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Courtesy: Wolfson Archives
"The Howard Schnellenberger USFL Saga"
At the beginning of 1984 rumors began circulating that the hapless Washington Federals were for sale and were headed towards Miami.
The then USFL Commissioner Chet Simmons and some USFL owners along with Miami city officials which included the mayor had a press conference in March of that year announcing a new franchise to Miami. The problem was there was no owner at the time, the Orange Bowl had to be renovated with tax bonds that had not been approved yet by the city, not to mention the announcement by the league later in 1984 that they decided to play in the fall starting in 1986.
In May of '84 hotel entrepreneur Sherwood "Woody" Weiser held a press conference to announce he agreed to buy the Federals for $6 million dollars and that he signed former Hurricanes head coach Howard Schnellenberger (who was present) to a three year deal, but there was something he wasn't telling the media. Sherwood needed to sell six limited partnerships at a million dollars a piece in order to buy the Federals and bring them to Miami. Unfortunately he had only sold two limited partnerships which means he didn't have the money to do it on his own.
He thought bringing in Howard Schnellenberger would give him the credibility needed to bring new partners on board. He was dead wrong. Coach Schnellenberger called Sherwood, "a very fine, fine man" [to work for] during a news interview once the major press conference was done. The coach sued Sherwood two years later in December 1986 for breaching the contract and not honoring the $1 million dollars for the first year.
After the press conference in May of '84, a couple of months went by without anyone hearing from Sherwood. Schnellenberger kept up the charade that everything was ok and even Miami City Officials tried to keep a straight face but in the end Sherwood threw in the towel claiming that the move to the fall wouldn't be best practice for his business. The REAL truth was even if the USFL had stayed in the spring he didn't have the money to sustain such a venture of being a football owner.
In the end Schnellenberger had to throw in the towel in another press conference (August 24, 1984) along with Sherwood admitting that Miami was not going to get a franchise and he needed to find other opportunities.
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