Ex-Showboats GM talks new football team
Steve Ehrhart has been the executive director of the Liberty Bowl since 1994, but in his office, there are still reminders of the fondest experience in his career.
“There’s never been a love in my life like the (Memphis) Showboats,” Ehrhart said.
Ehrhart was the Showboats’ general manager during the team’s stint in the USFL in 1984 and 1985. It was a great success on the heels of the Memphis Southmen’s success in the World Football League 10 years earlier.
Memphis will have another chance at a pro football team with the Alliance of American Football league beginning in 2019. It not only allowed Ehrhart to reflect on past football experiences in the city but also why Memphis can still support a team despite now having the Grizzlies and a resurgent college football program.
“Memphians are smart. They know that we had quality operations here but it was the leagues around them that failed. Therefore, the question is how will the league do, but they’re off to a great start,” Ehrhart said.
A history of mixed success
The Southmen and the Showboats drew some of the best crowds in their leagues. The Southmen were second in the WFL’s attendance in 1975 while the Showboats attracted more than 30,000 fans per game in 1985. The Showboats’ support was so strong, the USFL was convinced to move a playoff game to the Liberty Bowl to showcase a better crowd for television.
Later teams had mixed success. The Memphis Mad Dogs went 9-9 in their lone season in the Canadian Football League and struggled with low attendance the second half of the season. In 2001, the Memphis Maniax drew 30,117 fans for their home opener in Vince McMahon’s XFL, and despite leading the league in total offense, they only drew more than 20,000 fans the rest of the way. Ehrhart, who was also GM of the Mad Dogs and Maniax, said that the common thread with the Showboats and Mad Dogs was having owners in Billy Dunavant and Fred Smith who wanted to give Memphis high-quality teams that were successful and worthy of respect.
“With the Showboats, Mr. Dunavant said, ‘Build this like an NFL team’ and so it was first class in everything we did,” Ehrhart said, “People in Memphis perceived it that way.”
It also helped that the Showboats had a future Hall of Famer in defensive end Reggie White and a recognizable coach in Pepper Rodgers. The Southmen got a boost their second year by adding Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield and Jim Kiick from the Miami Dolphins. Even the Maniax had former NFL talent in quarterback Jim Druckenmiller and former Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam. While the rosters for the Memphis AAF team are still months from being determined, the league already made a splash announcing NFL Hall of Famer Mike Singletary as head coach and former Memphis Tigers standout Kosha Irby as general manager.
The AAF will also allow teams to add players from local universities, something that allowed the Showboats to draft White from Tennessee. Ehrhart added that with the AAF controlling ownership of all the teams through private funding, it could help offset some of the financial woes that have plagued past leagues.
“The key is having financial staying power,” Ehrhart said, “In all three of those leagues (the USFL, CFL and XFL), the losses got to people and people didn’t want to continue to lose money.”
Will Memphis support the team?
Yet the question remains whether fans will still support a team 18 years after the Maniax. With the Grizzlies firmly established and both the Tigers’ basketball and football teams riding a wave of national attention, does a pro football team still command the same attention?
AAF co-founder Charlie Ebersol believes so, telling 92.9 FM ESPN that Memphis was chosen because of its past successes. Ehrhart also thinks so because he not only has trust in Ebersol but also co-founder and former NFL executive Bill Polian.
Ehrhart has known Polian since the two worked together in the USFL. He saw Polian’s work ethic when he became personnel director of the league’s Chicago Blitz and watched it translate to success as GM of the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts.
“He’s one of the smartest guys that I know so when he called me about this league several months ago, I’ve got a lot of confidence in him,” Ehrhart said.
If history is on Memphis’ side, the team has a chance to be successful. Whether the dollars and eyeballs back it up is another thing but Ehrhart believes the city will at least give the league a chance.
“There will be challenges and it is a different time but that’s been said before,” Ehrhart said. “I don’t think the challenges are insurmountable. It’s an opportunity and we wish them well.”