A search for capital led them to renowned heart surgeon Dr. Ted Diethrich, who had originally expressed interest in a franchise for his hometown of Phoenix. Allen and Diethrich had been friends since the 1970s, when Diethrich gave a talk on heart disease to Allen's Washington Redskins. However, he agreed to join Allen and Harris' group in return for controlling interest. Diethrich served as president, with Harris as executive vice president and Allen as chairman of the board and head coach.

George Allen

Allen had been out of coaching since 1977; he had been a candidate for the vacant head coaching position with the Chicago Bears a year earlier; he'd made his mark in the NFL a quarter-century earlier as the Bears' de facto defensive coordinator. However, Bears owner George Halas had never forgiven Allen for defecting to the Los Angeles Rams in 1965. The feeling was mutual; Allen relished the chance to get the better of the rival Bears. Allen immediately became the "face" of the new team, and set about putting together the best 40-man roster he could find. The result was a team loaded with NFL veterans that was the early favorite to be the new league's first champion.

1983 season

The Blitz finished in a tie for the Central Division title with the Michigan Panthers. However, the Panthers were awarded the division title after sweeping the Blitz in the regular season, and would go on to become the league's first champions.

In the playoffs, the Blitz blew a 21-point lead over the Philadelphia Stars, losing 44–38 in overtime.

Struggling at the gate

The Blitz was one of the strongest teams in the league. Indeed, some suggested that the Blitz and the two finalists, the Stars and Panthers, could have been competitive in the NFL. However, they struggled at the gate, averaging only 18,100 fans—a total that looked even smaller in the relatively spacious configuration of Soldier Field. These numbers were very similar to the gates for the Stars and Panthers in their first year. Both of those franchises would see dramatically higher attendance numbers in their second season based on their on-field success in their first year.

Diethrich lost millions of dollars in 1983. Although he, like most of the other owners, knew that he could expect years of losses until the USFL established itself, he soon tired of flying between his home in Phoenix (he was the founder of the Arizona Heart Institute) and Chicago. Indeed, he had actually sought a team in Phoenix when the USFL initially took shape, but backed out when he could not hammer out a stadium deal. Years later, he said that spending three days a week in Chicago or wherever the Blitz were playing made it difficult to continue his heart research, and led him to conclude he could not be an absentee owner in the long run.

Franchise swap with Arizona Wranglers

As it turned out, Arizona Wranglers owner Jim Joseph had lost almost as much money as Diethrich, and was looking to sell the Wranglers. Diethrich was willing to take over in Arizona if he could bring Allen and his NFL veteran-loaded roster with him. Joseph readily agreed. Soon afterward, Diethrich found a buyer for the Blitz in Milwaukee-based heart surgeon James Hoffman.

This resulted in one of the most unusual transactions in sports history. On September 20, 1983, Diethrich sold the Blitz to Hoffman for $7.2 million, then bought the Wranglers from Joseph. Hoffman and Diethrich then engineered a swap of assets in which Allen, the Blitz coaching staff and most of the Blitz players moved to Phoenix while most of the Wranglers roster moved to Chicago. Over 100 total players changed hands. The most notable exception was that Wrangler quarterback Alan Risher stayed in Arizona to back up Greg Landry.

Diethrich initially wanted to take the Blitz name with him to Arizona, but Hoffman insisted on keeping the Blitz name in Chicago. However, little else was left. As soon as the deal closed, Allen sent virtually everything of value at Blitz headquarters in Des Plaines to Phoenix, including typewriters and mirrors. Nearly everything with a Blitz logo or even the team name was thrown into the dumpster. Allen also sent some $100,000 worth of equipment that should have stayed in Chicago as part of the purchase, but Diethrich promised it would be returned.

The deal transformed the Wranglers from a cellar-dweller to a powerhouse almost overnight, while turning the Blitz from the third-best team in the league into a lesser version of a team that finished 4–14, tied for the worst record in the league. However, Hoffman claimed that he would not have even considered buying the team had he been required to keep the expensive player contracts. Nonetheless, the transaction raised serious questions about the USFL's credibility—especially in Chicago.

