1974 WFL Houston Texans Suspension Football Helmet

Description: Houston WFL Texans - 1974 (Authentic Reproduction) Brian Saxton, a former tight end for Boston College, described a try-out he had for the Dallas Cowboys a number of years ago. “This was the most bizarre tryout I’ve ever had.” Brian had been to a few pro camps, started some games for the Giants, and played with a number of Boston College gridders who wound up in the NFL so he knew what scouts and coaches looked for. This specific tryout involving about a dozen prospects was directed by long time Cowboy scout Jim Garrett, former head coach of Columbia University and the WFL’s Houston Texans. “Garrett brought along a guy who had to be 5’8” and about 260 pounds of solid steel. All we did was run at him and the guy would beat the hell out of us. He got down over me like a linebacker and just pounded me, no pads but he was going all out, full contact. It didn’t matter what position any of the guys were being looked at for, you ran at Garrett’s guy and he beat you down.” When asked about running patterns, catching the ball, and doing the other things any tight end would be called upon to do, Saxton replied “Nothing, we just fought this guy is what it amounted to and he was a guy you weren’t gonna beat physically.” Garrett’s final evaluation indicated that he liked whatever it was Brian did but it was confirmed by others that Garrett had his own unique way of evaluating talent. As Vice President Of Football Operations and Head Coach of the Houston Texans Garrett came into his job on April 12, 1974, leaving scant time to put a decent team together for owner Steve Arnold, a New York-based attorney who had been involved with Davidson’s World Hockey Association, his American Basketball Association, and World Team Tennis. Arnold, with his pre-WFL Davidson association, was one of the six original franchise holders who entered the league at no cost. He was never called upon to pay the announced franchise fee of $700,000.00 but was, right into June and the start of the season, attempting to sell up to eighty-percent ownership for $1 million-plus. Immediately prior to the season’s kickoff the team showed a bank account balance of only $7,000.00 and could not afford to move into their announced corporate offices. As negotiations with potential buyers dragged on, the league itself was paying the Texans’ expenses. The financial mess was further highlighted by the hiring of Pete Mangum and Wayne Spruill, two coaches from Northeastern Louisiana State University. Both were to be personnel directors, moved to the Houston area and spent quite a bit of their own money traveling to scout players. A few weeks into their work, the Texans released them and declined to pay any of their expenses or salaries. The Texans franchise actually had been the original Memphis franchise in the WFL. Arnold believed that Memphis, a rabid football town, would be the perfect spot for a WFL team. Arnold, not having spent a cent on his franchise and not having much to spend, agreed to this location after discussion with Commissioner Gary Davidson. Unfortunately, the political powers in Memphis believed they had a legitimate chance at being chosen as one of the NFL expansion cities by 1977 and rebuffed the WFL entry. Arnold then relocated his “on paper only” franchise to Houston. It was against this backdrop that Garrett, a legitimate football man who had been an All Skyline Conference and Honorable Mention All American fullback at Utah State stepped in to build a football team. Garrett had coached at a succession of small eastern colleges and then with the N.Y. Giants prior to jumping to the WFL. As a scout for the Cowboys and a head coach in the Continental League, he knew what football players were supposed to look like but the Houston team had little money to sign any. His offensive line coach Bill Muir who still coaches in the NFL, and defensive backfield coach and former Giant player Dick Pesonen were the better known staff members saddled with the task of fielding a representative group of athletes. They did not know that their owner lacked the money to run the franchise and that Davidson was paying the bills through the WFL account. Things started badly for the Texans as they signed quarterback Eldridge Dickey who had been a schoolboy legend at Houston’s Booker T. Washington High School. As an all star quarterback at Tennessee State, Dickey was the Raiders 1968 number-one draft choice and was immediately moved to wide receiver. He never panned out, playing in only eighteen games in his NFL career. Garrett and his staff quickly put an offense together based upon his skills as a lightening quick running quarterback but Dickey neglected to report to camp and never notified the team of his plans. While they initially waited for his arrival, they had to scramble to restructure their offense. AFL retread Mike Taliaferro stepped into the starting role. The Texans brought in some players who’s performance immediately revealed that they