Houston Gamblers
Encyclopedia
The Houston Gamblers were an American football
team that competed in the United States Football League
in 1984 and 1985. The Gamblers were coached by veteran NFL
head coach Jack Pardee
in both their seasons. They were noteworthy for introducing former Middletown (Ohio) High School football coach Glenn "Tiger" Ellison's Run & Shoot offense to the world of pro football.
was hired by the progressive Pardee to install the offense as the team's Offensive Coordinator. (Davis was a former head coach at Portland State University
where he developed the St. Louis Cardinals
2 time Pro Bowl QB Neil Lomax
.) Led by former Miami Hurricanes
QB Jim Kelly
(who snubbed the NFL's Buffalo Bills
to play in the USFL) the Gamblers wrecked secondaries across the USFL, getting national media attention in demolishing the league's single season scoring record. (The Gamblers scored 618 points in 1984. The 1983 USFL record was 456.) Kelly became the USFL's answer to the NFL's Dan Marino
, and the league's second superstar player (after Herschel Walker
).
The Gamblers also got the attention of a few NFL teams. The run & shoot offense would be adopted as the base set for the Detroit Lions
, Atlanta Falcons
and the Houston Oilers. All 3 teams were in the upper half of the league in scoring while using the run & shoot. In spite of this fact, the offense was widely discredited as a gimmick in the NFL when none of the 3 teams won a Super Bowl. Even after those teams moved away from the run & shoot as their base sets, the influence of Mouse Davis
and Jim Kelly
left a lasting impact on the league. In the 1970s most teams ran the 2 back "pro-set" as their base offense with fixed routes. Today, almost all NFL teams incorporate extensive packages of 4 WR sets and option routes for WRs depending on coverages faced, innovations that are the basis of the run & shoot.
with just 7 minutes remaining before falling 17-16 in a furious Wrangler comeback. The Wranglers would go on to play in the 1984 Championship Game.
Following the August 22, 1984 USFL Owners meeting where the majority of owners decided to move to the fall, things started to crumble for the league, especially for teams in cities with existing NFL teams, like the Gamblers. Kelly, one of the more public faces of the USFL, voiced the concerns of many fans when he called the schedule switch "100 percent" wrong, saying, "It's the worst thing they could have done."
The team was not as strong in 1985 with the loss of Davis (who became the head coach of the Denver Gold
) and player worries about the future. On the field, the team ran much less and as such became more predictable. Additionally, opponents adjusted their defenses. Scoring dropped in 1985 to 544 points. Off the field, concerns about the league and the team were a big distraction with the young team. The team made the playoffs with a 10-8 record and again lost in a nailbiter to an excellent team, the 13-5 veteran, Cliff Stoudt
/Joe Cribbs
/Jim Smith
-led Birmingham Stallions, 22-20.
The ownership of the Gamblers ran into financial difficulty in the team's second season. While the Gamblers had been a solid draw the year before, area fans were not about to abandon the Houston Oilers. Attendance dropped by almost 9,000 from 1984. At one point, the Gamblers had trouble making payroll, and needed an advance through the league just to go to the playoffs. Facing an expensive move to the fall and knowing they could not hope to compete with the Oilers, the owners decided to get out. After briefly entertaining an offer to move to New York City
, they agreed to sell the Gamblers' assets to New Jersey Generals
owner Donald Trump
for an undisclosed amount. Trump then merged the Gamblers with the Generals for the 1986 season. The Generals would have Jim Kelly at QB and Herschel Walker at RB, leading observers to dub it the USFL's "dream team." Kelly was even featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a Generals uniform. That season however would never be played. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1985_26436
The most notable players on the team were Kelly, future Washington Redskins
wide receiver Ricky Sanders
, future Detroit Lions
wide receiver Richard Johnson, future Indianapolis Colts kick returner Clarence Verdin
, and future Cleveland Browns
wide receiver Gerald McNeil
. Todd Fowler
, the featured running back on the team, was also notable as the first USFL player the rival NFL signed away from the league in 1985 (by the Dallas Cowboys
).
was signed to serve as the official mascot at all Gamblers home games due to his being known as "The Gambler." The original contract called for Rogers to sing during each half time show, but he pulled out of the deal after the Houston Sports Authority refused to allow him to open a Kenny Rogers Roasters
franchise in the Astrodome. There were additional reports that Rogers was afraid he would be crushed by "giant King Kong sized dice" that would be dropped from the roof of the Dome during each half time as part of a 7-11 promotion. ("Rogers Folds'em and Walks Away" by Neil Holhfeld, Houston Chronicle, November 18, 1983.)
