Jacksonville Sharks
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The Jacksonville Sharks were a team that competed for part of the 1974 season in the World Football League, a failed attempt to lauch a second major professional football league in the United States in competition with the National Football League. The team played seven home games at the former Gator Bowl stadium in Jacksonville. The nickname "Sharks" was roundly criticized by Jacksonville City Council as emphasizing an aspect of the local fauna that was best left unpublicized. The Sharks front office claimed to have sold 18,000 season tickets, and had drawn 59,112 for its opener against the New York Stars and another 46,000 against the Southern California Sun. But a few weeks into its maiden season, the Jacksonville club admitted giving away some 44,000 tickets. It fired its head coach, Bud Asher, after six games, which soon after the franchise fell into dire straits. The players, unpaid for several weeks, nearly caused a mutiny by threatening not to fly to Anaheim to play the Sun. The Commissioner of the league, Gary Davidson, paid them $65,000 in escrow. Soon after the WFL took over the Jacksonville Sharks, September 20, and nearly three weeks later pulled the plug on the debt-ridden 4-10 franchise after 14 games.
A second WFL team, the Jacksonville Express, was attempted in 1975 and although they were an improvement over the Sharks on the field, with a 6-5 record, the Express as well as the league folded just past mid-season on October 22, 1975.