<!-- Commented out: thumb|right|1974 Detroit Wheels pocket schedule with team logo -->The Detroit Wheels were an American football team, a charter member of the defunct World Football League.
Founding
Soon after Gary Davidson announced the WFL's formation in October 1973, he was approached by a man named Bud Hucul about putting a team in Detroit. In a harbinger of things to come, however, it emerged that Hucul had a long history of legal problems, including 30 arrests and 27 lawsuits. which ended with none of the 665 potential players who tried out making the team.
The owners also had trouble finding a place to play. Their first choice was Tiger Stadium, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions and Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers. However, they were unable to lease the stadium due to pressure from the Lions. (The further damage to the turf that a second football team would cause was also a concern for the Tigers, especially since the WFL schedule began in July and coincided with much of the Tigers' season.) The Silverdome wouldn't be finished for another year, and University of Detroit Stadium (home of the Continental Football League's Michigan Arrows) had been demolished three years prior. Lee approached his alma mater, the University of Michigan, about playing at cavernous Michigan Stadium, only to be turned down.
Finally, the Wheels signed a deal to play at Eastern Michigan University's 15,500-seat Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, from downtown Detroit. The stadium had no lighting at the time, and the Wheels had to install their own; these lights remain at the stadium to this day (although subsequently updated). The club even hired EMU's head coach, Dan Boisture, to helm the Wheels.
<!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|[[Carling Black Label, Wheels sponsor poster]] -->
1974 season
Things weren't encouraging on the field, either. The Wheels had a quarterback with Canadian Football League experience in Bubba Wyche (brother of former NFL quarterback and head coach Sam Wyche), but little in the way of protection (Wyche was sacked eleven times in one game) or receivers.
Only 10,631 people attended their first home game, and their final home contest drew an announced crowd of 6,351 fans (though actual attendance was closer to 2,000). One home game, against the Portland Storm, was moved to J.W. Little Stadium in London, Ontario; Storm owner Robert Harris was from London, and actually considered moving his club to the Ontario city and renaming them the London Lords, adopting the name of the recently folded semi-pro team of that name. The Canadian government, however, was firmly against the idea of any US-based pro football league playing in their country and encroaching on the established Canadian Football League; they had threatened to pass the Canadian Football Act a few months prior, which forced a proposed Toronto team to move to Memphis instead. Harris received $30,000 from local promoters and the Storm got their first win of the year, 18-7, in front of an announced crowd of 5,105 (though newspaper reports indicated there were only 2,000 people there), in the only World Football League game played outside the United States.
As the losses piled up, the team's ramshackle financial structure became more problematic. Boisture and Grandelius badly wanted to put together a viable professional football organization, but the owners refused all requests for more money. According to Grandelius, the owners "panicked" when they realized how dire the situation was, and simply walked away.
right|thumb|200px|Detroit [[running back Warren McVea.]]
The result was what amounted to a club team in a professional league. For one home game, there were no programs available because the printer hadn't been paid. Boisture had to cancel several practices because the laundry bill went unpaid, leaving the team without uniforms. They couldn't pay their phone bill, and they were unable to reserve hotel rooms or fly to away games without advance payment. Players were forced to share food and rent due to missed paydays; several players ended up sharing a house. Wide receiver Jon Henderson had to pay his son's hospital bill out of pocket after finding out the team's insurance policy was cancelled for non-payment of premiums.
The situation prompted Wyche to write to league president Gary Davidson and beg the league office to intervene.
Media coverage was spotty at best. Only three Wheels games were ever televised, only one of which was actually seen locally. The season-opening loss to Memphis on July 10 was carried by local station WKBD-TV. The August 22 contest against Chicago in Ypsilanti was carried nationally on TVS, but was blacked-out on the network's local affiliate, also WKBD-TV. The August 28 game in Philadelphia was carried by fledgling Home Box Office to its handful of subscribers, none of which were in the Detroit area. TVS had also planned to carry the September 25 game at New York, but begged off because the lighting at New York's Downing Stadium, dating from the 1940's, was inadequate for broadcast; in any case, both teams were on the brink of extinction by the time of the game. On radio, WWJ-AM carried all but one Wheels game, the July 21 contest in Hawaii.
The coaches were also feeling the effects as well. Assistant coach Owen Dejanovich was forced to live in the basement of fellow assistant Chick Harris for a time because several landlords refused to rent houses to him when they found out he worked for the Wheels (even after sending one landlord $1700 to cover two months rent and security deposit, a large sum of money at the time). Boisture was unable to film any games because the owners refused to provide filming equipment.
Schedule and results
{| cellpadding=5 style="border:1px solid #BBB"
|-
| Key: || style="background: #CCFFCC;" | Win || style="background: #FFCCCC;" | Loss || style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Bye
|}
1974 regular season
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Week
! Day
! Date
! Opponent
! Result
! Attendance
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!1
|Wednesday
|July 10, 1974
|at Memphis Southmen
|L 15–34
|30,122
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!2
|Wednesday
|July 17, 1974
|Florida Blazers
|L 14–18
|10,631
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!3
|Sunday
|July 21, 1974
|at Hawaiians
|L 16–36
|10,080
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!4
|Wednesday
|July 31, 1974
|Birmingham Americans
|L 18–21
|14,614
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!5
|Wednesday
|August 7, 1974
|at Birmingham Americans
|L 22–28
|40,367
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!6
|Wednesday
|August 14, 1974
|Memphis Southmen
|L 7–37
|14,424
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!7
|Thursday
|August 22, 1974
|Chicago Fire
|L 23–35
|10,300
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!8
|Wednesday
|August 28, 1974
|at Philadelphia Bell
|L 23–27
|15,100
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!9
|Monday
|September 2, 1974
|Portland Storm (at London, Ontario)
|L 7–18
|5,101
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!10
|Friday
|September 6, 1974
|Southern California Sun
|L 7–10
|6,351
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#CCFFCC"
!11
|Wednesday
|September 11, 1974
|at Florida Blazers
|W 15–14
|9,003
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!12
|Wednesday
|September 18, 1974
|at Southern California Sun
|L 24–29
|12,169
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!13
|Tuesday
|September 24, 1974
|at New York Stars
|L 7–37
|4,220
|---- align="center" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
!14
|Wednesday
|October 2, 1974
|at Shreveport Steamer
|L 11–14
|22,012
|---- align="center"
!15
|Wednesday
|October 9, 1974
|at Chicago Fire
|
|cancelled
|---- align="center"
!16
|Wednesday
|October 16, 1974
|Hawaiians
|
|cancelled
|---- align="center"
!17
|Wednesday
|October 23, 1974
|at Shreveport Steamer
|
|cancelled
|---- align="center"
!18
|Wednesday
|October 30, 1974
|at Jacksonville Sharks
|
|cancelled
|---- align="center"
!19
|Wednesday
|November 6, 1974
|Charlotte Hornets
|
|cancelled
|---- align="center"
!20
|Wednesday
|November 13, 1974
|Philadelphia Bell
|
|cancelled
|}
References
External links
- Detroit Wheels Online Home
- Detroit Wheels at WFL WebRing
- Detroit Wheels on FunWhileItLasted.net