Shreveport Steamer
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The City of Shreveport, Louisiana received an unexpected surprise September 18, 1974 by inheriting the Houston Texans of the World Football League, which was an effort to establish a second major professional league of American football in the United States in competition with the National Football League and have no connection whatsoever with the current NFL team of the same name.
This pro football version of the Texans-underfinanced to begin with-survived only 11 (or 12) games as a WFL team in Houston, in 1974. With head coach Jim Garrett suspended from the league and former AFL-NFL veteran quarterback, Mike Taliaferro, deciding to retire rather than move with the team to Shreveport, the transplanted franchise showcased ambidextrous quarterback and former University of Houston star D. C. Nobles, as well as several former AFL stars: fullback Jim Nance, wide receiver Don Maynard, tight end Willie Frazier, and defensive players Garland Boyette, Al Dotson, and rookie John Villapiano to name a few.
Renamed the Shreveport Steamer after being temporarily known as "Louisiana," they occupied State Fair Stadium, located at the Fairgrounds (now the site of the Independence Bowl post-season college football game), coached by Marshall Taylor, formerly a star player at Tennessee Tech. The Steamer performed slightly better, at 4-4, than they Houston Texans-Louisiana, which earned a dismal 3-8-1. Overall the team finished as dismally, at 7-12-1. They, and the Chicago Fire (whose owner refused to participate in the WFL free-for-all playoffs), were the only two teams to be eliminated from the 8-team playoff (which in itself went through numerous changes) contention outright.
The Steamer reappeared for the 1975 season and competed with a mediocre 5-7 record until the league ceased operations partway though that campaign.