Remembering the Stallions

In the annals of professional sports history, the Baltimore Stallions are nothing more than a footnote.

The Canadian Football League team lasted just two seasons in town before growing debt, the arrival of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns (now the Ravens) and the overall failure of the league’s U.S. expansion forced the franchise to close shop and eventually become the Montreal Alouettes in 1996.

Still, the Stallions? legacy goes far beyond its 42-game history from 1994 to ?95. The team advanced to the CFL?s title game, the Grey Cup, in both seasons and won it in 1995. Sixteen players from that title team earned NFL tryouts in 1996, while head coach Don Matthews won more games (231) and running back Mike Pringle rushed for more yards (16,425) than any one in CFL history.

With the Indianapolis Colts returning to Super Bowl Sunday for the first time in 36 years, discussion of the Colts? Baltimore years have come up a lot lately. That still upsets many Baltimoreans who believe professional football ended in town when the Colts moved out in 1984.

That’s not true for those associated with the Stallions. To them, the CFL franchise filled the 12-year football void between the Colts? departure and the Ravens? arrival. The Stallions arrived at a time when Baltimore was left out of the NFL expansion process and after a number of current franchises used the city as leverage for better deals.

At about the same time, the CFL began its U.S. expansion. From 1993 to ?95, CFL franchises popped up in seven U.S. cities, including Baltimore.

Baltimoreans immediately embraced this different brand of football when area businessman Jim Speros first proposed the CFL to the town. Speros did everything he could to get the city excited about a game with 12 men on the field, three downs, wider fields and no fair catches. He even attempted to revive the Colts? name before getting thwarted in court by the NFL.

“There was a great effort from a lot of people to get Memorial Stadium in shape and get the team off the ground,” said former Baltimore Colts running back Tom Matte, who owned 10 percent of the team. “These guys played with heart. These were just young kids that just wanted to play football. They reminded people of the old Colts.”

While many of the U.S. CFL teams tried building their franchises with NFL retreads, the Stallions brought in a veteran CFL coach in Matthews and quarterback Tracy Ham. That combination, along with the scouting of assistant general manager Jim Popp, led to the creation of an immediate CFL contender. In 1994, Baltimore, which played that season without a nickname, went 14-7 and lost in the Grey Cup to the B.C. Lions, 26-23.

The 1994 team was so talented that New Orleans Saints wide receiver Joe Horn, a former Pro Bowler who has spent the last 11 seasons in the NFL, never made it off the practice squad.

“There are only so many jobs for players in the NFL,” said Ham, who retired in 1999 and now is a businessman in Atlanta. “Playing in Baltimore was a great experience, and it gave a lot of us the chance to play professional football in the U.S.”

More than 30,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium for the Stallions in both of their seasons in Baltimore. However, attendance dropped off considerably in 1995, with the team’s fate sealed after the NFL?s Browns confirmed their move.

“We knew something was up months before the announcement came down,” said Popp, the Alouettes? current coach and general manager. “We saw that the locker rooms got totally redone and mimicked what the Cleveland Browns? lockers looked like, which was something I knew because my dad [Joe] used to be an assistant with the team.”

Still, the Stallions finished 18-3 and became the only U.S. team ever to win the Grey Cup, beating the Calgary Stampeders, 37-20.

“Once the Browns said they were coming, the writing was on the wall,” said former Stallions public relations director Mike Gathagan, who is now with the Maryland Jockey Club. “Once the Grey Cup was over, the CFL was done in this city. A lot of good people lost their jobs when the NFL came back to Baltimore. Those were crazy times, and we are really proud of everything we accomplished in those two years.”

Former Stallions linebacker O.J. Brigance, now the Ravens? director of player development, said he was upset about the team leaving but that it ended up being a blessing in disguise. He spent the next seven seasons in the NFL, including winning a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens in 2001.

“I’ll never forget my years with the Stallions,” he said. “The fans were so great, and to this day, I still get birthday cards from fans who followed the team.”

BALTIMORE FOOTBALL NOTES

» Former Stallions punter Josh Miller and linebacker O.J. Brigance both went on to win Super Bowl rings. Miller, who entered the NFL in 1996 with the Steelers, won his ring in 2004 with the Patriots. Brigance, who played in the NFL from 1996 to 2002 with three teams, won his ring with the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV.

» The Stallions? 1995 roster included two former Towson players ? Dan Crowley was their third-string quarterback, and Mark Orlando was a reserve wide receiver. Crowley spent eight seasons in the CFL and is now a personal trainer in Anne Arundel County. Orlando spent one year in Montreal before retiring. He’s now a software consultant in Fairfax, Va.

» Baltimore is the only city to be home to an NFL, CFL and USFL championship team. The USFL’s Baltimore Stars won that league?s last championship in 1985.