Category Archives: WLAF

AAF, Arena, WLAF, XFL

No Limits Soldier

CARD: Topps AAF 2019 Certified Hack
ACQUIRED: IP, 2022

NOTES:

Stephen and I go back in football heritage to the very beginning of my Spring fandom. It all started with the Hail Storm game back with the San Antonio Riders in the World League in 1992. As the teams were driven from the field by the wind and hail just seconds before halftime, the field was flooded, and we were left with no halftime show. Enter Stephen.

He ran down onto the soggy field and grabbed a football and ran for the end zone, dodging security along the way. As we cheered him on, he built up a head of steam, grabbed a football and hydroplaned in for a score. As the security finally nabbed Stephen, the crowd grew angry and started booing his apprehension. He’d be escorted off the field, where he got a stay of execution from none other than Rider owner Larry Benson. According to legend Larry claimed that there was no reason to escort Stephen from the stadium, as he saved the team money, and was the best half-time entertainment they had all season. -High praise considering the frisbee catching dog came back twice that year for halftime.

Stephen and I didn’t see each other again until 2014, when he was a flag waving fan at Talons games that I attended that year in SA at the Alamodome. At that point, he’d sat through all the San Antonio teams that had come and gone.

But, it wasn’t until 2018, when Stephen and I finally came full circle. With former Riders head coach Mike Riley being named coach of the San Antonio AAF team, I thought it’d be great if I broke out my San Antonio Riders hat. As I entered the Alamodome for the AAF San Antonio franchise’s grand revealing, I ran right into Stephen also wearing his Riders hat! We immediately started chatting and realized we had a lot in common and he was surprised I remembered the Hail Storm game.

From there, he invited me to his tailgate, and then he revealed himself to me as superfan NO LIMITS SOLDIER! He was front row on the home side end zone, and got a lot of love from the team, most notably when the Joey Mbu recoverd a fumble for a TD in the endzone.

After the AAF folded, I made this card of him, thinking about the old times with the Commanders. Stephen loved it, and after I sent it to him, he signed one for me when we caught up at the San Antonio Brahmas Fan Meet & Greet in 2023. He moved on, and is now a founding member of the BRAHMAS DESTRUCTION CREW.

NFL, WLAF

Koonce, George (2)

Topps Finest 1995, #178
Ultimate WL 1992, #132
Fleer 1995, #138

CARDS: Ultimate WL 1992, Fleer 1995
ACQUIRED: TTM 2019, C/o Home
SENT: 10/28 RECEIVED: 11/6 (9 days)
FAILURE: TTM 2010, C/o Work

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

NOTES:

I had picked up George previously, but didn’t realize he was on this Ultimate World League TV Schedule card, so after a few years, I grabbed a few extra cards and sent it back out. The Fleer 95 is such a Frankenstein set of design, which was different- by team. This one is obviously on the terrible side of things. The Topps Finest is a great example of the over the top style that trading cards were starting to embrace as far as refractors were concerned.

NFL, WLAF

X, Victor

Pro Set WLAF 1991, #76 A

CARD: Pro Set World League 1991
ACQUIRED: TTM 2022, C/o Work
SENT: 2/14 RECEIVED: 3/22 (24 days)

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

  • Victor was a rare player, who originally played American Football for English clubs, that was able to successfully make the transition to the World League.
  • His career started with the London Ravens, whom he played for from 1983-86.
  • Victor ran gangbusters over the league with 3770 yards, 66 touchdowns, with an average of 8.9 yards per carry.
  • After a brief foray to the states in ’86, Victor returned to England to play for the Manchester Spartans.
  • Ebubedike first grabbed the attention of the NFL in 1990, as the New York Jets expressed interest in trying him out.
  • Later on he’d be selected by the World League of American Football by the London Monarchs as part of the league’s ‘Operation Discovery’ program for play in 1991.
  • He’d score the first TD in Wembley Stadium by an English- American footballer against Orlando.
  • A fearsome hitter, Ebubedike also was a special teams gunner, logging 16 tackles that year.
  • Returned to the Monarchs for the ’92 campaign.
  • In 1995, he changed his last name to ‘X’, through his studies with the Nation of Islam.
  • At that time the World League was firing back up again, and Victor returned to the Monarchs that year.
  • He played the next 3 seasons with the team, finishing with 116 carries, 416 yards and 4 touchdowns.
  • After the London/ England Monarchs disbanded after 1998, Victor still wanted to play.
  • He’d return to playing football around Europe and then later England, playing his last game in 2013- at the grand old age of 47.
  • Considered a Black Pioneer of the sport, and an Ambassador of American Football in England.

ACCOLADES:

  • Operation Discovery 1991, ’92

NOTES:

Pro Set 1991, #76 B

Wow! First try and a success! I got extremely lucky to get Victor. Apparently one of his friends from Houston was visiting London, so he just handed the return envelope to him and he popped it into the mail when he returned to the US, avoiding any need to figure out Royal Mail return rates or send outs. The mail gods were truly on my side for this one! I was ecstatic to get this one back, and he slides into the top 5- mileage-wise, just a few miles behind fellow Monarch Philip Alexander.

I had been trying to find Victor X, aka Victor Muhammad, aka Victor Ebubedike since I started this project. I was aware that he was back in the mother-country, but wasn’t really sure where, since they don’t allow webcrawlers to aggressively aggregate information on people in Europe. Well I started digging and eventually was able to turn up from an article that he went through a few last name changes. From there I found another article indicated he was a fireman. -And from there… I found an article that he and his coworkers were hailed as heroes for saving some people from a fire. That article gave a station number, and from there I found the address and took a wild shot.

WLAF

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1164163.6446t
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331.006