Tag Archives: ultimate wlaf 1992

NFL, WLAF

Rasul, Amir

Cards: Ultimate WLAF 1992, Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 7/27   Received: 8/29  (34 days)

An excellent rusher and receiver out of the backfield during college, Amir Rasul finished with 2072 yards rushing, 600 yards receiving and a total of 23 touchdowns during his career at Florida A&M.  The Buffalo Bills would draft him in the 7th round of the 1991 draft to fit the mold of a Thurman Thomas back in their offense. He would not make the roster of the team.

The WLAF would come calling and the expansion Ohio Glory would select Amir in the 6th round of the 1992 draft. Although playing for the abhorrent Glory, (which finished at an abysmal 1-9,) Rasul was always a threat out of the backfield, racking up 572 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns for the team. In the season opener against Orlando, not only did he score the franchise’s first TD, Rasul also set league records rushing 24 times for 152 yards and a TD.  He also earned Offensive Player of the Week Honors. His rushing yards would be good enough to rank 2nd in the league behind Ivory Lee Brown (SA) in the end. He would not earn All-World honors however for his efforts. That would be it for the WLAF though, as it would reorganize after the 1992 season.

Since that time Amir has lived in relative anonymity and went into construction where he is the owner of Diamond Construction Group, out of the Fort Lauderdale area. I was able to track him down utilizing Spokeo, as his unique name made him an easy find. I didn’t expect to get a reply, so to get his response on these 2 cards was quite nice in a bit over 30 days.

Below are his WLAF statistcs:

G 10   Rush 136     Yds  572    Avg  4.2   Td  4    Lg  36  |
Rec 20    Yds 117    Avg  5.8      Td 0   Lg 22

NFL, WLAF

Coauette, Greg



Cards: ProSet WLAF 1991, Ultimate WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent:  4/20    Received :  5/11     (21 days)

After being converted from outside linebacker to cornerback by USC, Greg Coauette would  be a free agent signee with the Los Angeles Rams in 1989. After not making the squad,  Greg would be drafted by the Sacramento Surge of the WLAF during the 5th round of the league’s positional draft in 1991.

He’d lead the Surge secondary that season, grabbing first team All- WLAF honors at strong safety- despite only playing in 8 games, losing the final two contests to a groin injury. Coauette would have a banner season in 1991, notching 4 sacks, 3 interceptions and 40 tackles for the squad paired up with Tom Gerhart. After the season he’d hang up his cleats and retire.

With such a unique last name, the internet made it exceedingly easy to track down Greg to get his autograph on these two cards. I was happy that he responded in less than 30 days where he thanked me for the extra cards for him to keep that reminded him of his time in the league.

He currently lives in the Rancho Murieta area in California, and is a Sargent of the Sacramento Sheriff’s department.  Greg also enjoys coaching the defense on the police force’s charity football versus firefighters event every year (PIG Bowl/ Guns Versus Hoses).

ProSet found a pretty nice shot of Greg stalking the secondary for its card. It’s interesting to note that many of their cards focus on the eye level of the players and attempted to ignore the vacant stands. Greg’s Ultimate WLAF card is not so complimentary with him just sort of walking to probably fetch a Gatorade during a commercial timeout on the field. I like the general design though of the Ultimate card (minus the folding paper edges) and it feels acceptable to break a design tenant by utilizing vertical type in this fashion.

G/Gs 10/8     Tac   40    Sac  4.0    Fum 0     Int  3     Yds 24   Avg 8.0   Td  o

NFL, WLAF

Koonce, George

Card: Ultimate WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 4/14 Received: 4/22 (8 days)
Failure: 4/27/2010 TTM 2010, C/o University of Milwaukee

George Koonce went undrafted out of college from the University of East Carolina in 1992 after an amazing career at the Junior College level.  He signed with Jerry Glanville‘s Falcons, but was waived during the preseason.

Undeterred Koonce was selected by the Ohio Glory of the World League of American Football in 1992.  He started at linebacker making 2.5 sacks for the team during the season. Afterwards Koonce would immediately sign with the Green Bay Packers where he’d play all 3 positions at linebacker in the team’s 4-3 alignment over the next 8 seasons. Although injured for the team’s Super Bowl appearance, Koonce was a solid pickup by the Packers and was competent in coverage, making a career high 3 interceptions for 84 yards and a touchdown in 1996. After the 1999 season, Koonce  would sign with the Seattle Seahawks in 2000, where he made 1 pick for 27 yards and a touchdown to cap off his career.  At the conclusion of George’s NFL career he managed to rack up 720 tackles, 9 sacks, 5 picks, and 2 TDs in 118 starts. Pretty darn good for a World League of American Football player!

Since retirement George has been inducted into the ECU Pirates Hall of Fame and earned his master’s degree in Sports Management. He also has a foundation for underprivileged children and has served in the front office of the Packers, Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

I had previously attempted to contact him for his autograph through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but he had already left the college and it is assumed that those cards are lost. I saw that he had signed a few cards recently through the mail and through Sportscollectors.net so I gave his home address a shot. He responded in 8 days.

Koonce is a WLAF success story, (much like Tracey Simien, Doug Pedersen or Chris Mohr,) George was one of the original players who had a long and tenured career in the NFL that directly benefited from his involvement with the World League.  This Ultimate 1992 card is technically (for all points and purposes) his rookie card and his card photo was taken at the Riders/ Glory preseason game in 1992. Not one of my favorite cards. I mean couldn’t they have gotten him in a 2 point stance or cropped this photo differently.

G/Gs N/a   Tac N/a   Sac 2.5   Fum 0   Int  0   Yds  0    Avg -.-   Td 0  Lg -.-