Memphis Southman v Philadelphia Bell, August 7, 1974JFK Stadium, Philadephia
The WFL was founded by the same guy who started the WHA. The league got off to a bang with attendance. The first two Philadelphia home games reported 100,000 fans. It was later uncovered most of those tickets were greatly discounted or free. I suspect that is why my dad decided to take me to this game. The league played games on Wednesdays and Thursday nights, which were televised.
A little known fact: The Memphis team was actually slated for Toronto and to be called the Northman. But the Prime Minister would not allow any US football team to be based in Canada in direct competition to the CFL. We know from Canada's health care system how much they hate competition.
I remember the old stadium as being cold, damp and dark. It was a huge horseshoe with mostly empty seats. The game was at night. The lights were not very bright.
Jim "King" Corcoran threw four TDs in the first half to lead the Bell to a 46-15 win over Memphis. The Bell scored on the first play from scrimmage as Corcoran threw a short pass to running back John Land, who ran 64 yards down the sidelines for a TD. Corcoran also hit Linzy Cole, Claude Watts and Donnie Dhanklin with TD passes to lead the Bell to a 30-0 half time lead.
The Bell improved to 3-2 on the season.
