New Jersey Generals

This article is about the team in the first edition of the USFL. For the team in the second USFL, see New Jersey Generals (2022).

New Jersey Generals
Established 1982 Folded 1986 Played in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey
League/conference affiliations
United States Football League (1983–1985) Eastern Conference (1984–1985) Atlantic Division (1983–1984)
Current uniform
Team colors	Scarlet red, white, royal blue, gold, brown
Personnel
Owner(s)	1983 J. Walter Duncan/Chuck Fairbanks 1984–1985 Donald Trump
Head coach	1983 Chuck Fairbanks (6–12) 1984–1985 Walt Michaels (25–13)
Team history
New Jersey Generals (1983–1985)
Championships
League championships (0)
Conference championships (0)
Division championships (0)
Playoff appearances (2)
1984
Home stadium(s)
Giants Stadium (1983–1985)

The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing 25 while going 0–2 in postseason competition. Home games were played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which was called The Meadowlands for Generals games.

Uniforms

Team colors were scarlet, white, royal blue and sunflower gold. The primary logo was a gold five-star general wreath. Team helmets were solid scarlet with the logo decal on each side and a white face-mask. Home uniforms featured red jerseys with white numbers trimmed in royal blue, with numbers on the sleeves and no striping; pants were white with a single wide red stripe trimmed in blue down the sides from hip to knee. Road jerseys were white with red numbers trimmed in blue. The team was the second in the New York metropolitan area to be known as "Generals," since there was a professional soccer team in the late 1960s known as the New York Generals.

History

1983

Main article: 1983 New Jersey Generals season

From the beginning, USFL founder David Dixon placed a premium on putting a team in the New York area. Initially, Donald Trump was tapped to own the team. However, he backed out after paying an initial installment on the franchise fee, hoping instead to buy the struggling Baltimore Colts of the NFL. Needing a credible owner with the means to front a team in the nation's biggest market, Dixon persuaded Oklahoma oil magnate J. Walter Duncan to step in. Duncan had originally been slated to own the USFL's Chicago franchise, as he'd grown up in Chicago. However, he readily agreed to shift to New York.

Duncan took on former New England Patriots coach Chuck Fairbanks as a minority partner; Duncan knew Fairbanks from his days as head coach at the University of Oklahoma. Fairbanks also served as general manager and head coach. They initially had an uphill battle to get a lease at Giants Stadium, but were able to obtain one on condition that they brand their team as "New Jersey" rather than "New York." They named the team the "Generals" after the large number of generals based in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War.

The team made a big splash by signing Heisman Trophy-winning underclassman Herschel Walker, a running back from the University of Georgia. While the USFL had followed the NFL's lead in banning underclassmen from playing, league officials were certain that this rule would never withstand a court challenge. In an even more ominous development, Walker did not sign a standard player contract. Rather, he agreed to a three-year personal-services contract with Duncan. The contract was valued at $4.2 million—more than double the USFL's salary cap of $1.8 million. Nonetheless, the other owners knew having the incumbent Heisman winner in their fold would lend the USFL instant credibility, and allowed the contract to stand.

Despite the signing of Walker, who rushed for 1,812 yards and 17 touchdowns, the Generals finished their inaugural season with a 6–12 record. This was largely due to a porous defense which gave up the third-most points in the league (437) and a feeble passing attack led by ex-New Orleans Saints career backup Bobby Scott.

1984

At 66 years old, Duncan soon tired of flying as far as 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from his home in Oklahoma City to see his team play. Believing that the Generals were far too important to the USFL to have an absentee owner, he decided to sell to a local buyer. After the 1983 season, he found one in Donald Trump, who had initially angled for the franchise in 1982 before backing out.

Trump promptly fired Fairbanks. Seeking a high-profile coach, he initially tried to lure Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins. When those talks failed, he turned to legendary Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula. Trump offered him a $5 million contract. Shula was receptive, but insisted on getting a rent-free apartment at Trump Tower. In October 1983, Trump announced that the deal was all but done, but the only snag was Shula's insistence on an apartment. A furious Shula broke off talks. Years later, former Dolphins' running back Larry Csonka, by then an executive with the Jacksonville Bulls, said that he believed Shula would have taken the job, but was angered at being "thrown out to the press" by Trump. After Joe Paterno of Penn State turned him down as well, Trump hired former New York Jets head coach Walt Michaels.

