Chicago Winds

This article is about the former American football team. For the Merle Haggard album, see Chicago Wind.

Chicago Winds
Founded	January 1975
Folded	September 1975
Based in	Chicago, Illinois
Home field	Soldier Field
League	World Football League
Division	Western
Colors	Green & White
Head coach	Babe Parilli
General manager	Babe Parilli
Owner(s)	Eugene Pullano

The Chicago Winds was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was named the Winds (plural, not singular) because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City." The Winds played at Soldier Field and was assigned to the WFL's Western Division for 1975 (the WFL having shrunk from 12 teams to 11, and from three divisions to two).

Pursuit of Joe Namath

Prior to the 1975 season opener, Winds owner Eugene Pullano attempted to sign New York Jets star quarterback Joe Namath to a contract. Namath, who had helped establish the Jets and the old American Football League, was wavering about re-signing with New York after the 1974 season. Reports had him retiring, being traded to another NFL team — or jumping to the WFL, perhaps as a player/coach/co-owner. Namath's agent Jimmy Walsh asked the Winds for a $500,000 signing bonus, a three-year contract worth $500,000 a year, a $2 million annuity ($100,000 per year for twenty years) and even terms for Namath's eventual ownership of a WFL franchise in New York. (The Winds even changed their colours to green and white, the same as the Jets.) The Winds had all but promised that Namath would come to Chicago, and their failure to sign him made them and the league look foolish. When Eddie Einhorn, head of the WFL's television partner, TVS Television Network, got word that the WFL was going after Namath, he bluntly told league president Chris Hemmeter that the league was literally betting its existence on getting Namath. Nearly all of TVS' affiliates refused to commit to air any WFL games in 1975 until Namath's signing was confirmed. According to Mark Kreigel's biography, Namath, Chicago apparently accepted the terms of the contract — until Walsh also demanded 15 percent of the WFL's total TV package. The Winds, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively (as 85% of television revenue for the league would have been better than having no television revenue at all), rejected the deal. Namath stayed with the Jets, and TVS dropped its coverage of the WFL, leaving the league without national television coverage in its final season.

The team did, however, hire former Charlotte Hornets pilot Babe Parilli as its head coach and general manager. A number of old Fire players returned as well, including running backs Mark Kellar and Cyril Pinder, center Guy Murdock (the Fire's MVP), and receivers Steve Wright and Chuck Kogut. With Namath out of the picture, the Winds acquired veteran quarterback Pete Beathard from the Portland Storm, while wide receiver John Gilliam, originally signed with The Hawaiians, also came to Chicago.

1975 season

The Winds did not have much success of the field or at the box office. They lost both pre-season games, to Jacksonville and Charlotte (Parilli's old team). Unlike the defunct Chicago Fire, which sold 15,000 season tickets in 1974, the Winds managed only 1,600. In late July, the league took swift action by firing Parilli and replacing him with Abe Gibron, who had been fired from the Chicago Bears after the 1974 season. (An amusing typo in a New York Times story indicated Gibron had become coach of the Chicago Winos.) A very reluctant Leo Cahill left a (relatively) comfortable position as Memphis Southmen GM to the precarious situation with the wobbling Winds. Gibron only had 48 hours or so to learn about his new team.

The Winds lost their first two regular-season contests, 10-0 in Birmingham and 38-18 in Shreveport, before beating the Portland Thunder, 25-18 in overtime, in front of just 3,501 fans at Soldier Field. After two more road losses (at Hawaii and Memphis), the team was 1-4 and swimming in red ink.

The end

Due to a dispute over partnership arrangements, two major investors withdrew $175,000 that they'd deposited with the league. (In a Sports Illustrated story on the death of the WFL, a Winds official referred to the investors as "Bob and Rich from California. I don't know their last names, but one's an Arab and the other's a Greek.")

The investors' withdrawal dropped the Winds below league capitalization requirements. Puliano asked for time to find more investors. The WFL owners instead voted 10-1 to expel Chicago from the league, with only the Winds themselves voting to continue. A team folding in mid-season was not unusual for the WFL (the Jacksonville Sharks and Detroit Wheels had died 14 games into a 20-game regular season in 1974), so the league was prepared. The Winds' game against the Southern California Sun was canceled. Since there were 11 teams, one team had a bye each week; with Chicago out, the bye team simply took the Winds' place in the schedule. Meanwhile, John Gilliam was selected by the Philadelphia Bell in a dispersal draft, but returned to the NFL Minnesota Vikings instead, much to the WFL's chagrin. Even this arrangement didn't last too long, as the entire WFL collapsed at the end of October 1975.