Team colors were black, red, and white.
|1984 || 13 || 5 || 0 || 1st WC Central || Lost Quarterfinal (Arizona
)
|-
|1985 || 10 || 8 || 0 || 3rd WC || Lost Quarterfinal (Birmingham
)
|-
!Totals || 23 || 15 || 0
|colspan="2"| (including playoffs)
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team that competed in the United States Football League
United States Football League
The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
in 1984 and 1985. The Gamblers were coached by veteran NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
head coach Jack Pardee
Jack Pardee
-NFL:-External links:...
in both their seasons. They were noteworthy for introducing former Middletown (Ohio) High School football coach Glenn "Tiger" Ellison's Run & Shoot offense to the world of pro football.
The Run & Shoot puts the USFL on the map
Run & Shoot advocate and chief refiner Darell "Mouse" DavisMouse Davis
Darrel "Mouse" Davis is an American football coach and former player. A veteran coach at the high school, college, and professional levels, he is currently the wide receivers coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Davis served as the head football coach at Portland State University from...
was hired by the progressive Pardee to install the offense as the team's Offensive Coordinator. (Davis was a former head coach at Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
where he developed the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
2 time Pro Bowl QB Neil Lomax
Neil Lomax
Neil Vincent Lomax is a former American football quarterback.-College career:Lomax was a standout college player at Portland State University, going from fifth-string freshman quarterback on partial scholarship to emergency starter to NCAA legend...
.) Led by former Miami Hurricanes
Miami Hurricanes
The Miami Hurricanes, of Coral Gables, Florida, are the varsity sports teams of the University of Miami. They compete in the Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference . The university fields 15 athletic teams for 17 varsity sports...
QB Jim Kelly
Jim Kelly
James Edward Kelly is a former American football quarterback in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the USFL's Houston Gamblers....
(who snubbed the NFL's Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
to play in the USFL) the Gamblers wrecked secondaries across the USFL, getting national media attention in demolishing the league's single season scoring record. (The Gamblers scored 618 points in 1984. The 1983 USFL record was 456.) Kelly became the USFL's answer to the NFL's Dan Marino
Dan Marino
Daniel Constantine "Dan" Marino, Jr. is a retired American football quarterback who played for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League...
, and the league's second superstar player (after Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker
Herschel Junior Walker is an American mixed martial artist and a former American football player. He played college football for the University of Georgia Bulldogs and earned the 1982 Heisman Trophy. He began his professional career with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League...
).
The Gamblers also got the attention of a few NFL teams. The run & shoot offense would be adopted as the base set for the Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
, Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Houston Oilers. All 3 teams were in the upper half of the league in scoring while using the run & shoot. In spite of this fact, the offense was widely discredited as a gimmick in the NFL when none of the 3 teams won a Super Bowl. Even after those teams moved away from the run & shoot as their base sets, the influence of Mouse Davis
Mouse Davis
Darrel "Mouse" Davis is an American football coach and former player. A veteran coach at the high school, college, and professional levels, he is currently the wide receivers coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Davis served as the head football coach at Portland State University from...
and Jim Kelly
Jim Kelly
James Edward Kelly is a former American football quarterback in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the USFL's Houston Gamblers....
left a lasting impact on the league. In the 1970s most teams ran the 2 back "pro-set" as their base offense with fixed routes. Today, almost all NFL teams incorporate extensive packages of 4 WR sets and option routes for WRs depending on coverages faced, innovations that are the basis of the run & shoot.
The Playoffs, 1985, and Beyond
The Gamblers appeared in the playoffs in each of their two seasons, but suffered narrow first-round defeats both times. In 1984, the expansion Gamblers finished the regular season with the best record in the Western conference and were the favorites in the West to go to the championship game. They held a 16-3 lead over George Allen's star laden Arizona WranglersArizona Wranglers
The Arizona Wranglers were a professional American Football team in the United States Football League in the mid 1980s. They played at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.-Founding:...
with just 7 minutes remaining before falling 17-16 in a furious Wrangler comeback. The Wranglers would go on to play in the 1984 Championship Game.
Following the August 22, 1984 USFL Owners meeting where the majority of owners decided to move to the fall, things started to crumble for the league, especially for teams in cities with existing NFL teams, like the Gamblers. Kelly, one of the more public faces of the USFL, voiced the concerns of many fans when he called the schedule switch "100 percent" wrong, saying, "It's the worst thing they could have done."
The team was not as strong in 1985 with the loss of Davis (who became the head coach of the Denver Gold
Denver Gold
The Denver Gold was a franchise in the United States Football League, an attempt to establish a second major professional football league in the United States, playing a springtime season, from 1983 to 1985...
) and player worries about the future. On the field, the team ran much less and as such became more predictable. Additionally, opponents adjusted their defenses. Scoring dropped in 1985 to 544 points. Off the field, concerns about the league and the team were a big distraction with the young team. The team made the playoffs with a 10-8 record and again lost in a nailbiter to an excellent team, the 13-5 veteran, Cliff Stoudt
Cliff Stoudt
Clifford Lewis Stoudt is a former American football quarterback for Youngstown State University and the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers...
