Category Archives: Arena

Arena, NFL, WLAF

Perez, Michael “Mike”

Cards: ProSet 1991, ProSet WLAF 1991, Ultimate WLAF 1992, Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Work
Sent: 5/29    Received: 6/12  (13 days)

Mike Perez played quarterback for the San Jose Spartans, where he led them to an upset victory over the California Golden Bears, and Stanford Cardinals in 1987. At the time his 309.1 yards of offense a game was an NCAA record. Drafted by the New York Giants in the 7th round of the 1988 draft, Mike did not make the roster as the team only carried quarterbacks Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler. A stomach injury further sidelined him for the remainder of the year. In 1990, Mike was a camp arm for the Houston Oilers, but found his first initial glory in the pros, as the third overall quarterback taken, playing for the Frankfurt Galaxy of the WLAF in 1991.

Leading the team to a 7-3 record, Mike threw 11 touchdowns to 17 picks, on 357 attempts.  His best contest came against the Orlando Thunder throwing for 346 yards in the team’s win. He also was the second least sacked quarterback in the WLAF behind Stan Gelbaugh. The team though failed to qualify for the playoffs after losing 2 contests to the Surge, and behind both the eventual World Bowl I participants London and Barcelona.  Perez returned stateside to the Giants, and then the Chiefs after the season.

Mike played in the WLAF during the 1992 season for the Galaxy, but met with less success as the team stumbled to a 3-7 record. He’d split time with Alex Espinoza and finished 4th among rated quarterbacks with 6 touchdowns and a 78.2 quarterback rating.

Again he’d spend time stateside as a camp arm- this time for the Denver Broncos in 1993. He’d then embark on a series of adventures in the Arena Football League, playing for the Albany Firebirds from 1994-1996, the New York CityHawks from 1997-1998, finishing out his career with the New England SeaWolves in 1999.ult92 perez His best season came in 1996 for the Firebirds, throwing for 4153 yards and 84 touchdowns. Mike’s career totals for the Arena Football League are 1384 of 2378, for 18875 yards, and 341 touchdowns to 84 interceptions.

Perez returned to his hometown of Denver, and currently works there for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He graciously signed 5 cards for me and even enclosed a nice note telling me that the memories he holds for the World League are some of the most cherished of his life.

WLAF statistics:
Att 504    Comp 257   Yds 3257    Pct 50.9      Td 19     Int  22

Arena, NFL, WLAF

Simmons, Stacey (2)

 Cards: Pacific 1991, Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2010, C/o Stacey Simmons Sports Training
Sent: 6/11/10   Received: 1/11/12  (579 days)
See Also: Simmons, Stacey

A track man, Stacey was part of a team at Florida that set the nation’s fastest time in the 4×200 relay with 1:26:31.  The first pick of the Colts in the 4th round of 1990 that played both receiver and punt returner, Stacey saw playing time also with the Buccaneers, before heading over to the Orlando Thunder in 1992.  After a short off-season with the 49ers, Stacey found a home for 8 seasons in the Arena Football League playing for the Tampa Bay Storm, winning two AFL Championships.

I have to give credit to Sotl for this find, as I had given up on this one some time ago. Seeing his name on the website, I easily recognized him as a member of the Orlando Thunder and nudged him a bit for those autographs and amazingly they arrived a bit over a year and a half later setting a new record at a fat 579 days.
He also included a nice note for it taking so long and welcomed me to check out his site at www.staceysimmons.com. It’s amazing looking at these autographs from the two posts gotten some 20 years apart, and realizing that the autograph is authentic, because the signature is still the same.

Arena, CFL, NFL, WLAF

Proctor, Michael “Field General”


Cards: ProSet WLAF 1991, Ultimate WLAF 1992, WildCard WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 7/19    Received: 12/3  (137 days)

Michael Proctor would set 10 Ohio Valley conference records for the Murray State Racers during his collegiate career, including total passing yards (8,210 yards), pass completions (578), and attempts (1148).  He’d be the first player in school history to net more than 1500 yards of total offense in 4 consecutive seasons. After completing college, Michael would sign with the New England Patriots in 1990, but not make the squad.

Taken in the 4th round of the WLAF draft by the Montreal Machine, he’d compete against Kevin Sweeney and Mike Johnson initially for the job. Beating out Johnson for the backup job to Sweeney, Proctor would be forced into the starting lineup after Kevin’s season would be ended prematurely due to ineffectiveness and injury.  Stepping into the lineup for the Machine, Proctor did more damage on the ground than he did in the air rushing for 247  yards on 41 carries (6.0 average) and 2 touchdowns. In the air, Michael completed 107 of his 224 attempts and net 1222 yards, to go along with 3 td passes as the team won 4 games that season.  It was enough to garner him an audition with the Cleveland Browns, but yet again Proctor would fail to make the squad.

In 1992 the WLAF, injected ‘future star prospects and rookies’ from the NFL into the league to try and increase the league viewership, level of play, and incentivize the NFL by scouts being able to get a glimpse of those players’ progress. Much to the Field General’s chagrin, the Machine went out and drafted Anthony Dilweg at quarterback to play for them. Dilweg would win out in camp and start for Montreal, but he’d get crushed on a blitz in the season opening game against the Riders in 1992. Once again, Proctor would ride in to the rescue. Proctor, with a season under his belt in Jacques Dussault‘s system actually had matured. While the team would lose against the Riders, and in fact, post a woeful 2-8 record- Proctor turned the corner and threw 8 tds to only 5 picks. He’d also finish with 113 completions and 1478 yards. On the ground the Field General was even more destructive, carving up teams for 207 yards (a 5.4 yard average) and 4 touchdowns rushing (which led the team).  Even though Dilweg, and even Craig Cupp would threaten him from time to time for the starting position, Michael maintained his hold over the QB spot.

After the failure of the WLAF, Michael would find a home briefly playing quarterback in the CFL for the Edmonton Eskimos in 1993. He’d move on from there to play for the Charlotte Rage of the AFL for 3 more seasons throwing 17 touchdowns to 3 picks in 1994 and rushing for 7 touchdowns on 25 attempts in 1995. His AFL totals were 486 attempts, 279 completions, 3492 yards, 51 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a 95.81 qb rating.

A Special shout out to Shadow from the Fanmail.biz message board who helped me track down this elusive member of the WLAF. As far as anybody there on that site that I absolutely have mad respect for in their ability to track down addresses and help out a fellow collector in need- he certainly is the guy to go to.  I had been searching for Proctor for some time and had heard that he was honored at Murray State recently as their Parade Marshall.  I had pretty much given up on this one since it was a Spokeo find, but after a bit over 4 months, the Field General rolled into my command, and wrote a small note, “Take care and be blessed! Jesus is real!!!”, Along with the cards.  Really pleased with this one.  Below are Michael’s WLAF statistics:

Att  417     Comp 220    Yds 2700     Pct 52.8     Td 11     Int 15    Rat  66.8
Rush 79    Yds 454     Avg 5.7     Td 6     Lg 31