The USFL considered the 1983 and 1984 Wranglers to be the same franchise, even though almost all the players were different.

The Hoffman Era

Hoffman spent heavily in promoting the new Blitz. He hired NFL veteran, future Pro Football Hall of Famer and Chicago native Marv Levy as coach: Levy reportedly thought he would be taking over George Allen's team when he took the job.

Bears backup QB Vince Evans was brought in to be the new Blitz starting quarterback. Evans signed in November 1983 to a 4-year, $5 million deal in spite of owning a rather unimpressive 57.31 QB rating in seven previous NFL seasons. Evans' accuracy was always an issue in the NFL. His most accurate season up to that point was 1980 when he completed 53.2% of his passes. He entered the USFL with a career NFL competition percentage of 48.7% and a 31-53 TD to INT ratio.

In January 1984, the Blitz tendered an offer that would have been the largest contract in football, $2 million a year for 3 years, to Bears star running back Walter Payton. Payton promised to consider the offer, but would not be rushed. The Blitz 1984 season was scheduled to start on February 27 and the new ownership had little success selling season tickets. As the Blitz needed Payton quickly to help sales, so they put a deadline on the offer of February 9. In the event, before Payton made his decision, the Blitz withdrew the offer realizing they simply did not have the finances.

After this failure, Hoffman aggressively marketed the Blitz, pouring much money into advertising. It was to no avail; with a less talented team and no big names to attract fans, ticket sales flatlined. Fans were unhappy that Hoffman had jettisoned the core of a near NFL-quality team in favor of an also-ran.

At the outset, the USFL had made much of the fact that it required potential owners to submit to a detailed due diligence and meet strict capitalization requirements. However, it subsequently emerged that USFL officials had largely dispensed with these procedures after Hoffman made an offer for the Blitz. They had been so desperate to get an apparently solid owner in the nation's third-largest market that they never took a close look at Hoffman's finances. He only paid $500,000 at signing, with the remainder of the purchase price due in installments.

When Hoffman realized that he had grossly underestimated the cost of running a professional football team, he scrambled to find minority investors, but not before falling behind in paying several bills. After the second preseason game, Hoffman abruptly walked away and nominally left the team in the hands of his minority partners. However, Hoffman's now-former partners returned the franchise to the league soon afterward when they could not even begin to secure the financing needed to take the field.

The USFL now had a major problem, as they could not simply shut down the Blitz. Its contract with ABC required the league to have teams in the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago markets, which were home to ABC's strongest-performing stations.

The league was forced to take over the franchise, with league personnel director Carl Marasco taking over as team president, and future Hall of Famer Bill Polian becoming player personnel director. Soon after taking control, Marasco fired nearly all of Hoffman's front office staff in a cost-cutting move.

The 1984 season

Although the 1984 Blitz had many of the same players as the 1983 Wranglers, they were a weaker team due to two reasons.

First, there was an expansion draft and its requirements. All of the initial 12 teams were required to make players available for the six new expansion teams. Secondly, Evans was not a capable replacement for Risher, the league's 6th-ranked passer in 1983.

Levy kept the "new" Blitz competitive at first. While they lost their first five games, two came as a result of late field goals and one came in overtime. They managed consecutive wins over Washington and San Antonio, but won only three more times after that, finishing with the third-worst record in the league. The 1983 Wrangler defense gave up a league worst 442 points and the 1984 Blitz were equally as challenged defensively, finishing second to last in the league with 466 points allowed.

Evans was the quarterback many fans expected—a flashy talent with little accuracy or consistency and a penchant for turnovers. For the season, he completed 48.7% of his passes with 14 TDs and 22 INTs for a rating of 58.29. Featured HB Larry Canada was solid, running for 915 yards and 7 TDs and adding 48 catches. WR Marcus Anderson led the team with 50 catches for 940 yards with 5 TDs. All-Pro punter Jeff Gossett led the USFL with a 42.5-yard avg.

