When the World Football League launched its inaugural season in 1974, all of the leagues 12 teams had very high hopes. But one team in particular thought it was going to do much better than it did – the Detroit Wheels. But, in reality, this team never stood a chance. After all, how can team expect to succeed when it’s operated with a pay-as-you-go mentality? The Wheels had 33 owners and none of them stepped forward to become the face of the team and actually run the franchise. Sure, the Wheels had a team president, general manager and a head coach. But none of them had a budget to run the franchise. The team president and general manager couldn’t sign any players while they sat idly by watching other WFL teams sign players. The team couldn’t find a place to play in Detroit, so it had to turn to Ypsilanti and Eastern Michigan University for a home. Fans didn’t show up. In fact, much to the embarrassment of the team, they thought they were going to sell out games, so they brought in auxiliary stands and at one particular game just one person could be seen sitting in one of the auxiliary stands. Not good. The coach didn’t have any professional coaching experience and that led to some very poor in-game decisions. Worse, the Wheels won just one of their first 14 games, and then they ceased operations with six games still to play! Truly an after thought, the WFL rushed the team into the field, and it probably should have waited until the league’s second season before launching in Detroit. Doomed from the beginning, the Detroit Wheels were, perhaps, the most poorly run franchise in the history of sports. Mark Speck who has written several papers, articles and books about the WFL and its teams including, “Nothing But A Brand New Set of Flat Tires,” visits Sports’ Forgotten Heroes for an in-depth discussion about this ill-fated franchise.
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