The New York Stars

Posted on March 3, 2012 by johnnymusso



 The Stars were one of the charter teams of the World Football League in 1974. They played their home games at Downing Stadium on Randalls Island in New York. The lights at the stadium were salvaged from Ebbetts Field when it was demolished. They tried to have “ties” to the city by signing former Jets players like John Elliott, Gerry Philbin ,George Sauer and John Dockery.  

 These screengrabs are not very clear but are very seldom seen shots.

Downing Stadium,  as you can see was somewhat of a dump.

 John Dockery in front of a vintage metal stadium sign. I would love to have this for my office. (too big to ship if I sold on Ebay)

 

 

 

 

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JOE NAMATH’S 1965 EXPERIMENTAL HELMET

Posted on May 11, 2010 by johnnymusso



This is a great photo that I recently found of Joe Namath wearing an experimental “radio” football helmet. Joe wore this in 1965, his rookie year. The Jets experimented with this so the coaches could send in the plays without the quarterbacks ever having to leave the huddle!

  1. Notice the holes in the side for the speaker.
  2. Joe only wore this facemask in the first couple of years with the Jets.
  3. The original photo was dated December 24, 1965 on the back.

 

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Alabama Football Tradition

Posted on January 7, 2010 by johnnymusso

Great Video from the University of Alabama highlighting the tradition of football

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ALABAMA! PIPELINE TO THE NHL!!

Posted on April 17, 2009 by johnnymusso



Congratulations to Jared Ross (born in Huntsville , Al) on becoming only the 2nd player in NHL history born in the great state of Alabama to play in the league.
There was a guy named Aud Tuten (born in Enterprise) who played in 39 games for the Chicago Blackhawks for 2 seasons from 1941 to 1943.

Jared played for the University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers from 2001 to 2005

He has played for the Motor City Mechanics, Chicago Wolves, Gwinett Gladiators (1 Game), and the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American hockey League.

The picture shown is of Jared with the Philadelphia Phantoms.
Good luck to Jared who is now on the Philadelphia Flyers and in the playoffs. Maybe he can bring the Stanley Cup to Huntsville!

Below are some great sites related to Alabama hockey:

Huntsville Havoc of the SPHL website

Internet hockey database- Great site for stats

University of Alabama club hockey website

Birminghamprosports.com-Gene Crowley’s great site -History of Birmingham hockey and other sports

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Johnny Musso

Posted on December 10, 2008 by admin


My earliest memories of Crimson Tide football were of Johnny Musso. He was and still is probably my favorite player of all time. I have always thought that nobody could run like him, and could not be tackled, especially since he wore a tearaway jersey. I remember him being beaten out of the Heisman trophy in 1971 by Pat Sullivan from the always hated “other” school in the state-Auburn. I still haven’t gotten over that one. My first real piece of Alabama football memorabilia that I remember is when “The Italian Stallion” was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1971 after his last college game against Auburn . The card shown here is a 1972 OPC card with Johnny wearing number 21 with the British Columbia Lions of the CFL. This is my first post to the new blog and I just wanted to see what it was going to look like. I will post more about Musso and the many other Alabama Crimson Tide players memorabilia that I have collected over the years.
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