Shreveport Pirates

The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, in 1994 and 1995.

The Pirates were known to be one of the least successful of the CFL's American franchises on and off the field. Bernard Glieberman and his son Lonnie, former owners of the Ottawa Rough Riders, bought the team. As a result, they were allowed to take some Ottawa players with them to Shreveport.

The team was doomed from the beginning. The team fired their first head coach John Huard and replaced him with Forrest Gregg before the team took a snap. Most of Shreveport's football fans were used to supporting the Dallas Cowboys or the New Orleans Saints and were neither familiar with nor willing to embrace the nuances of Canadian football. Attendance was poor and dwindled as the season progressed, primarily due to the team's losing record as it took them until week 15 to record their first victory, a 24-12 victory over the Sacramento Gold Miners After the historic victory, the team won two out of their last three games, but they still finished last in the CFL East Division.

The following year, there was lots of promise, but the team still finished last in the CFL South Division with a 5-13 record. All their victories were against Canadian teams. The problems continued off the field as the Gliebermans tried to relocate the team to Norfolk, Virginia but the deal fell through. Notable about the move to Virginia was "the Great Tucker Caper" when the City of Shreveport tried to seize Bernard Glieberman's 1948 Tucker (which was on loan to a classic automobile museum in downtown Shreveport) for defaulting on debts related to the Pirates' lease at Independence Stadium. Glieberman's lawyer, Mark Gilliam, tried to escape with the car and hide the vintage auto, but he ran out of gas along the way. The police spotted him, and took the car back to the museum where it was being stored until the case could be settled. The soap opera saga led to the contraction of the team.

One positive that came of the Shreveport franchise were that noted tele-evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was among the Pirates' fans. He had season tickets for both seasons and would drive over from Baton Rouge to see them play.

Some notable players were quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver and kick returner Freeman Baysinger. Kicker Bjorn Nittmo was also a fan favorite, both for making some very long field goals and for being friendly to the fans, often attending meetings of their Booster Club. Jon Heidenreich played two seasons with the club, and later became popular as a wrestler (WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship). Curiously, two players, Joe Montford and Elfrid Payton, would later go on to fame as winners of the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award (added to this pair is Greg Stumon, who was a former winner of the same award). Uzooma Okeke went on to become one of the best linemen in the history of the Montreal Alouettes and won the 1999 CFL Most Outstanding Lineman award. He became a scout with the Alouettes in 2007.

They finished the 1994 season at 3-15, and top performers were wide receiver Charles Thompson with 641 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns and running back Martin Patton was the team leading rusher with 659 yards and 8 touchdowns. Terrence Jones had 1,046 yard passing with 4 touchdowns and with 9 interceptions and Mike Johnson, of the University of Akron, passed for 1,259 yards and 4 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. The club averaged a respectable 17,871 fans per game with a high of 32,011 for their victory over the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Shreveport averaged more than 26 points per game in 1995, but gave up better than 28. Billy Joe Tolliver completed 252 of 429 passes for 3,440 yards and 14 touchdowns. His favorite target was fellow Texas Tech product Wayne Walker, who caught 51 passes for 790 yards. Curtis Mayfield led the team in receptions with 58 for 846 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. The team's leading rusher was former University of Miami player Martin Patton, who ran for 1,040 yards, third in the league. Kicker Bjorn Nittmo finished 46 of 53 in field goals and was sixth in the league in scoring.

Glieberman quickly moved the team out of Shreveport after the end of the 1995 regular season and planned to move the team to Norfolk, Virginia; Norfolk, however, was not interested in the team due to Glieberman's poor credit history. The team was then folded. It had appeared, for a time, that the Birmingham Barracudas would move to Shreveport, but instead, the CFL's American franchises all folded or moved to Canada.

The Pirates booster club was formed during the team's first season in order to support the team, and remained active long after the team became defunct, spearheading various later attempts to get another professional football team in the Shreveport area.

ee also

*Comparison of Canadian and American football
*1994 CFL season
*1995 CFL season

External links

* [http://www.oursportscentral.com/cflinamerica/shreve.php Shreveport Pirates team profile]