/Joe Cribbs
Joe Cribbs
Joe Stanier Cribbs is a retired National Football League and United States Football League football running back. He played collegiately at Auburn University along with future NFL backs William Andrews and James Brooks...
/Jim Smith
Jim Smith (American football)
Jim Smith is a former professional American football player who played wide receiver for six seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League before starring on the Birmingham Stallions of the rival United States Football League...
-led Birmingham Stallions, 22-20.
The ownership of the Gamblers ran into financial difficulty in the team's second season. While the Gamblers had been a solid draw the year before, area fans were not about to abandon the Houston Oilers. Attendance dropped by almost 9,000 from 1984. At one point, the Gamblers had trouble making payroll, and needed an advance through the league just to go to the playoffs. Facing an expensive move to the fall and knowing they could not hope to compete with the Oilers, the owners decided to get out. After briefly entertaining an offer to move to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, they agreed to sell the Gamblers' assets to New Jersey Generals
New Jersey Generals
The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983-85, winning 31 regular-season games and losing 25 while going 0-2 in postseason competition...
owner Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
for an undisclosed amount. Trump then merged the Gamblers with the Generals for the 1986 season. The Generals would have Jim Kelly at QB and Herschel Walker at RB, leading observers to dub it the USFL's "dream team." Kelly was even featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a Generals uniform. That season however would never be played. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1985_26436
The most notable players on the team were Kelly, future Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
wide receiver Ricky Sanders
Ricky Sanders
Ricky Wayne Sanders is a former American football wide receiver who played for eight seasons with the Washington Redskins and one for the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League from 1986 to 1994...
, future Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
wide receiver Richard Johnson, future Indianapolis Colts kick returner Clarence Verdin
Clarence Verdin
Clarence Verdin is a former American football wide receiver who played for nine seasons in the National Football League from 1986 to 1994, six of those with the Indianapolis Colts. During his time with the Colts, he was famous for his end-zone celebration known as "The Verdance". He was selected...
, and future Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
wide receiver Gerald McNeil
Gerald McNeil
Gerald McNeil is a former professional American football player. He was a wide receiver who often returned punts and kickoffs...
. Todd Fowler
Todd Fowler
Todd Fowler is a former professional American football player who played tight end for four seasons for the Dallas Cowboys-References:...
, the featured running back on the team, was also notable as the first USFL player the rival NFL signed away from the league in 1985 (by the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
).
Trivia
Houston native and famed country singer Kenny RogersKenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
was signed to serve as the official mascot at all Gamblers home games due to his being known as "The Gambler." The original contract called for Rogers to sing during each half time show, but he pulled out of the deal after the Houston Sports Authority refused to allow him to open a Kenny Rogers Roasters
Kenny Rogers Roasters
Kenny Rogers Roasters is a chicken restaurant that was founded by country musician Kenny Rogers and former Kentucky governor John Y. Brown, Jr., who had also owned Kentucky Fried Chicken from 1964 to 1971. The menu was originally centered on wood-fired rotisserie chicken. After closing almost all...
franchise in the Astrodome. There were additional reports that Rogers was afraid he would be crushed by "giant King Kong sized dice" that would be dropped from the roof of the Dome during each half time as part of a 7-11 promotion. ("Rogers Folds'em and Walks Away" by Neil Holhfeld, Houston Chronicle, November 18, 1983.)
Team colors were black, red, and white.
Single season leaders
- Rushing Yards: 1009 (1984), Todd FowlerTodd FowlerTodd Fowler is a former professional American football player who played tight end for four seasons for the Dallas Cowboys-References:...
- Receiving Yards: 1445 (1984), Richard JohnsonRichard Johnson (American football)Richard LaVon Johnson is a former professional American football player who played wide receiver in the National Football League for three seasons for the Washington Redskins and Detroit Lions. Previously, he played with the Denver Gold and the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League...
- Passing Yards: 5219 (1984), Jim KellyJim KellyJames Edward Kelly is a former American football quarterback in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the USFL's Houston Gamblers....
(also league record)
Season-by-season
|-|1984 || 13 || 5 || 0 || 1st WC Central || Lost Quarterfinal (Arizona
Arizona Wranglers
The Arizona Wranglers were a professional American Football team in the United States Football League in the mid 1980s. They played at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.-Founding:...
)
|-
|1985 || 10 || 8 || 0 || 3rd WC || Lost Quarterfinal (Birmingham
Birmingham Stallions
The Birmingham Stallions were a franchise in the United States Football League, an attempt to establish a second professional league of American football in the United States in competition with the National Football League. They played their home games at Birmingham, Alabama's Legion Field...
)
|-
!Totals || 23 || 15 || 0
|colspan="2"| (including playoffs)