Detroit — One night at the Silverdome, the Lions were engaged in one of those ragamuffin preseason games. Russ Thomas, the Lions’ general manager, peered over the side from the press box on the mezzanine level just at halftime. He burst into fury. He groused and grumped — as he so often did.
Thomas grabbed a phone to alert security.
“Get that guy of there,” he demanded in his thunderous voice. “He doesn’t belong on the sideline.”
The Lions were home in the Silverdome. But this being 1983, the Silverdome was also home of the Michigan Panthers. The Silverdome was raised as something as a public building, although the sidelines happened to be the Lions’ turf that night.
In the contretemps that makes me giggle even now during the Lions’ everlasting barren years, the vagrant was marched off the field. He was, perhaps, accused of espionage, one of Thomas’ perpetual fears.
The intruder was Jim Stanley. Jim Stanley happened to be head coach of the Michigan Panthers.
Sweet ironies!
The Panthers happened to be the champions of the United States Football League. They had defeated the Philadelphia Stars in the first USFL championship game a few weeks earlier in the swelter of Denver.
And on that August night, Stanley had been unobtrusively caught watching the long-established other guys play an exhibition game. He had been convicted of spying by an individual enclosed in the Lions GM’s box near the press box.
It all becomes a humorous side dish now that the USFL has been reincarnated as football fodder for television.
An instant hit
Detroit had endured the 1970s without a major professional championship, nothing since the 1968 Tigers won the World Series in Game 7 over the Cardinals.
So, to have a pro football team win the championship in the USFL’s inaugural season was special for Detroit.
The Tigers had been rebuilt into contenders by 1983, one season from another World Series and a remarkable — still prideful — World Series.
The Lions, in the same era, had morphed into dismal flops as the NFL merged with the AFL — and the Super Bowl was the product of this shotgun marriage.
The Red Wings’ Stanley Cup championship seasons had vanished just as the Lions had. And the Pistons were still foundlings, yet to flourish.
The Panthers came to us unexpectedly. The USFL was formed as a spring/summer league, with TV network backing. It was designed for people like me, yearning for pro football during the NFL’s offseason.
And the USFL collected some excellent athletes — Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Doug Flutie, Anthony Carter. They would become stars in the NFL after the USFL folded.
The Panthers had a rocky start that first season. A four-game losing streak gave Detroit flashing images of the Lions.
Then the ’83 season turned.
The Panthers managed to use Carter, Bo Schembechler’s favorite at Michigan, as a drawing card. The quarterback was unknown, a drawling youth out of Northwest State in Louisiana. Bobby Hebert had been passed over in the NFL Draft. He was a gunslinger with something to prove.
And he meshed well with Carter.
The Panthers soon became a respected football team. In April and May of ’83, they mounted a six-game winning streak.
They acquired a following that knew the route to the Silverdome. And the fans had been well informed about Detroit’s pro football history.
Alfred Taubman was deep into being owner of a pro football franchise. It was a surprise to those who knew him. He had been introverted, shy of the media. Foreign to the Detroit sports journalists. An aristocrat.
He was in sharp contrast to Bill Ford, the humorous, quipping owner of the Lions.
But Taubman seemed to enjoy discussing the Panthers. He was enthusiastic in his support. He would rally us around him outside the locker room and gab with us about his team, about the Panthers’ chances of making the playoffs.
From above, we could see him jumping and flailing his arms on the sideline when the Panthers made an exceptional play.
Quick rise and fall
And he was absolutely willing to spend to build his team.
He was so willing to spend that other USFL owners grumbled that he forked up $6 million to fortify the Panthers. The sum was deemed a bit heavy by his co-owners.
Taubman wisely built a team of quality athletes around Carter and Hebert.
Ken Lacy was a prized running back out of Tulsa. He was bolstered by three blockers dragooned out of the NFL — Ray Pinney and Tyrone McGriff, ex-Steelers, and Thom Dornbrook, who had played for the Giants. On defense, the Panthers were anchored by John Corker, who had played linebacker for the Houston Oilers.
The Panthers went on an 11-2 binge to make the playoffs as the Panthers outclassed teams such as the Arizona Wranglers, the Tampa Bay Bandits, the Washington Federals, the New Jersey Generals, the Chicago Blitz.
The first playoff game was at the Silverdome versus the Oakland Invaders. The Panthers won, 37-21, before 60,237 fans, according to USFL archives.
In Denver for the championship game, Taubman was so delighted that he entertained the press.
The press? I was tempted to write a column for The News that back then the Panthers were a better football team than the Lions.
They were.
Needing a strike in the fourth quarter of the championship game, Hebert clicked with Carter on a 48-yard play for the 24-22 victory over Philadelphia.
Detroit had a championship — its first in 15 years. And the celebration was noisy, gala and memorable in the locker room in Denver. Lots of champagne, well-wishers, a mob. Hebert sitting with no pants on, awash in champagne, women walking by. And Carter displaying his brilliant smile.
Hebert was the MVP. He had thrown three touchdown passes and amassed 319 yards.
The Panthers had gone 14-6.
And Jim Stanley could go anywhere in Michigan.
Except on the sidelines of the Silverdome.
Such initial success imbued some USFL owners with big shoulders.
These owners suggested the USFL drop the spring/summer format to challenge the NFL. It soon became a loud idea. Taubman reportedly preached caution.
The NFL resisted. The USFL filed an antitrust suit. The USFL won the suit.
The NFL famously was ordered to pay $1. My information was that such an award would be trebled to three bucks. The lawsuit pretty much drove the USFL out of business.
Sort of.
One USFL owner, in particular, had cajoled his fellow owners to fight the NFL for territory in the autumns. It was a major sports story in 1984. I had a trip to New York that summer, I presume with the Tigers.
I considered it a good idea to interview this man who wanted to wrestle Pete Rozelle and the NFL with a competing fall league.
I telephone this man’s office. I stated my request and was informed by a spokesman that he would get back to me. Two days later, I received the return phone call.
“He says he doesn’t want to do an interview with you,” I was told in words to that effect.
So I pouted and continued to do my job with the Tigers as that writer from Michigan.
The scheming owner who rejected me was, guess:
Donald Trump!
Jerry Green is a retired Detroit News sports reporter.