Matters were little better off the field. The league only pumped the bare minimum into the team to keep it on the field through the season. With their promotional efforts derailed by the firing of the front office staff the Blitz attracted only 7,500 people per game, the second-lowest average gate in the league. The inability to draw even 10,000 per game would dramatically affect the team's bottom line.

Shutting down

With four games to go, a press conference was held announcing that the Blitz would be shut down. At the same time, the USFL awarded a new Chicago franchise to Chicago White Sox minority owner Eddie Einhorn. While it was stressed that Einhorn's franchise was not the Blitz, Einhorn retained the rights to all Blitz players and coaching staff—strongly implying the team would play in the 1985 season. ABC had no objections to this move, probably due to the USFL's anemic ratings in Chicago.

Einhorn was a strong proponent of the USFL's planned move to the fall in 1986 (so as not to compete with his own White Sox or their crosstown rivals the Chicago Cubs for fans), and focused his efforts on getting a new television deal for the team. He was only willing to field a team in the USFL's final spring lame duck season of 1985 if he could merge with another team and was allowed to select players in an expansion draft. When the league refused to agree to these terms, he opted to sit out the 1985 season. He decided to sit out 1986 as well and concentrate instead on getting a new television deal. It wound up being academic when the USFL suspended operations after only winning three dollars in damages in an antitrust suit against the NFL.

Players who went on to the National Football League

The Blitz had a number of players who had played in the National Football League or would go on to play there. Some of them were Vince Evans, Tim Spencer, Trumaine Johnson, Greg Landry, Jeff Gossett, Vagas Ferguson, Richard Holland, Joe Ehrmann, Tim Wrightman, Larry Canada, Tom Thayer, Frank Minnifield, Jim Fahnhorst, Marc May, Brian Glasgow, Walter Easley, Luther Bradley, Troy Thomas, Robert Cobb, Ed Smith, Stan White, Eddie Brown, Kevin Long, and Mark Keel.

There are currently two coaches in the Pro Football Hall of Fame that coached in the USFL, both whom coached the Blitz: George Allen (1983) and Marv Levy (1984).

1983 Blitz game results

Week	Day	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	TV	Venue	Attendance
Regular season
1	Sunday	March 6	at Washington Federals	W 28–7	1–0	ABC	RFK Stadium	38,007
2	Saturday	March 12	at Arizona Wranglers	L 29–30	1–1	ESPN	Sun Devil Stadium	28,434
3	Sunday	March 20	Denver Gold	L 13–16	1–2	ABC	Soldier Field	22,600
4	Sunday	March 27	Los Angeles Express	W 20–14	2–2	ABC	Soldier Field	10,936
5	Saturday	April 2	at Tampa Bay Bandits	W 42–3	3–2	ESPN	Tampa Stadium	46,585
6	Sunday	April 10	Birmingham Stallions	W 22–11	4–2	ABC	Soldier Field	13,859
7	Sunday	April 17	at Michigan Panthers	L 12–17	4–3		Pontiac Silverdome	11,634
8	Monday	April 25	New Jersey Generals	W 17–14 (OT)	5–3	ESPN	Soldier Field	32,184
9	Sunday	May 1	at Los Angeles Express	W 38–17	6–3		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	21,123
10	Sunday	May 8	Washington Federals	W 31–3	7–3		Soldier Field	11,303
11	Sunday	May 15	at Philadelphia Stars	L 24–31	7–4	ABC	Veterans Stadium	20,931
12	Sunday	May 22	at New Jersey Generals	W 19–13 (OT)	8–4	ABC	Giants Stadium	33,812
13	Monday	May 30	Arizona Wranglers	W 36–11	9–4	ESPN	Soldier Field	13,952
14	Monday	June 6	at Boston Breakers	L 15–21	9–5	ESPN	Nickerson Field	15,087
15	Sunday	June 12	Tampa Bay Bandits	W 31–8	10–5		Soldier Field	21,249
16	Friday	June 17	at Birmingham Stallions	W 29–14	11–5	ABC	Legion Field	22,500
17	Sunday	June 26	Michigan Panthers	L 19–34	11–6	ABC	Soldier Field	25,041
18	Sunday	July 3	Oakland Invaders	W 31–7	12–6	ABC	Soldier Field	12,346
Playoffs
Divisional Playoffs	Saturday	July 9	Philadelphia Stars	L 38–44 (OT)	—	ABC	Veterans Stadium	15,684

