Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars - 1985 Season

1985 Season

The league's owners, led by Donald Trump (New Jersey Generals), voted to move play to the fall after the 1985 season. Although the Stars had a strong following, Tanenbaum knew he couldn't hope to compete with the Philadelphia Eagles and moved the team to Baltimore. Unfortunately, he was unable to get a lease for Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. As a condition of the settlement between the city and the NFL's Colts after the Colts moved to Indianapolis, no pro football team could play at Memorial Stadium until 1986. Tanenbaum was forced to play at the University of Maryland's Byrd Stadium in College Park, 40 miles south of Baltimore and in fact closer to Washington. Meanwhile, the team continued to practice in Philadelphia, and also kept most of their operations there--effectively forcing the Stars to play 18 road games in the USFL's last spring season.

At least in part due to all the moving, the Stars struggled in 1985, needing to win nine of their last 13 games just to get a wild-card berth. Even if they'd notched a better record, they would have lost home-field advantage for the playoffs due to their poor attendance. Baltimoreans were not willing to make the 44-minute drive down Interstate 95 to see "their" team play, while fans on the Maryland side of the Washington area were not willing to support a lame-duck team. ABC, embarrassed at the dreadful gates from Baltimore and Denver, told Usher it did not want the embarrassment of airing playoff games in near-empty stadiums. However, the Stars managed to upend the favored Generals and Stallions in successive weeks to reach the title game. Once there the Stars again won the USFL title beating the Bobby Hebert-led Oakland Invaders in what was seen as a rematch of the first USFL title game.

As it turned out, this was the last USFL game ever played. On July 29, 1986, a federal grand jury found in favor of the USFL in its antitrust suit against the NFL. However, it only awarded the USFL a dollar in damages (tripled to $3 under antitrust law). The league's abandonment of Philadelphia, the nation's fourth-largest market, was one factor in the adverse jury award. The league suspended operations a day later, never to return.