Of all the U.S. cities that the CFL awarded teams to as part of its American expansion in the 1990s, Shreveport had to be the most obscure choice. Whereas the other cities had teams in the defunct World League of American Football (e.g., Sacramento, San Antonio, and Birmingham) or were brought onboard after failed NFL expansion efforts (e.g., Baltimore and Memphis), Shreveport seems so random when you think about it.
Here is the final CFL USA themed article I’ve done. This was a fun one to do. I remember how bad the Pirates were. But the Ti-Cats weren’t much better that year (1994). Two of Hamilton’s four wins were against Shreveport. I remember joking with my friend that we could make the playoffs if only we could play Shreveport one or two more times.
One thing I didn’t quite appreciate was that the Pirates/CFL were a pretty big deal down there. The media coverage they got was second to none.
Anyway, be sure to check out the Pirate Ball music video on YouTube.
What a great article about this team with a name that coincidentally is one of my favourite subjects too!
Thank you for linking and sharing!
The Jolly Roger was present in the crowd too!
The $5 ticket for the student section was a great idea. I wonder how such an idea works or not during the season for CFL teams with a strong student presence nearby, such as Winnipeg or Ottawa, including for the now perennial graduate student, John “Shoe” Lu of TSN, though as he was on the sidelines, he usually attended for free. I’m sure some here know the score better than Gemini / Google AI.
I’m certainly happy they did not choose Jackrabbits for the name!
The article certainly gave me more respect for Lonie. Great job there.
Shreveport in the CFL again? Probably not in this day and age of owner’s wanting teams in a city with a bigger population. Great respect for the people that did show up though.
I remember meeting up with some customers of my employer who came up from their site in Shreveport. They still remembered the team and I think one of them at least had been to some games.
Maybe given a bit more time some of those teams could have gained a foothold down south especially with their own division. It wasn’t like ownership issues and attendance weren’t an issue north of the border at the time. Baltimore getting the Ravens certainly killed off the Stallions which didn’t help but I guess that sparked the resurgence of the Alouettes. In the end it seemed to work out for the league, the expansion money might just have kept it afloat.
I don’t remember any of those player names in the articles but wasn’t Joe Montford on Shreveport’s roster?
When I get home in the spring I’ll post some pics of my Pirates gear. I’ve got game worn jerseys, a windbreaker, shirts, hats, pins and even a beer mug. Arrrrrr!
Interesting read here about another pirate team I did not know about back in 1776, the Philadelphia Rattlesnakes , even though that was long before football:
But Benjamin Franklin was a fan; George Washington was an investor. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, in the spring of 1777, John Adams sounds practically giddy as he reports on the adventures of two famous American privateers:
“Have you heard of the Success of the Rattlesnake of Philadelphia, and the Sturdy Beggar of Maryland…These two Privateers have taken Eleven Prizes, and sent them into the West India Islands.”
Maybe there were rattlesnakes near Philadelphia in 1776? There certainly is no fear now, with only the sparsely occasional copperhead encountered.
Even so, we can understand via this history that we have longstanding proof before the Shreveport Pirates, and before them the Oakland Raiders of the NFL and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, of high public approval for more pirate teams , so now I think the CFL needs a new pirate team, wherever it be located ye matey!
Here are a couple more new clippings from the Shreveport Times about the Pirates. The first is a photo of the scoreboard at Independence Stadium before the Pirates’ first exhibition game against the Baltimore CFL Colts. Just a few weeks later came the court injunction preventing Baltimore to use the “Colts” name.
The second pic is the cover of Pirate Talk, which was a weekly supplement in the Shreveport Times, dedicated to the Pirates and the CFL. This team really had excellent media penetration. They were consistently on the front page of the local newspapers and the lead story on local news.
I bet there were puffy shirts in the stands in Shreveport too?
True story - in December 1996 I went to a bar and restaurant in Atlanta after my interview one night because I was still in town due to a flight delay.
At the entrance when I went in, standing there was some bojack wearing that puffy shirt!
That’s when I knew that either things were going to work out or that all hell was going to break loose. Dinner turned out to be very good.
Fast forward and I got the job in Atlanta, with a paid move too, in January 1997.
Great job there.
, even though that was long before football:
, so now I think the CFL needs a new pirate team, wherever it be located ye matey!