1983 Chicago Blitz roster

1983 Chicago Blitz roster
Quarterbacks 14 Tim Koegel 11 Greg Landry  8 Tom Porras 15 Tom Rozantz 10 Bobby Scott Running backs 43 Mack Boatner FB 34 Frank Collins 31 Walt Easley FB 48 Kevin Long FB 34 Walter Poole 46 Tim Spencer 42 Jim Stone Wide receivers 80 Marcus Anderson 88 Wamon Buggs 82 Larry Douglas  2 Trumaine Johnson 89 Lenny Willis Tight ends 84 Doug Cozen 86 Paul Ricker 81 Tim Wrightman		Offensive linemen 54 Robert Barnes G 59 Bruce Branch G 78 Nick Eyre T 66 Tim James 50 Jack Lafferty 62 Jim Lohmann T 59 James Looney 66 Bill McClung G 79 Bob Newton G 68 Tim Norman G 65 Wally Pesuit C 59 Tom Piette C 73 Mark Stevenston G 75 Rob Taylor T 61 Tom Thayer G 50 Steve Tobin 69 Kari Yli-Renko T Defensive linemen 77 Junior Ah You DE 63 Mark Buben DE 72 Bob Cobb DE 74 Joe Ehrmann DT 76 Ken Gillen DE 70 Kit Lathrop DT 64 John Lee DE 71 Karl Lorch DE 79 Troy Thomas DT		Linebackers 59 Tim Darling 55 Jim Fahnhorst 51 Joe Federspiel 57 Doak Field 58 Bruce Gheesling 53 Andrew Melontree 56 Ed Smith 52 Stan White Defensive backs 32 Carl Allen FS 27 Luther Bradley FS 25 Eddie Brown SS 21 Doug Dennison CB 24 Virgil Livers CB  1 Frank Minnifield CB 28 Don Schwartz SS 37 Pat Schmidt SS 22 Lance Shields CB 20 Maurice Tyler CB Special teams  3 Frank Corral K/P  5 Frank Garcia P  7 John Roveto K

1984 Blitz game results

Week	Day	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	TV	Venue	Attendance
Preseason
1	Bye
2	Saturday	February 4	vs. Michigan Panthers	L 20–21	0–1		Scottsdale, Arizona
3	Saturday	February 11	vs. Oakland Invaders	W 31–21	1–1		Mesa, Arizona
4	Saturday	February 18	vs. Denver Gold	L 24–25	1–2		Casa Grande, Arizona
Regular season
1	Monday	February 27	at Michigan Panthers	L 18–20	0–1	ESPN	Pontiac Silverdome	22,428
2	Sunday	March 4	at Memphis Showboats	L 13–23	0–2		Liberty Bowl	10,152
3	Sunday	March 11	Houston Gamblers	L 36–45	0–3		Soldier Field	7,808
4	Saturday	March 17	Oklahoma Outlaws	L 14–17	0–4		Soldier Field	6,206
5	Sunday	March 25	at New Orleans Breakers	L 35–41 (OT)	0–5	ABC	Louisiana Superdome	43,692
6	Saturday	March 31	at Washington Federals	W 21–20	1–5		RFK Stadium	7,373
7	Saturday	April 7	San Antonio Gunslingers	W 16–10	2–5		Soldier Field	9,412
8	Sunday	April 15	at Philadelphia Stars	L 7–41	2–6		Veterans Stadium	17,417
9	Friday	April 20	Los Angeles Express	W 49–29	3–6		Soldier Field	11,713
10	Sunday	April 29	Oakland Invaders	L 13–17	3–7		Soldier Field	7,802
11	Sunday	May 6	at San Antonio Gunslingers	L 21–30	3–8		Alamo Stadium	15,233
12	Friday	May 11	at Denver Gold	W 29–17	4–8		Mile High Stadium	45,299
13	Friday	May 18	Birmingham Stallions	L 7–41	4–9		Soldier Field	8,578
14	Monday	May 28	New Jersey Generals	L 17–21	4–10	ESPN	Soldier Field	4,307
15	Saturday	June 2	at Oklahoma Outlaws	W 14–0	5–10	ESPN	Skelly Stadium	17,195
16	Sunday	June 10	at Houston Gamblers	L 13–38	5–11	ABC	Houston Astrodome	24,243
17	Friday	June 15	Arizona Wranglers	L 0–36	5–12		Soldier Field	5,711
18	Sunday	June 24	Michigan Panthers	L 17–20	5–13		Soldier Field	5,557

