Overview
The spring league of 1983–1985 that signed three Heisman winners and collapsed after an antitrust suit it won for one dollar.
The original United States Football League played three spring seasons from 1983 to 1985. It attracted genuine talent — Herschel Walker, Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Reggie White and Doug Flutie all played in it — and drew respectable crowds and television ratings.
The league voted to move to an autumn schedule for 1986 and sued the NFL for antitrust violations. It won the case but was awarded one dollar in damages, trebled to three, and never played again.
Season Format
Recent Champions
Most recent first. Seasons still in progress are marked.
History
The USFL was conceived as a spring complement to the NFL, not a competitor for the same calendar, and its early economics were disciplined. That changed as owners — Donald Trump among them, with the New Jersey Generals — pushed for autumn play and a forced merger.
The antitrust verdict in 1986 found that the NFL held a monopoly but that the USFL's own decisions had caused its losses. The one-dollar award ended the league. Its name was revived for an unrelated spring league in 2022, which merged into the UFL in 2024.
Governance
The original league was run by its club owners under commissioners Chet Simmons and Harry Usher.