A Brief History of Major League Football

The MLF started officially in 1940 when teams from the Professional Football League renamed the league after Washington was granted a franchise. However, some league members started as early as 1894 as traveling club teams.

The charter members of the league are the Akron Arrows, Boston Admirals, Buffalo Bisons, Chicago Barbarians, Cincinnati Kings, Cleveland Bulldogs, Detroit Autos, Milwaukee Warriors, New York Generals, Pittsburgh Miners, Philadelphia Tigers, and Washington Americans. In 1944, Akron moved to LA and changed their name to the Los Angeles Mustangs. Cincinnati folded in 1947 and is the only original franchise to not be around in some form. The Baltimore Athletics did take their spot in the 1948 season but the franchise was labeled an expansion team since none of the management or ownership from Cincinnati came over. In 1952, Baltimore adopted the Bombers name.

In 1959, the MLF expanded to include the Denver Riders, Los Angeles Stars, New York Knights, and San Francisco Hawks when the league acquired the struggling All-American Football League. Los Angeles was located in Baltimore in the AAFL but MLF officials did not think Baltimore could sustain two teams and only accepted them in the league if they were willing to be bought by someone who would move them. James D'Angelo an LA business man bought the team and moved them to Los Angeles. In 1960, the Dallas Marshals and St. Louis Stallions began play as expansion teams. The Minnesota Bruins also began play after the Buffalo franchise moved. These moves were the beginning of the great expansion in the MLF. In 1962, the Los Angeles Mustangs were on the verge of folding when the league took over and Kansas City was awarded the franchise because of the strong ownership proposal led by former coach and quarterback Jack Hart.

In 1964, the Miami Marauders and Portland Pioneers began play as expansion teams. Miami was the sure team to be picked and Houston looked like a lock with a strong owner in Tubby Richards. However, the MLF commissioner at the time, Paul Morelli made some back room deals to get Portland the bid since well known business man George Anderson put up a lot of money to secure a franchise for Portland. In 1968, Tubby would get his team as the Atlanta Blazers and Houston Bulls began play as expansion teams. In 1972, the league would expand again to include the New Orleans Pirates and San Diego Sharks. The last expansion for several years was in 1978 when Cincinnati was awarded a new franchise and decided to adopt the old Kings moniker. The Seattle Shockers also started play that same year.

After ten years MLF started to expand once more in 1988 with the Indianapolis Racers and Phoenix Firebirds. The last expansions occurred in 1994 with the Memphis Blues and Tampa Bay Barracudas then again in 2000 with the Carolina Breakers and Toronto Rhinos. Toronto moved to Buffalo before the start of the 2017 season.

After fourteen years MLF has decided to expand their brand by starting a developmental spring football league. The league has branded itself as MLF Spring League starting with eight franchises. The awarded franchises are located in Akron, OH, Birmingham, AL, East Rutherford, NJ, Los Angeles, CA, Oklahoma City, OK, Orlando, FL, San Antonio, TX, & Salt Lake City, Utah all of which began play in April of 2016.