Stukenborg, Part 1....
http://www.commercialappeal.com/sports/p...m_43162371
There’s also a team photo — taken, appropriately, on a docked showboat anchored near Riverside Drive — hanging adjacent to a framed copy of the front page of the July 6, 1985, edition of The Commercial Appeal with a story advancing the USFL semifinal between the Showboats and Oakland Invaders.
At the time, Ehrhart did not know the franchise’s most anticipated game would also be its last. The USFL did not play another season.
“That week there was nothing hotter that I’ve seen in 30 years in Memphis than a ticket to the Showboats and Invaders,” Ehrhart said. “Oakland was 14-4-1 and had beaten (Tampa Bay and coach Steve Spurrier) the week before. We had beaten Denver (48-7) and won six straight at home.”
Memphis had won eight of its final 11 regular-season games to reach the playoffs with momentum. Kelley praised the franchise’s front office for “putting together a fantastic team.” In the team’s final home game in 1984 against the Birmingham Stallions, the Showboats attracted a sellout crowd of 50,079.
“It’s amazing how for those two years the team had command of the local media,” said Tommy Horton, a former sports writer for the old Memphis Press-Scimitar who served as the team’s director of public relations. “It reminds me of how the (NBA’s) Grizzlies dominate (coverage in) the media now. It was a major deal when the franchise was awarded.”
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Showboats - 30 Year Anniversary
