Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Chicago Wind
The Chicago Wind was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 entry --- the successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was named the Wind (note: singular, not plural) because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City."
The team was assigned to the WFL's Western Division for 1975 (the WFL having shrunk from 12 teams to 11, and from three divisions to two). Prior to the 1975 season opener, the Wind attempted (unsuccessfully) to sign Joe Namath to a contract. The team did, however, hire former Chicago Bears head coach Abe Gibron as its head coach (although a 1975 New York Daily News' article about the hiring, in which the plural "Winds" name was used, was printed with an "o" in the name instead of a "d" --- resulting in an article stating that Gibron had been hired to coach the "Chicago Winos") (the mind buzzes with the helmet embelm and mascot that could have been used had the Chicago owners had the imagination to use that nickname).
The Wind did not have much success of the field. After completing their two-game preseason schedule in July 1975, they took the field for the regular season beginning in early August 1975. By early September, after just a month of play and a 1-4-0 won-lost record, the club folded.
A team folding in mid-season was not unsual for the WFL (the Jacksonville Sharks and Detroit Wheels had folded 14 games into a 20-game regular season in 1974), so the league was prepared. Since there were 11 teams, one team had a bye each week. With the Wind having folded, the bye team each week was slated to take the Wind's place in the schedule. Even this arrangement didn't last too long, as the entire WFL collapsed at the end of October 1975.
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