Portland Breakers

The Portland Breakers were an American football team that played in the United States Football League (USFL) in the mid-1980s. Before moving to Portland, Oregon, the franchise was previously in Boston, Massachusetts as the Boston Breakers and New Orleans, Louisiana as the New Orleans Breakers.

A new United States Football League – legally distinct from its predecessor, but using its team nicknames – was started in April 2022. A new version of the New Orleans Breakers was one of eight teams competing. On December 19, 2023, the USFL informed its players union that the Breakers would not be among four USFL teams to be contracted as part of the league's upcoming merger with the XFL.

History

Boston Breakers

The team started out in 1983 as the Boston Breakers, owned by Boston businessman George Matthews and former New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Vataha. However, finding a stadium proved difficult. The lack of a professional-quality stadium had stymied previous attempts at pro football in Boston before the Patriots arrived in 1960.

The largest stadium in the region was Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, home of the Patriots. However, it was owned by the Sullivan family, owners of the Patriots, and Matthews and Vataha were not willing to have an NFL team as their landlord. As a result, their initial choice for a home facility was Harvard Stadium, but Harvard University rejected them almost out of hand. They finally settled on Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University, which seated only 21,000 people – the smallest stadium in the league. The team's cheerleaders were called "Heartbreakers".

Coach Dick Coury put together a fairly competitive team led by quarterback Johnnie Walton (then 36 years old, a former Continental Football League and World Football League alumnus who had been out of football since the late 1970s) and Canadian Football League veteran halfback Richard Crump. The Breakers finished 11–7, finishing one game behind the Chicago Blitz for the final playoff spot. Walton, who had retired from pro football years earlier and had spent the previous three years coaching college football, was the league's seventh ranked passer. Coury was named coach of the year.

Despite fielding a fairly solid team, playing in Nickerson Field doomed the team in Boston. The stadium had been built in 1915 as Braves Field and had not aged well. It was so small that the Breakers lost money even when they sold out as visiting teams got a portion of the gate proceeds. The Breakers and Washington Federals were the only teams to draw fewer than 14,000 per game in 1983. The other 10 teams drew over 18,000 per game. (The fans who came to the games were generally passionate; the documentary Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? made note of a particular Breakers victory in which fans stormed the field afterward.)

Concluding that Nickerson Field was not suitable even for temporary use, Matthews again approached Harvard, but the school refused again. He then hashed out a deal to move to Foxborough, but ultimately decided against being a tenant of an NFL team. He considered an offer to sell a stake in the team to Jacksonville, Florida businessman Fred Bullard, but pulled out after Bullard proposed firing Coury in favor of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. (Bullard would ultimately land an expansion franchise, the Jacksonville Bulls.) After floating offers to move to Seattle, Honolulu, and Portland, Matthews decided to move to New Orleans. He sold a 31 percent interest to New Orleans real estate developer Joe Canizaro, and the move was approved by the USFL on October 18, 1983. Matthews later sold his remaining stake to Canizaro, but Vataha remained as team president.

1984 New Orleans Breakers schedule

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

!style=""| Week

!style=""| Date

!style=""| Opponent

!style=""| Result

!style=""| Record

!style=""| Venue

!style=""| Attendance

! colspan="9" style=""|Preseason

! 1

| colspan=9|Bye

! 2

| colspan=9|Bye

! 3

| at Birmingham Stallions

| L 10–30

| 0–1

| Legion Field

| 12,000

! 4

| vs. Memphis Showboats

| W 20–0

| 1–1

| Cajun Field

|- style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="9" style=""|Regular season

! 1

| February 26

| at San Antonio Gunslingers

| W 13–10

| 1–0

| Alamo Stadium

| 18,233

! 2

| March 4

| at Oakland Invaders

| W 13–0

| 2–0

| Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum

| 41,200

! 3

| Memphis Showboats

| W 37–14

| 3–0

| Louisiana Superdome

| 45,269

! 4

| at Jacksonville Bulls

| W 38–9

| 4–0

| Gator Bowl Stadium

| 48,303

! 5

| March 25

| Chicago Blitz

| W 41–35

| 5–0

| Louisiana Superdome

| 43,692

! 6

| at Birmingham Stallions

| L 17–31

| 5–1

| Legion Field

| 28,100

! 7

| April 8

| Pittsburgh Maulers

| W 27–24

| 6–1

| Louisiana Superdome

| 39,315

! 8

| Tampa Bay Bandits

| L 13–35

| 6–2

| Louisiana Superdome

| 35,634

! 9

| April 22

| Denver Gold

| W 20–18

| 7–2

| Louisiana Superdome

| 22,139

! 10

| at Philadelphia Stars

| L 0–35

| 7–3

| Veterans Stadium

| 34,011

! 11

| Arizona Wranglers

| L 13–28

| 7–4

| Louisiana Superdome

| 22,937

! 12

| May 13

| Michigan Panthers

| W 10–3

| 8–4

| Louisiana Superdome

| 21,053

! 13

| May 20

| at Tampa Bay Bandits

| L 20–31

| 8–5

| Tampa Stadium

| 42,592

! 14

| May 27

| Birmingham Stallions

| L 14–31

| 8–6

| Louisiana Superdome

| 23,748

! 15

| at Memphis Showboats

| L 17–20

| 8–7

| Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

| 31,198

! 16

| June 10

| at New Jersey Generals

| L 21–31

| 8–8

| Giants Stadium

| 23,114

! 17

| Jacksonville Bulls

| L 17–20

| 8–9

| Louisiana Superdome

| 21,233

! 18

| June 24

| at Washington Federals

| L 17–20

| 8–10

| RFK Stadium

| 6,386

Sources

Portland Breakers

Searching for a home, Canizaro considered moving to Sacramento and Columbus, and even weighed merging with the Birmingham Stallions. However, he was particularly intrigued when he visited Portland. It was a fairly large market with a reasonably adequate facility by USFL standards, Civic Stadium (which seated 32,000 people at the time). The move to Portland was announced on