WLAF

Birmingham Fire

Coach: Chan Gailey
Stadium: Legion Field
Record: 5-5 (1991), 7-2-1 (1992)

The Fire’s color palette consisted of Navy, Gold, Crimson, White. The Navy was chosen for Auburn and the Crimson was a nod to Alabama which gave the team a very strong uniform palette.

BACKGROUND:

Gavin Maloof- a former Houston Rockets executive- desperately wanted a WLAF franchise. He went so far as to getting into a bidding war with a competing syndicate over the rights to San Antonio. Losing the bid to Larry Benson, commissioner Mike Lynn offered Maloof the Birmingham market instead. Jumping at the opportunity, the Birmingham Fire would be established, playing at Legion Field.

The Fire name was a slam-dunk and everybody in the front office and the league office really liked it. The flames on the sleeves and on the helmet was a spur of the moment revelation by designer Dave Boss on the way to work one day. – It also was well received.

Maloof hired future UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue as General Manager along with Denver Bronco offensive mastermind Chan Gailey.

The Fire strongly resembled the San Antonio Riders in style of offensive play. While the offense was more turnover prone than their Texas counterparts, the Fire’s defense was typically lights out.

1991:

The team could never seem to nail down quarterback, although former NFL scab Brent Pease took the majority of the snaps over scrambler and Vandy star Eric Jones in 1991. At runningback, former Bronco Kenny Bell led the team in receptions, while punishing fullback Steve Avery handled all the dirty work. Elroy Harris joined the team mid-season after beating the team as a member of the Montreal Machine and by the end of the season, led the team in rushing. Wide receiver would be long range threat Willie Bouyer‘s department, while Mark Hopkins and Phil Ross provided a nice 1-2 punch at tight end.

The Fire ran a very mean 3-4 defense. Outstanding linebackers John Brantley and Paul McGowan worked with underrated Maurice Oliver. The back four sported ball hawks James Henry and John Holland at cornerback and John Miller and Arthur Hunter at safety. They’d combine to form one of the best secondaries in the league. Among punters Kirk Maggio  had one of the top net averages in the league.

At the end of the season the Fire had 5 members make 1st or 2nd All-World League- none of which would be on offense. Brantley and Miller would grab first team honors, while Darrell Phillips (NT), Holland, and Maggio earned 2nd team honors. McGowan earned All-World Defensive MVP honors at the end of the season.

I watched the Fire’s first game in the WLAF on TV against the Montreal Machine. An impressive 52,000+ showed up at Legion Field in Birmingham, boosting the league’s hopes for the season. USA Network broadcasted the game, -a yawner of a defensive affair, that the Machine would win 20-5 over the Fire. It was a nice offensive showdown between Kenny Bell and Elroy Harris.

Attendance varied wildly throughout the season in Birmingham with a low of only 8,000 showing up against the Riders, in a sad defensive affair, as the Fire ground out a 16-12 win. I remember the last few plays of the game, (as in the WLAF kneeling to run out the clock was prohibited), Brent Pease kept scrambling to keep the Riders on their toes.  

The Fire finished 5-5, -good enough for first in their division over the 4-6 Riders and 2-8 Surge.  After the season the Fire hosted the Barcelona Dragons during the first ever WLAF playoff game in North America. A bit over 37,000 showed up for the game, with Eric Jones in at quarterback for the Fire, but the team fell 10-3 to Jack Bicknell‘s Barcelona Dragons.

1992-

In 1992 the Fire made some changes on offense and the front office, while keeping the majority of their defense intact. Brent Pease was sent packing to the Knights. In came Shawn Moore (allocated from the Broncos) and Mike Norseth. Kenny Bell was gone and Jim Bell from Barcelona was in. Along the offensive line the Fire grabbed the KC Chiefs’ Joe Valerio. Eddie Britton was paired on the other side from Bouyer to take pressure off of him. In the front office Michael Huyghue moved on to work in the league’s executive offices while Rich Nichols stepped in.

During the off-season the team also flirted with disgruntled NFL runningback Mike Rozier about joining the Fire- but little if anything came of the rumors. (The team just couldn’t afford the price tag.)  In the meantime, -pretty much the whole defense returned intact.

The Birmingham Fire started their 1992 season just as slowly as 1991.  If the Fire felt that the Riders and Surge were hard enough to handle in 1991, they had an even more difficult problem with them in 1992, dropping their opener 20-6 to Sacramento and squeaking out a 17-10 victory over San Antonio in week 2.  A tie with the London Monarchs in week 4 would be decisive in the contentious division rankings between the 3 teams, with Sacramento finishing 8-2, Birmingham 7-2-1 and SA at 7-3.

Norseth ended up taking nearly all the snaps at quarterback, throwing 4 touchdowns- to 12 picks.  Elroy Harris and Jim Bell led the rushing attack, combining for 852 yards on the ground. Bouyer again was the defacto receiver on the team, hauling in 704 yards on 57 catches, but did not have a touchdown.  

Defensively Oliver paced the team with 6 sacks, and John Miller had 3 picks. Both John Brantley and John Miller returned to the All-World teams.

The Fire played against the Orlando Thunder in the 1992 playoffs, where they’d be shellacked by the Thunder 45-7, -in the worst playoff loss in WLAF history.  

With optimism riding high towards 1993- despite the questions over the league’s continuing existence- fans were hopeful that the Fire would make the jump along with the Riders and Surge to the CFL, but opted to fold instead when the WLAF reorganized.

NOTES:

Gavin Maloof sold the Fire back to the WLAF after the 1992 season. The WLAF contacted former Alabama QB and Packers legend Bart Starr to attempt to lure a new owner, but folded before anything really took shape.

After reorganizing the WLAF reused the Fire name in 1995 for their Rhein, Germany location. The logos and colors were also completely different.

