The USFL History: USFL 1985- USFL Championship-Oakland Invaders vs. Baltimore Stars: Full Game

Source:The USFL History- with the 1985 USFL Championship.

"July 14, 1985 - Giants Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey

Quarterfinals

BIRMINGHAM 22, Houston 20

MEMPHIS 48, Denver 7

OAKLAND 30, Tampa Bay 27

Baltimore 20, NEW JERSEY 17

Semifinals

Baltimore 28, BIRMINGHAM 14

Oakland 28, MEMPHIS 19" 

From The USFL History 

Baltimore the only city to win the Super Bowl, 1970, 2000 and 2012, the USFL Championship in 1985 and the CFL Grey Cup in 1995. And the Baltimore Colts won the NFL Championship in 1958 and 59 before that game was called the Super Bowl. So this is a big city with a great American pro football history, with a bunch of championships as well as playing in a lot of championship games. And some of the best American pro football fans in the world.

The USFL didn’t fold because of lack of support, or lack of good players, or lack of coaching, or lack of quality play. They folded because of lack of management in the league administration and how their clubs were run. Had they stayed in the spring and summer and stayed out of NFL markets, they could very well still be in business today.

The perfect example of the lack of quality management in the USFL, had to do with the so-called Baltimore Stars. As ABC Sports announcer Keith Jackson said, the Baltimore Stars is a bit of a misnomer since the Stars never even played a single game in the City of Baltimore. They didn't even play a game in Baltimore County for that matter.  

The Stars moved to College Park, Maryland in 1985 and played their home games at Byrd Stadium there and called themselves the Baltimore Stars for the 1985 USFL season, before having a stadium agreement with the City of Baltimore, because the USFL was a spring league and the Orioles obviously play baseball in the spring and Baltimore Memorial Stadium was their home. 

With even decent management, the Stars wouldn't have even tried to move to Baltimore,  without a new stadium agreement in Baltimore, whether it was either at Baltimore Memorial, or another stadium there. And even if the Stars tried to move under those circumstances, that USFL shouldn't have let the Stars move from Philadelphia and let them call themselves the Baltimore Stars, when they don't even play in the Baltimore area, let alone in Baltimore. College Park, Maryland, is part of the Washington area, not Baltimore. 

As far as this game, definitely the two best, all around teams, in the USFL in 1985 and both had a lot of NFL quality talent on their clubs. Which is why ABC Sports showed this game and it was an excellent championship game.

You can also see this post at Real Life Journal, on Blogger.