The Generals responded to their poor 1983 showing with an influx of veteran NFL talent for 1984, including wide receiver Tom McConnaughey, quarterback Brian Sipe, defensive back Gary Barbaro, and linebackers Jim LeClair and Bobby Leopold. Both Walker and fullback Maurice Carthon rushed for over 1,000 yards (Walker 1,339; Carthon 1,042) as the Generals went 14–4, defeating the eventual champion Philadelphia Stars twice for that franchise's only two losses of the season. The Stars defeated the Generals 28–7 in a first round playoff game.

1984 schedule and results

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	TV	Venue	Attendance
Preseason
1	Bye
2	Bye
3	February 11	vs. Philadelphia Stars	W 28–20	1–0		Deland, Florida
4	February 17	vs. Washington Federals	W 27–24	2–0		Orlando, Florida	3,784
Regular season
1	February 26	at Birmingham Stallions	W 17–6	1–0	ABC	Legion Field	62,300
—	March 2	at Jacksonville Bulls	Postponed; rescheduled for March 4			Gator Bowl Stadium
2	March 4	at Jacksonville Bulls	W 28–26	2–0	ABC	Gator Bowl Stadium	73,227
3	March 11	Philadelphia Stars	W 17–14	3–0	ABC	Giants Stadium	46,716
4	March 18	at Houston Gamblers	L 25–32	3–1	ABC	Houston Astrodome	35,532
5	March 25	Washington Federals	W 43–6	4–1		Giants Stadium	38,075
6	March 31	at Los Angeles Express	W 26–10	5–1	ABC	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	19,853
7	April 8	Memphis Showboats	W 35–10	6–1		Giants Stadium	43,671
8	April 15	Arizona Wranglers	L 3–20	6–2	ABC	Giants Stadium	31,917
9	April 22	at Pittsburgh Maulers	W 14–10	7–2	ABC	Three Rivers Stadium	14,418
10	April 29	Michigan Panthers	W 31–21	8–2	ABC	Giants Stadium	50,908
11	May 6	Oklahoma Outlaws	W 49–17	9–2	ABC	Giants Stadium	34,917
12	May 11	at Washington Federals	L 17–31	9–3		RFK Stadium	11,367
13	May 21	Pittsburgh Maulers	W 16–14	10–3	ESPN	Giants Stadium	41,212
14	May 28	at Chicago Blitz	W 21–17	11–3	ESPN	Soldier Field	4,307
15	June 3	at Tampa Bay Bandits	L 14–40	11–4	ABC	Tampa Stadium	45,255
—	June 8	New Orleans Breakers	Postponed; rescheduled for June 10			Giants Stadium
16	June 10	New Orleans Breakers	W 31–21	12–4	ABC	Giants Stadium	23,114
17	June 16	Denver Gold	W 27–7	13–4		Giants Stadium	28,915
18	June 24	at Philadelphia Stars	W 16–10	14–4	ABC	Veterans Stadium	37,758
Playoffs
Divisional Playoffs	June 30	vs. Philadelphia Stars	L 7–28	0–1	ABC	Franklin Field	19,038

Sources

1985

Doug Flutie, Donald Trump, Generals football press conference at Trump Tower, February 1985

The 1985 season saw the heralded signing of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Doug Flutie of Boston College. Despite Flutie's inexperience, the Generals traded Sipe to the Jacksonville Bulls to ensure Flutie would start. Flutie struggled at times but played well overall until he suffered a broken collarbone against the Memphis Showboats in the season's 15th game, sidelining him for the rest of the season. The 1985 Generals finished 11–7 behind Walker's pro-football record 2,411 rushing yards but lost again to the Stars (transplanted to Baltimore) in the first round of the playoffs, 20–17.

