Michigan Arrows-Continental Professional Football League

[zitro]

I was scanning a collection of the 1968 Detroit News Super Posters of the Tigers and noticed this advertisement on the back of one of the them. I was 12 in 1968 and don't have any recall of this league or team in the Detroit area. Does anyone know if there were any players of significance who played on this team or in the this league?

Also, there's a classic advertisement of the quintessential heyday of Professional Wrestling in the Detroit area with The Shiek vs. Bobo Brazil.

[Stosh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contine...ootball_League

The Michigan Arrows began their season with a soccer-style kicker named Garo Yepremian, who later found Super Bowl fame in the NFL as a Miami Dolphin

[zitro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contine...ootball_League

The Michigan Arrows began their season with a soccer-style kicker named Garo Yepremian, who later found Super Bowl fame in the NFL as a Miami Dolphin

Thanks Stosh, I'd say Garo qualifies as a significant player, who could forget his ill fated pass

[Stosh]

Thanks Stosh, I'd say Garo qualifies as a significant player, who could forget his ill fated pass

Yep, that didn't end well, did it. I can't find any other references to rosters of that team, other than Garo. The Arrows became the Tri-City Apollos the next year, 1969. I'll bet that their demise had a lot to do with the success of the Tigers that year.


From Misterhabs.com

The Arrows played a single season in Detroit, MI. In fact they were also known as the Detroit Arrows. Their uniforms were "hand-me-downs" from the Detroit Lions. The team became the Tri-City Apollos in 1969.

[Stosh]

Sign up for this site. They have a lot of stats and pictures from the teams. Yaro was the only one I can see of note. I wonder if any guys on that team were local?

http://www.boosterclubcfl.com/

[BShea]

In Paul Zimmerman's "The New Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football" [[a helluva good book and bestseller from the 1980s) there's a section on football's minor leagues, and he talks about Bill Walsh having to put on donkey basketball games and other such silly fundraisers in the Continental League. I believe John Madden coached against him in the '60s in that league.

In 2006-2007 I was the last-string quarterback for the Port Huron Pirates of the Continental Indoor Football League, which is still around [[the Pirates, alas, moved to Flint and failed). It was an experience right out of Zimmerman's book -- weird, strange, surreal, fun, sad ... but mostly fun in retrospect. We won 26 consecutive games and a championship because the team was made up of longtime indoor veterans and a few major college and ex-NFL players.

I find reading about these minor leagues fascinating, often more interesting than the NFL, which is about as corporate-bland-sterile as you can get today. The minors are where the flakes and characters continue to thrives [[not the contrived characters and goons of the NFL, but the minors still have those, too).

Detroit still has a number of minor league teams playing today. The CIFL was going to put a franchise in the Detroit market [[Fraser maybe?) in 2006, but the rightsholder ended up in a divorce and didn't want to lose the team, so he never started it.

[Stosh]

I think that minor league football would be a decent diversion for football junkies like myself. Quality above high school football would be a plus. And without the fancy price tag that the Big 10 commands now.

I was never much a fan of the Arena game though.

[Servite76]

I believe the Michigan Arrows were also named the Pontiac Arrows at one time. I remember going to a couple of games when I was a kid with two buddies from the neighborhood whose dad was a coach.