Show us your World Football League items!

[tom1315]

Mark, what a fine collection you have built, and your data re the types of jerseys and the Sand Knit tagging...just fabulous!

Thank you for sharing!

Tom

Go Pack! NC State 1981 graduate

[G1X]

Dave and Tom,

Thanks for the kind words.

The WFL has special meaning to me as my hometown team, the Birmingham Americans, won the World Bowl championship in 1974, and the Birmingham Vulcans had the best record in 1975 when the league folded. I was in college at the time and attended all of Birmingham's home games at Legion Field (including the World Bowl) except for the very last game they ever played (21-0 win over Memphis). I even made a road trip to Jacksonville in 1975 to see Birmingham take on the Express at the old Gator Bowl. Also, many of Birmingham's road games were televised back to Birmingham. My very first game-used jersey was the Americans #30-Williams jersey seen in my first post in this thread (Gerard Williams who went on to play 5 years in the NFL with Washington, San Francisco, and St. Louis), and it is the item that got me hooked into collecting game-used jerseys.

For about a decade after the league folded, WFL jerseys, helmets, and other equipment were very popular items among collectors. There was a lot of it out there, but over the past 20 years or so, it seems to show up only occasionally other than the 1974 game balls that are frequently listed on ebay. I rarely bump into anyone who collects WFL items or has retained any WFL gear from "back in the day", and most of the collectors that I shared my passion with back in the 1970s and 1980s seem to have either become less active or dropped out of the hobby completely. Larry Pelliccioni, who is active in this Forum, is one of the few original WFL collectors who I still occasionally communicate with.

I am guessing that there is probably not a lot of interest with younger collectors and football fans as it was a short-lived league that probably has little meaning except for those who were around during that time and followed the league as an entertaining alternative to the NFL.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

[HawaiiSportsNut]

Wow cool WFL jerseys. The only thing that I have is a few tickets from the Hawaiians. I bought the tickets several years ago at a card show, I believe that I bought them at a buck a piece, got about a dozen tickets at that time.

[G1X]

Thanks for sharing photos of your Hawaiians tickets and flight ad. There is a photo of one of my Hawaiians jerseys in my intial post. It is the brown #88-Vella with the yellow-gold numbers and lettering.

Hope to see others post their WFL memorabilia!

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for WFL game-used uniforms and equipment

[beaglegypsy003]

Here are my two Hawaiians jerseys.

[BrianK]

Nice. I love the huge NOBs.

[G1X]

Thanks for sharing the photos of the two Hawaiians jerseys. Nice jerseys!

On both the #22-Brown and #23-Walker, there is probably a name underneath the nameplate. It will usually be sewn directly on the back, but sometimes it will be on another plate. If sewn directly on the back, you can see the letters if you turn the jersey inside-out. Let me know if there are names underneath. (I am guessing that "Boyer" might be on the #23 jersey).

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for WFL game-used uniforms and equipment