1985 schedule and results

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	TV	Venue	Attendance
Preseason
1	February 2	vs. Memphis Showboats	W 16–3	1–0		Charlotte, North Carolina	11,667
2	February 9	at Tampa Bay Bandits	L 7–21	1–1		Tampa Stadium	32,370
3	February 15	at Orlando Renegades	W 24–14	2–1		Florida Citrus Bowl	33,000
Regular season
1	February 24	at Birmingham Stallions	L 28–38	0–1	ABC	Legion Field	34,785
2	March 1	at Orlando Renegades	W 28–10	1–1	ESPN	Florida Citrus Bowl	32,748
3	March 10	Los Angeles Express	W 35–24	2–1	ABC	Giants Stadium	58,741
4	March 17	at Baltimore Stars	L 9–29	2–2	ABC	Byrd Stadium	31,026
5	March 24	Tampa Bay Bandits	W 28–24	3–2	ABC	Giants Stadium	41,079
6	March 30	at Arizona Outlaws	L 13–31	3–3	ESPN	Sun Devil Stadium	30,432
7	April 7	Houston Gamblers	W 31–25	4–3	ABC	Giants Stadium	34,573
8	April 14	Portland Breakers	W 34–7	5–3	ABC	Giants Stadium	38,245
9	April 19	at Memphis Showboats	W 21–18	6–3	ESPN	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium	44,339
10	April 29	Orlando Renegades	W 24–7	7–3	ESPN	Giants Stadium	38,084
11	May 5	at Jacksonville Bulls	L 20–30	7–4	ABC	Gator Bowl Stadium	60,100
12	May 12	Baltimore Stars	W 10–3	8–4	ABC	Giants Stadium	34,446
13	May 19	at Denver Gold	L 24–28	8–5	ABC	Mile High Stadium	29,129
14	May 26	at Tampa Bay Bandits	W 30–24 (OT)	9–5	ABC	Tampa Stadium	44,539
15	June 1	Memphis Showboats	W 17–7	10–5	ESPN	Giants Stadium	45,682
16	June 10	Jacksonville Bulls	W 31–24	11–5	ESPN	Giants Stadium	36,465
17	June 15	at Oakland Invaders	L 29–34	11–6	ESPN	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum	24,338
18	June 23	Birmingham Stallions	L 6–14	11–7	ABC	Giants Stadium	44,098
Playoffs
Quarterfinal	July 1	Baltimore Stars	L 17–20	—		Giants Stadium	26,982

Sources

1986

Almost from the moment he bought the Generals, Trump sought to use them as a vehicle to get an NFL team. To this end, he began advocating moving the USFL from a spring schedule to a fall schedule, directly opposite the NFL. Trump's long-term plans called for moving the Generals across the Hudson River to New York, which had not had a team play within its borders since the Jets moved from Shea Stadium in Queens to the Meadowlands after the 1983 season. He intended to have the renamed New York Generals play at Shea until the construction of a new 80,000-seat "Trump Stadium" in Manhattan; the stadium never came to fruition.

In 1984, Trump convinced most of his fellow owners to move to a fall schedule in 1986. He contended that if the USFL were to hold its own against the NFL, it would eventually force a merger with the more established league—in which the owners of any USFL teams included in a merger would see their investment more than double.

The Generals acquired the assets of one of the teams displaced by the vote to move to the fall, the Houston Gamblers, during the extended off-season. This was widely reported as a merger, since the Generals inherited all of the Gamblers' player contracts—including those of quarterback Jim Kelly and wide receiver Ricky Sanders. Michaels was fired, replaced with former Gamblers coach Jack Pardee, who planned to bring Kelly and the Gamblers' high-powered run and shoot offense with him. Fans immediately dubbed the Kelly–Walker led Generals as the USFL's "Dream Team."

However, the revamped Generals never played a down. The 1986 season was cancelled after the USFL won only a nominal one dollar verdict in an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL (which was trebled to three dollars due to it being an antitrust suit); the league folded soon afterward.

Numerous Generals players, including Flutie, Walker, and center Kent Hull went on to productive NFL careers. Flutie also starred in the Canadian Football League; Hull (with Gambler quarterback Kelly) played in four Super Bowls with the Buffalo Bills, and Flutie was the last quarterback to have led the Bills to the NFL playoffs until the 2017 season.

Single-season leaders

• Rushing yards: 2,411 Herschel Walker (1985; USFL record)
• Receiving yards: 715 Sam Bowers (1983)
• Passing yards: 2,540 Brian Sipe (1984)
• Sacks: 13 James Lockette (1985)

Season-by-season

Season	Regular season				Playoffs
	W	L	T	Finish	W	L	Results
1983	6	12	0	3rd, Atlantic	—	—	—
1984	14	4	0	2nd, Atlantic	0	1	Lost Divisional Playoffs (Philadelphia)
1985	11	7	0	2nd, Eastern	0	1	Lost Quarterfinals (Baltimore)
Total	31	23	0		0	2