Sacramento Gold Miners
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| Sacramento Gold Miners | |
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| League | Canadian Football League |
| Division | West Division |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Moved | 1995 |
| Home field | Hornet Stadium |
| Based in | Sacramento, California |
| Colours | Aqua and Old Gold |
| Owner(s) | Fred Anderson |
| Head Coach | Kay Stephenson |
The Sacramento Gold Miners were a Canadian football team based in Sacramento, California. The franchise was the first American team in the Canadian Football League. The Gold Miners were originally the "descendants" of the Sacramento Surge from the defunct World League of American Football. The team played its home games at Hornet Stadium.
Contents |
[edit] Brief Franchise History
[edit] On The Field
[edit] 1993 season
The Sacramento Gold Miners were originally the Sacramento Surge of the World League of American Football, which was owned by Fred Anderson. When the World League of American Football folded, Fred Anderson took the opportunity to start another Sacramento team called, the "Gold Miners", with the Canadian Football League when they decided to have American teams in 1993.
Fred Anderson was able to get back a handful of players that played for the Surge to play for the Gold Miners. These players included David Archer (QB), Rod Harris (WR), George Bethune (DT), Mike Oliphant (RB) and Mike Pringle (RB).
When the 1993 CFL season started, the Gold Miners, all-US staff, took some time to learn the intricacies of Canadian football, but the team was fortunate enough to have leadership with quarterback, David Archer and receiving great plays from wide receiver, Rod Harris. In their first season, the Sacramento Gold Miners entered the CFL history books by:
- Becoming the first American team to play in the CFL.
- Becoming the first American team to play against a Canadian team and playing on Canadian soil, against the Ottawa Rough Riders (losing 32-23) on July 7th.
- Becoming the first American team to host a CFL game, against the Calgary Stampeders (losing 38-36) on July 17th.
- Becoming the first American team to record a win in the CFL, against the Saskatchewan Roughriders (winning 37-26) on July 24th.
In addition, the Sacramento Gold Miners also entered the CFL record books by recording the most wins by an expansion team with 6 wins (record was eventually broken in 1994 by Baltimore). However, the Sacramento Gold Miners finished the season with a 6-12 record, which placed them in last place of the West Division. The positives for the franchise was the fact that they had a, 5-4 Home Record and were ranked 5th in team defence. In addition, Rod Harris was selected as part of the 1993 CFL All-Stars, which showed signs that the team had a good mix of players and staff to improve for the up-coming season.
[edit] 1994 season
In their second season, the Gold Miners no longer became the lone American team as the CFL introduced three new teams, which were the Las Vegas Posse, the Shreveport Pirates and the Baltimore Stallions (who were known as the CFLers when the NFL did not allow the Colts name to be used). At the start of the season, the Gold Miners were once again a part of CFL history on July 8th, 1994, when they played against the Las Vegas Posse in Sacramento. The game was the first-ever game that involved two American teams play one another in the CFL; Las Vegas would end up winning the game, 32-26. The Gold Miners steadily improved from their 1993 innagural season with a 9-8-1 record with a posted 5-3-1 home record and a 4-5 road record. Furthermore, the team was ranked fourth in team defence, behind Calgary, Edmonton and Baltimore who were the top teams in the league, but for the second straight season the Gold Miners missed the playoffs and off-field issues would result in the franchises move from Sacramento.
[edit] Off The Field
The Sacramento Gold Miners had very competent management working under owner Fred Anderson, perhaps the only truly dedicated US CFL owner. Anderson's sidekick Tom Bass oversaw the operation, run by coach Kay Stephenson and GM Tom Huiskens. As with the team, it took Stephenson some time to adapt to the Canadian game, but he was eventually successful.
The problems in Sacramento, however, were hard to overcome. Since the San Antonio club that was also supposed to be a part of the 93 expansion had folded prematurely, the Gold Miners were the only American team in the CFL during the 1993 season. They had to market themselves, receiving no assistance from the CFL. Also, competition from the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford University hurt attendance. Rickety Hornet Stadium kept fans away, because it was made up mostly of temporary grandstands with no real stadium amenities (facilities were threadbare, only port-a-potties were provided for fans). However, attendance did hover around 15,000 per game, but it was widely known that as many as 2,000 of those 15,000 were given free tickets. Furthermore, in 1993 the average home attendance was at 16,979, but in 1994 the average home attendance fell to 14,226. To change this situation, Fred Anderson wanted to build a new stadium in Sacramento for the Gold Miners and his minor-league baseball club. He planned to complete a project that had been started several years earlier to lure the Raiders to Sacramento, but had ended up being mothballed. Anderson, however, could not come to terms with the local governments.
[edit] In The End
After the 1994 season, the team was moved to San Antonio and became the San Antonio Texans for the 1995 CFL season. However, the Texans would play for one more year before being folded with the other American teams as the CFL decided to return to their All-Canadian team format.
