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| - Teams included those in Tulsa, Oklahoma (the Tulsa Thunder and the Tulsa Mustangs), Birmingham, Alabama (the Alabama Vulcans and Alabama Magic), Louisville, Kentucky (the Kentucky Trackers), Jacksonville, Florida (the Jacksonville Jaguars and Jacksonville Firebirds), Charlotte, North Carolina (the Charlotte Chargers, a.k.a. the Charlotte Storm), Orlando, Florida (the Orlando Americans), San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio Charros), Austin, Texas (Austin Texans), Dallas, Texas (Dallas Wranglers), Houston, Texas, Little Rock, Arkansas, Jackson, Mississippi (Mississippi Stars), Virginia (Virginia Hunters), Shreveport, Louisiana (Shreveport Steamers) and Charleston, West Virginia (West Virginia Rockets, 1980 and 1981 champions). Its northernmost team, and largest major market, was Chicago, Illinoi
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| abstract
| - Teams included those in Tulsa, Oklahoma (the Tulsa Thunder and the Tulsa Mustangs), Birmingham, Alabama (the Alabama Vulcans and Alabama Magic), Louisville, Kentucky (the Kentucky Trackers), Jacksonville, Florida (the Jacksonville Jaguars and Jacksonville Firebirds), Charlotte, North Carolina (the Charlotte Chargers, a.k.a. the Charlotte Storm), Orlando, Florida (the Orlando Americans), San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio Charros), Austin, Texas (Austin Texans), Dallas, Texas (Dallas Wranglers), Houston, Texas, Little Rock, Arkansas, Jackson, Mississippi (Mississippi Stars), Virginia (Virginia Hunters), Shreveport, Louisiana (Shreveport Steamers) and Charleston, West Virginia (West Virginia Rockets, 1980 and 1981 champions). Its northernmost team, and largest major market, was Chicago, Illinois, where the Chicago Fire played. Many of the names came from previous leagues, with minor alterations to avoid trademark disputes: the Steamers, Vulcans and Fire all took their names from WFL teams, while the Rockets borrowed their name from a Continental Football League and United Football League team of the same name. The Jaguars name would later be recycled for a National Football League team in 1995. The operations were often fly-by-night, with most teams lasting only one season or less before folding. Despite its minor league status, the league's teams often were able to secure leases for unusually large stadiums, often those used by the WFL and the USFL: the Orlando Americans, in their lone season, played in the 70,000-seat Citrus Bowl, while the Vulcans and Magic played at similarly-sized Legion Field, Houston played at 73,000 seat Rice Stadium, and the Fire played at Soldier Field. The Mustangs played at 30,000-seat Skelly Stadium. The league was founded in February 1978 and began play in summer of 1979. It was formed to take advantage of the places where the WFL was the most popular, while avoiding the overspending that led to that league's demise. Billy Kilmer, former NFL quarterback (and a man who coached the AFA's Shreveport Steamers in 1979), was named commissioner in 1981. After failing to come to terms with a television contract, the decision of the Carolina Chargers (one of the more stable franchises, and one that had come in second place in the 1979 and 1980 championships) to disband midseason, a scandal in which a player named Robert Lee Johnson misrepresented himself as former NFL lineman Randy Johnson, and a lack of payment, he quit. In 1982, with former San Antonio Wings executive Roger Gill at the helm, the league attempted to expand by absorbing other semi-pro teams in Buffalo, New York, Racine, Wisconsin and Canton, Ohio. The USFL's securing of a television contract, especially after the AFA had failed to do so (the AFA was only able to get a few of its teams onto local cable stations), led to the AFA folding. The modern American Football Association, a sanctioning body for semi-pro and amateur football, is unrelated to the former AFA.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)