From time to time the Kawasaki brand has borrowed the Birmingham Fire helmet logo for billboard advertisements.

Birmingham hoped to host World Bowl ’92, but were ultimately not selected as Montreal hosted the game.

The Birmingham Fire were the only North American WLAF team to make the playoffs in both seasons of the league’s history.

LEGACY:

It did not take long for the CFL to plant the Birmingham Barracudas in the city in 1995, but due in part to mismanagement of the original Shreveport franchise, the dominos fell and all the CFL USA teams were shuttered after the season.

In 2000, the Arena Football League 2 would put the Steeldogs in Birmingham and the city also re-emerged in 2001 as a member of the XFL, as the Birmingham Thunderbolts.  Unfortunately both these franchises folded as well with the ‘Bolts after one season and the Steeldogs in 2008.  

Hopes remained strong though that the United Football League would select the city as a possible landing spot- but the UFL folded before anything got serious.

Like San Antonio, Birmingham returned to the Spring football stage in the AAF as the Iron. Just like the Fire before them, the Iron’s bread and butter was a bend-not-break defense, and a punishing ground game. The Iron were arguably the second best team in the league at its dispersal after 8 games- and were one of only two teams to clench a playoff spot.

HC- Chan Gailey
Other Notables- Michael Huyghue
QB- Mike Norseth, Brent Pease, Eric Jones, Shawn Moore
RB- Elroy Harris, Steven Avery, Ken Bell
OL- Joe Valerio, Carl Bax
WR- Willie Bouyer, Eddie Britton
TE- Phil Ross, Mark Hopkins
DL- Darrell Phillips
LB- John Brantley, Paul McGowan, Maurice Oliver
DB- Arthur Hunter, John Holland, John Miller, James Henry
K- Philip Doyle
P- Kurt Maggio

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


Wild Card WLAF 1992-

John Holland
Arthur Hunter
Eugene Rowell
Willie Bouyer

Ultimate WLAF 1992- 

Willie Bouyer Arthur Hunter
Kirk Maggio

Arena, NFL

Willis, Peter Tom

 

Cards: Action Packed Rookies 1990, ProSet 1990, Score 1990
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 5/4 Received: 7/2  (59 days)

A strong-armed, mobile quarterback with outstanding accuracy and touch, Peter Tom Willis served as backup on the Seminoles from 1987-1988 before he received his break to become a starter in 1989. In only his first true season as leader of Florida State’s offense, he threw for 3124 yards and 20 touchdowns. His 6 TD passes against Memphis State would set a school record and he would be voted MVP of the Fiesta Bowl when he threw for 422 yards and 5 touchdowns over Nebraska. At the time of his graduation, his 4291 career passing yards ranked 3rd on the school’s all-time list.

The Chicago Bears drafted Willis in the third round of the 1990 draft. He’d be the fourth quarterback off the board after Jeff George, Andre Ware, and Tommy Hodson. Expected to be the quarterback of the future, he sat on the bench behind Jim Harbaugh and Mike Tomczak seeing a little mop up action his rookie and sophomore seasons. In a 27-14 loss to Cleveland in 1992, Willis threw for two touchdown passes and 279 yards in relief of Harbaugh, however his 5 game performance and 0-2 record as a starter still meant the jury was out. In 1993 with new head coach Dave Wannstedt in place Peter Tom would see backup duty again throughout the season, in a lackluster performance against Tampa Bay.

In 1997, Willis resurfaced in the AFL with the Tampa Bay Storm playing 3 commendable seasons with the franchise.  In 1998 he’d throw for 70 Tds and only10 picks, and follow that up in 1999 with 65-8. He’d retire from the sport after the season and enter into the radio booth with the Seminoles where he did radio color commentary from 1998 to 2008. He currently resides in the Tampa area.

I sent to Peter about 2 months ago and where he signed these 3 cards. I was a bit disappointed in the signatures. They appear to be from a dried up sharpie. I don’t think it’s a stamp however because the the ink of the signature would pool recognizably on the Action Packed card.  Action Packed, Pro Set and Score were the 3 companies that I enjoyed collecting cards of back in the early 1990s. I especially like this Score card of Peter in his college uniform.  Below are Willis’ NFL statistics:

G/Gs   21/3    Att  183   Cmp 104   Yds 1261   Pct 56.8     Td   6     Int 15    Rat  54.9 |

 

NFL

Cody, Shaun

Card: Topps Heritage 2006
Acquired: TTM 2009, Texans Blitz

At 6’4″, 306 Shaun Cody was a member of  USC, originally drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2005 draft.  A 4 year starter for the Trojans, he was a consensus All- American and had 21 sacks, 8 blocked field goals and 31.5 total tackles for losses for the team.  The Lions slotted him in at defensive tackle but he’d only start 11 games over 4 years, unable to scale the team’s depth chart playing under 3 different defensive coaches.  Detroit would expose him during free agency in 2009 and the Texans would sign him to play left defensive tackle with Travis Johnson on the way out. In those 2 seasons for the Texans Shaun has made .5 sacks, 1 pass defensed, and 33 tackles.

After the Texans decided to blow up their defense and shift back to the 3-4, new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips is adamant that he can rotate Shaun Cody in at nose tackle as an undersized speed rusher (in the model of Jay Ratliff from Dallas), and has gone so far as to sign him to a 2 year extension in 2011.  A high motor lineman with a fast first step, the hope is Shaun’s best days are still ahead of him,  but he needs to continue to bulk up and improve on his fundamentals. At the time of this post he was being employed in a platoon with Earl Mitchell.

Shaun has a tattoo of ‘SC’ on his bicep that is in the same typography as USC. While it was rumored that this was a tribute to his former Alma Mater, it indeed has been reported it is merely an abbreviation of his name.

Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.