Nothing but a Brand-New Set of Flat Tires: The Sad, Sorry Saga of the 1974 Detroit Wheels of the World Football League

by Mark Speck

Detroit's pro football history is alive with the names of many wonderful heroes from a colorful past … Benny Friedman, Jimmy Conzelman, Potsy Clark, Buddy Parker, Bobby Layne, Joe Schmidt, Night Train Lane, Dick LeBeau, Barry Sanders, Bubba Wyche, Sheldon Joppru, Wimpy Winther... Wait … Bubba Wyche? Sheldon Joppru? Wimpy Winther? Don't recognize them? Well, they, too, are part of Detroit's pro football legacy. As members of a team called the Detroit Wheels in 1974, they managed to write their own chapter in the city's professional football history. Their story, unlike that of the storied Lions, was part tragedy, part comedy, and required a significant suspension of disbelief. Their saga lasted less than a year, but was filled with more anguish and despair than five seasons with the Lions. One would think that a team owned by financial heavyweights such as entertainer Marvin Gaye and pizza magnate Mike Illitch would not end the way it did. That's because most of the team's 33 owners--that's right, 33--had no clue whatsoever about how to run a professional football team.

320 pages, Paperback

Published November 20, 2018