were on the down side of their careers. Running back Jim Nance led the team in rushing and finished third in the WFL but was well past his prime. The second worst offense relative to point production did have a bright spot in former Tulsa and San Diego Charger receiver Rick Eber who finished the campaign in second place in pass receptions to Hawaii’s Tim Delaney. Eber attained a bit of notoriety late in the season when the team played a 30-25 victory over the Philadelphia Bell. On a field of mud that was more suitable for tasteless female wrestling than a game of football, Eber was thrown out of the contest when officials found that he had covered his fingertips with tape and using an old trick handed down by former Brown’s great receiver Mac Speedie, had hidden tacks within the tape to help him hold onto the balls thrown his way. They had high hopes that Warren McVea, the former San Antonio high school and University Of Houston star would produce after the Detroit Wheels unceremoniously dumped him, but he was injured on his very first carry against the Sun and with bruised ribs, was no more than a fill-in for Nance and Paul Gipson from that point on. Unfortunately, some of the older players on defense just couldn’t bring it any longer and although linebacker Garland Boyette (Grambling/Oilers), defensive ends Don Brumm (Purdue/Cardinals) and Joe Robb (TCU/Eagles, Cards, Lions), and defensive tackle Jim Kanicki (Michigan State/Browns, Giants) had been good in their younger days, the Houston defense was not even mediocre. Robb, expected to fill a spot on that defensive line was injured and did more coaching than playing. Boyette, as famous for being Ernie Ladd’s cousin as he was for being an excellent linebacker at Grambling and with the Oilers, also served as a player/coach with the linebackers. To shore up the defense, former Tennessee All American, Dallas Cowboy, and N.Y. Giant defensive back Richmond Flowers was activated from the front office. Originally hired as Assistant To The President and expected to play in 1975 once his NFL obligations were completed, desperation had him as a regular in the secondary once the team moved from Houston. One of the franchise highlights occurred when all 6’8” and 282 pounds of bad boy John Daniel Matuszak showed up on the Texans’ doorstep. The number one pick of the Houston Oilers and the overall number one pick of the 1973 NFL Draft, Matuszak had wandered from Wisconsin’s Oak Creek HS through Iowa Central Community College to the starting tight end position at the University Of Missouri. An unfortunate “physical disagreement” with another student over the attention of a young lady prompted his transfer to Tampa University, considered to be an “outlaw” but excellent program. With the likes of pro wrestler Paul Orndorff as a teammate, Tooz certainly had the opportunity to hone his fierceness, now as a defensive tackle. The Oilers were no doubt thinking that they should have paid closer attention to the box marked “Character” on the personal traits list of their draft folder because “The Tooz” proved to be a handful in his first and only Oiler season. Holding out for more money and/or a trade, The Tooz made it clear that he was jumping to Houston’s “other football team” and he was in their green and gold when they took the Astrodome field against the New York Stars on August 28, 1974. To the cheers of approximately 7,000 fans, Matuszak lasted one defensive series before being served with a restraining order while standing on the sidelines and was escorted off the field. The appearance of Matuszak was the second time in two weeks that the Texans had dug deep to come up with a solution to their limited attendance figures. The week before when they played the Stars in New York, they unveiled former Jets legendary receiver Don Maynard who took the field to pull in one catch against many of his former Jets teammates who now wore the gold and black of the Stars. With no financial resources, the league office had little choice but to pull the Texans out of Houston and in mid-September announced that a group in Shreveport, Louisiana had purchased the team. Thus on September 18th, the Texans were transferred to Shreveport and the Shreveport Steamer was born, offering a new helmet logo, and some hope for Houston and Shreveport’s fans for 1975. Even this step towards some financial respectability was marred. Head Coach Garrett encouraged his players to remain in Houston and play out the schedule “at home” no doubt as tired as most others of Davidson’s fiscal meanderings. Calling Shreveport “rinky-dink” Garrett was relieved of his duties. Former New Orleans Saints assistant coach Henry Lee Parker, serving as the WFL’s Director Of Football Operations, flew to Shreveport to serve as interim head coach for their first game there before appointing Texans’ assistant coach Marshall Taylor as the permanent head coach of the newly named Steamer. Taylor was selected primarily because he did not have long standing ties to Garrett. Taylor