1984 Chicago Blitz roster

1984 Chicago Blitz roster
Quarterbacks  8 EVANS, Vince 11 SHAW, Dennis 14 KOEGEL, Tim 15 REEVES, Ron Running backs 26 FERGUSON, Vagas RB 29 WORTHY, Gary RB 33 FORD, Glenn RB 35 CANADA, Larry RB 42 STONE, Jim FB 44 MIDDLETON, Terdell RB Wide receivers 80 ANDERSON, Marcus 82 STOKES, Darryl 82 JAMES, Vic 84 MAGEE, Keith 84 FULTON, Dan 85 EHLEBRACHT, T.K. 86 LEWIS, Gary 87 WILLIAMS, Oliver 87 McCLAIN, Frank 88 FLOWERS, Jackie 88 POTTS, Shawn 89 HAINES, Kris Tight ends 81 GLASGOW, Brian 83 KEEL, Mark		Offensive linemen 57 FISCHER, Mark C 60 WESTON, Mike C 62 HARTNETT, Perry G 63 STROTH, Vince T 65 HYDE, Glenn G 71 WALTERS, Rod G 73 SIMMONS, Bob G 74 HOPPOCK, Doug T 77 JIGGETTS, Dan T 78 DOERGER, Jerry T Defensive linemen 61 CATTAGE, Ray DE 68 BUNCHE, Curtis DE 70 TAYLOR, Malcolm DT 72 TIMES, Ken DE 76 MORGAN, Mike DT 79 THORNTON, Bruce DE 91 CLASBY, Bob DE 91 LINDSTROM, Chris DE 93 PUHA, Dennis DT		Linebackers 51 FISHER, Robin LB 51 WASHINGTON, Russ LB 52 RIVERA, Jimmy LB 52 GABRIELSON, Jeff OLB 53 GILLEN, John MLB 54 KILKENNY, Tom LB 55 NORRIS, Sam LB 55 LUTE, Dann LB 56 HAYNES, Clinton LB 56 WILLIAMS, Greg LB 56 RUFF, Guy LB 58 KIMMEL, Jon LB 58 KNAPTON, Bob LB 59 LOONEY, James LB 59 KELLEY, Ken OLB 51 CANNAVINO, Andy LB Defensive backs 19 PEOPLES, Carlton CB 20 HARRIS, Ronnie CB 21 BRYANT, Trent CB 22 DANIEL, Donnell SS 24 LIVERS, Virgil CB 25 WILCOX, Tommy SS 27 FOX, Mike FS 28 ARNAUD, John FS 44 EPPES, Roy FS 46 PLANK, Doug SS 47 ARMSTEAD, Charles CB 44 WILSON, Kirk CB 37 BAIRD, Kerry FS Special teams  3 SEIBEL, Kevin K  7 GOSSETT, Jeff P 13 WHITT, David P

Single season leaders

Rushing Yards: 1157 (1983), Tim Spencer

Receiving Yards: 1327 (1983), Trumaine Johnson

Passing Yards: 2624 (1984), Vince Evans

Season-by-season

Season records

Season	W	L	T	Finish	Playoff results
1983	12	6	0	2nd Central	Lost Divisional (Philadelphia)
1984	5	13	0	5th WC Central	-
Totals	17	20	0	(including playoffs)

External links

• USFL.info - Chicago Blitz