Category Archives: WLAF

WLAF

Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks

Coach: Roman Gabriel
Stadium: Carter-Finley
Record: (1991) 0-10

BACKGROUND:

The Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks were one of the ten founding members of the WLAF in 1991. Owned by Carolina sports enthusiast George Shinn, the team boasted former LA Rams quarterback Roman Gabriel initially as GM, -who later took over head coaching duties as well.

Johnny Walton (who was best known as a quarterback in the WFL of the 1970s, and HC of the Boston Breakers of the USFL during the 1980s,) was the offensive coordinator. Doug Kay was named the defensive coordinator of the Skyhawks and future CFL GM Jim Popp served on the staff as well.

The Skyhawks colors were decided early on. The team wanted red as the definitive color of the franchise. As the area is considered the birthplace to modern flight, the design firm wanted to come up with something futuristic looking and unexpected- so instead of a bird, the franchise went with rocket trails. The logo itself felt abstract- or influenced by Memphis design style.

Carter-Finley Stadium was to serve as the backdrop to the team’s future and it boasted a reasonable seating capacity of some 50,000 at the time.

Things seemed optimistic enough for the young franchise.

The Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks won the first overall pick of the specialist portion of the draft and went for offense, choosing the No. 1 wide receiver, the No. 2 running back, the No. 3 tight end and the fourth quarterback.

1991:

The Skyhawks marquee players were NC product Mark Maye at quarterback, linebacker Shawn Woodson, and defensive end Jon Carter. Paul Wulff- future Washington State head coach, played center for the franchise.  

The team opened its first game on USA Network at Sacramento where Raleigh-Durham went to lose its first contest 9-3. Right out of the gate, the team lost promising QB Mark Maye to injury for the season. Joe Pizzo stepped in at quarterback for RD and guided them until Bobby McAllister supplanted him in the lineup due to ineffectiveness. Woefully none of the quarterbacks would finish with over a 55 quarterback rating, highlighting the team’s issue at the position.

The team got walloped by the Orlando Thunder 58-20 in week 2. (The 58 points stood as a league record.) By the time the team played their first home game- in week 3, fans were clearly discouraged, but nonetheless a season high 17,000 showed up for the Skyhawks. They’d play a close game to the Frankfurt Galaxy 30-28, but that is as close as the franchise ever got to winning. 

One could point to the running game as well. With the Skyhawks playing from behind or getting little penetration on the line, the team’s leading rusher was Darryl McGill with 187 yards. The team finished with a woeful 748 yards and 7 touchdowns on the ground. Receiving was the bright spot for the franchise. Marvin Hargrove  finished as the team’s leading receiver with 38 catches and former Duke star Clarkston Hines had 614 yards.

The defense had its share of issues, but boasted Quentin Riggs as the team’s leading sacker with 4. Jon Carter, Shawn Woodson, and Ezekial Gadson would all tie with 3 a piece.

In the secondary, Peda Samuel chipped in 3 picks, but the true black hole back in the secondary was Pat McGuirk. McGuirk finished with 6 interceptions- good for 3rd in the league, but as an ultimate slap to the franchise, he wouldn’t be nominated for the All World Team at season’s end.  

Near the end of the 1991 season only a paltry 4,200 showed up to see rematch between R-D and Orlando. The writing was on the wall for the 0-10 franchise, and the Skyhawks would be euthanized.

NOTES:

Players were reallocated to the draft pool for the next upcoming season, and the Ohio Glory would replace them in the WLAF for 1992.

Since the Skyhawks were only in existence for one season, only ProSet made cards for the franchise.

LEGACY:

Although Carolina proved to be a disastrous venture for the league attendance wise, surprisingly the market grabbed the expansion Carolina Panthers in 1995 where it has enjoyed NFL football ever since.

Raleigh-Durham itself hadn’t been mentioned seriously for Spring football until 2019- as AAF ‘owner’ Tom Dundon lived in the area, however that league folded before the expansion process even began.  

HC- Roman Gabriel
QB- Bobby McAllister, Mark Maye
OL- Paul Wulff
WR- Clarkston Hines
DL- Jon Carter
LB- Shawn Woodson
DB- Ray Jackson, Pat McGuirk

At this time I am still missing autographs on these cards from:

ProSet WLAF 1991:  Darryl McGill & Marvin Hargrove.

Promotional Commerical for the RD Skyhawks tickets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sd9AcPr2JU&list=UUwErpZzjTR1EgdyLR3GDkMA&index=8&feature=plcp

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

Arena, NFL, WLAF

Bell, Grantis

Card: Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2010, C/o Home
Sent: 6/11/10  Received: 12/3/11  (540 days)

Grantis Bell finished his career at WV with 46 receptions for 819 yards and 6 TDs and after a great Fiesta Bowl appearance, (where Grantis would make 4 catches for 44 yards,) he’d be signed as a free agent  by the Washington Redskins in 1989.  The next two seasons would be with the New York Jets, before he made his appearance in the WLAF for the Orlando Thunder in 1992. A smallish receiver at 5’10”, 160, Grantis could stop on a dime and run routes in traffic, -perfect for the Thunder’s spread offense. Bell in the end had a really nice season playing receiver on the Thunder, hauling in 36 receptions for 435 yards and 4 touchdowns. He’d also serve as backup kick returner with 11 returns for 200 yards and an 18.2 yard average, helping the team appear in World Bowl II, where they’d fall to the Sacramento Surge.

Grantis signed with the Arena Football League and made his debut with the Detroit Drive catching 39 passes for 681 yards and eight touchdowns as the team’s number three receiver in 1993. In ArenaBowl VII against the Tampa Bay Storm, he caught five passes for 77 yards and scored on a 34-yard touchdown catch. Bell transitioned with the team to Massachusetts in 1994, but had an injury shortened season after breaking his elbow, and then the Marauders folded. Grantis made the move to the Storm in Tampa Bay, and play there in 1995 and again in 1997 before retiring. He finished his Arena career with 62 receptions for 1017 yards, a 16.4 average and 13 touchdowns in 4 seasons of play.

I did not have a card of Grantis when the Thunder throttled the Riders in San Marcos back in 1992, however after acquiring the Wild Card WLAF 1992 set, I sent off for him last year. I was surprised that I did not get a response, but recently through SotL, I was able to contact him, where I sent him a new letter with the card.  This one was a bit odd, as he sent this one back in the original envelope I sent him from 2010, so this one officially becomes the longest wait at 540 days.  Shortly before the date of this post he also sent back the other card as well signed and personalized it. Below are Grantis’ WLAF statistics:

G 10   Rec  36    Yds   435     Avg   12.1    Td 4     Lg 46t