was known as a long-time assistant coach under Jim Carlen at both West Virginia and Texas Tech and had also served at Virginia Tech. This would be his first head-coaching job. Starting quarterback Mike Taliafero immediately bolted back to Houston. Leading rusher Jim Nance completed the season by refusing to live in Shreveport, instead commuting between Boston and Louisiana. The team finished the 1974 season with each player having been paid less than half his salary and no per diem expenses for road trips or game day expenses. In their game against Birmingham, the team took an eight-hour bus ride rather than a flight in order to save money. Solid Shreveport home attendance figures were revealed as “league guesstimates” and that was actually the term used, with the announced crowds of 20,000-plus for the first games in Shreveport appearing eerily similar to the actual attendance of approximately 10,000 for the home finale. Before the league decision was made to move the Texans to Shreveport, the earliest rumors had the Detroit Wheels moving there with their coach Dan Boisture being replaced by LSU legend Paul Dietzel. With former Woodlawn High School and Louisiana Tech star Terry Bradshaw riding the Pittsburgh Steeler bench at the time, further rumor had the area star returning home to pilot whichever WFL team could be brought into town. Detroit did in fact come to Shreveport a full five days prior to their scheduled game. With their ownership group declaring bankruptcy, they were essentially homeless and many stayed with friends on the Shreveport team until the game was played. As Wheels’ quarterback Bubba Wyche stated, “Total frustration, individually and as a team.” The fans’ enthusiasm for the new team in Shreveport impressed the players. Former University Of Houston quarterback D.C. Nobles said, “Everyone is so pleased with the city, the people, the whole thing. We couldn’t ask for more.” Cornerback Daryl Johnson added, “They make enough noise for 100,000.” Thus it was with enthusiasm that the staff and team looked forward to completing the 1974 season and perhaps resuming operations in 1975. Some “known” former NFL players were brought in to try to revive the slumping performance of the team for the remainder of the 1974 schedule. Ex-Oiler tight end Willie Frazier, ex-Raider Alphonse Dotson, and former Nebraska great and N.Y. Giant, and Eagle Rich Glover did not stem the tide of losing. While the fans were making plenty of noise, the team was still not making enough money to pay their operating expenses. Confrontations over missed paychecks became commonplace as the final few games were played. At Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium in the same mud-bowl game that receiver Rick Eber was ejected from for wearing tacks on his fingertips, a sparse crowd of only 300 spectators sat in the cavernous 100,000 seat stadium as most fans remained home to watch the televised Baseball World Series. Taylor had to beg his players to travel to Birmingham for the season’s final regular season game, played as the Birmingham hosts were trying to keep their equipment from being repossessed at game time. The 40-7 Steamer loss put a sad punctuation point on the season. Linebacker Garland Boyette revealed that, “We’re the biggest losers if the league goes under. Nobody else is close to us. We’ve only been paid thirty percent of our salary for the year.” The Houston/Shreveport green and gold uniforms were bright, if only because the helmet was yellow rather than a shade of gold. The “h” superimposed over the outline of the state of Texas was certainly different and distinctive. When they moved to Shreveport, the “S” logo represented both the city of Shreveport and the steamboat which would be enhanced to the more recognized boat type of design used for 1975. To all but those from Louisiana and the Shreveport/Bossier City area the logo spoke of the little known connection to Captain Shreve and the boating industry in and around the city. Green jerseys with white and yellow trim made for a good-looking uniform, better perhaps, than the Texans/Steamers level of play. The TK helmet was used by many of the WFL players during the 1974 and 75 seasons. Reprodction TK helmet with 12 point suspension, leather jaw pads and NJOP cage. Without question the nicest full size WFL helmets on the market. Look for all 25 models. As you know Helmethut com has the ability to stripe/number or customize (parts/masks and accessories) your helmets in hundreds of ways. Let us know if you want to make any changes to your helmet. Keep looking back for more auctions, literally thousands of football helmet related items on the way. If in need of something in particular give us a shout. Thanks for viewing and please do not ask for team logos of any league. All helmets come with an internal, non seen, no wear bar. Feel free to email any questions. Thank you. HH

Price: 239 USD

Location: Warsaw, Indiana

End Time: 2024-02-21T16:40:26.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD