1983 Championship - Sunday, July 17, 1983. Attendance: 50,906. TV: ABC. [NOTE: If you want to skip all the pregame analysis forward to about the 10:30 minute mark where kickoff begins] Anthony Carter and Derek Holloway were big enough to be enough for Bobby Hebert and definitely big enough for the Michigan Panthers, who got big plays and big days from their little guys to win the first United States Football League championship with a 24-22 victory over the Philadelphia Stars. Bobby Hebert found them 12 times. Hebert, named the game's Most Valuable Player, completed touchdown passes of 12-and 14-yards to the 5-foot7- Holloway and topped his 314-yard passing night off with a 48-yard game-sealing strike to the 5-9 Carter to give the Detroit area its first pro football championship since the Detroit Lions copped the NFL title in 1957. A preponderance of the fans who came out to 75,000-seat Mile High Stadium were rooting for Michigan. Banners for the Panthers dominated the scene and the Stars were booed during the intros. That was fine during the game, but with six seconds to play — moments before Philadelphia's Chuck Fusina hit Rodney Parker with a two-yard touchdown that made the final score close — thousands of boisterous Michigan fans surged onto the field.  Some 50 police officers were forced to use chemicals, clubs and dogs to control the crowd, which bent one goal post. A dozen persons were arrested, with police estimating half from Michigan.

1983 Divisional Playoffs - Sunday, July 10, 1983. Attendance: 60,237, TV: ABC. [Note: If you want to skip all the pregame analysis forward to about the 9:00 minute mark where the kickoff begins] Michigan quarterback Bobby Hebert passed for one touchdown and ran for another  to lead the Panthers to a 37-21 victory over the Oakland Invaders and into the United States Football League's first championship game. The Panthers, who won the Central Division title with a 12-6 record and have now won 12 of the past 14 games, will play the Philadelphia Stars in Denver's Mile High Stadium for the title. With 25 seconds to play, after Oakland got its final touchdown, thousands of fans swarmed onto the field and tore down both goalposts. Players and coaches from both teams and the officiating crew headed for the safety of the tunnels to the locker rooms and minutes later USFL officials ruled the game was complete at 14:35.

1983 Divisional Playoffs - Saturday, July 9, 1983. Attendance: 15,686, TV: ABC. The Philadelphia Stars had come from behind before, but never quite so dramatically. And the victory never felt quite so good. Quarterback Chuck Fusina, who overcame four first-half turnovers with three touchdown passes in the last nine minutes as the Stars tied the Chicago Blitz 38-38, then went on to win 44-38 in overtime to advance to the championship of the United States Football League. "It will go down as one of the best games in history." said Chicago Coach George Allen, who saw a 21-point lead evaporate in the fourth quarter. Kelvin Bryant rushed for 142 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner on a one-yard run seven minutes, two seconds into the overtime. The Stars took a 16-3 record into the first USFL championship game in Denver. The Blitz took a 21-7 halftime lead after intercepting Fusina three times and recovering his fumble in the second quarter. They led 38-17 with 12:04 left in the game. The Stars started their comeback with Fusina's 17-yard scoring pass to Scott Fitzkee five minutes into the fourth quarter. Fusina passed two yards to Jeff Rodenberger for another touchdown with five minutes left in the game, and connected with Tom Donovan from 11 yards with 50 seconds left to tie it up. He finished with 22 of 33 passes for 254 yards, scrambled for 66 more yards and also caught a 12-yard pass from Allen Harvin for another touchdown. A crowd of 15,684 - less than a fourth of the capacity of the 66,000-seat Veterans Stadium watched the game in sunny, 84-degree weather.

1983 Week 18 - Sunday, July 3, 1983. Attendance: 31,905, TV: ABC. [NOTE: If you want to skip all the pregame analysis you can forward the audio to about the 7:00 minute mark where the game begins] Defensive end John Banaszak, who has played football in Michigan as a collegiate at Eastern Michigan and as a professional with the Michigan Panthers, tried to put the moment into focus. "If we win the playoffs we'll be the toast of this town," he suggested during a champagne-soaked post celebration.  The bubbly put an exclamation point on the Panthers' Central Division title clinching, which brought the Detroit area within two victories of its first major league sports championship since the Tigers' 1968 World Series victory. The 33-7 victory over the Arizona Wranglers, on the final day of the United States Football League's first regular season, sent Michigan, 12-6, into a semifinal round playoff matchup against Oakland. The Invaders were the Pacific Division champs with a .500 record. In the Panthers' victory, running back Ken Lacy threw for one touchdown and ran for another in the first quarter as Arizona, 4-14, matched the Washington Federals for the league's worst record.

1983 Week 17 - Saturday, June 25, 1983. Attendance: 30,396. TV: ESPN. Fred Besana passed for 227 yards and a touchdown as the Oakland Invaders capitalized on blunders by the Boston Breakers to clinch the Pacific Division title. Boston, which got 122 yards rushing from halfback Richard Crump, crumbled from its own mistakes in the third period. The Invaders recovered a fumble on their own 48 and moved to the Breakers' 3-yard line with the help of three penalties. Ted Torosian scored from one-yard out on the first play of the fourth quarter, giving Oakland a 17-13 lead. Boston later had a touchdown nullified by a holding penalty and settled for a 24-yard field goal by Tim Mazzetti that closed the gap to 17-16 with 6:01 left to play.

1983 Week 17 - Sunday, June 26, 1983. Attendance: 25,041, TV: ABC. Five of Bobby Hebert's passes fell neatly into the arms of receivers Anthony Carter, Derek Holloway and Ken Lacy as Hebert set a United States Football League record for touchdown passes in one game and increased his league lead in that department to 26.  Hebert defied the heat in Soldier Field -- where the temperatures reached 99 degrees in the stands and zoomed to an estimated 134 degrees on the artificial turf -- and blistered the Chicago Blitz secondary with 12 completions in 21 attempts for 247 yards. His performance before 25,042 fans -- 7,100 above the Blitz's average home attendance -- led the Panthers to a 34-19 triumph over their Central Division rivals and pulled them into a tie with Chicago for the division lead. Each team was 11-6 with one week to go in the regular season, but Michigan would win the division in case of a tie because they won both head-to-head confrontations this season. Hebert, who opened the scoring with a 39-yard pass to Ken Lacy. His other TD passes were of 42 and 15 yards to Holloway and 35 and 32 yards to Carter, whose eight receptions for 143 yards gave him over 1,000 yards for the season.

A look back at the sixteenth week of the 1983 USFL season.

Friday, June 17, 1983. Chicago Blitz (10-5) at Birmingham Stallions (8-7). Attendance: 23,459, TV: ABC. [NOTE: This 1983 game between the Chicago Blitz vs Birmingham Stallions is missing the last six minutes of the contest, but that audio does not affect the outcome. The Blitz actually scored one last time despite being ahead. The rest of the game is intact.] A change of uniforms didn't work at all for the Birmingham Stallions -- but a change of scene did for Bobby Scott. Thinking his players would be cooler by wearing white instead of the traditional home red in the rainy, 75-degree weather, Birmingham Coach Rollie Dotsch had them switch uniforms for their game with the Chicago Blitz. The plan backfired, though, when Scott -- acquired from the New Jersey Generals earlier in the season -- was hotter than the weather. Scott completed his first tosses for Chicago and led the Blitz to a 29-14 United States Football League rout of the Stallions.

A look back at the fifteenth week of the 1983 USFL season.

1983 Week 15 - Monday, June 13, 1983. Attendance: 26,840. TV: ESPN. [Note: The game is joined in progress late in the second quarter. The rest of the game is complete] Kevin Shea booted a team-record three field goals and Jerry Aldridge sprinted down the sidelines 80 yards for a touchdown to lead the Oakland Invaders to a 16-10 victory over the Denver Gold in a key USFL Pacific Division game. Shea accounted for Oakland's only three points in the second half when he capped a nine-play, 29-yard drive with a 43-yard field goal. Running back Arthur Whittington carried five times on the drive, picking up 26 yards to set up the score. With a little over two minutes to go, Denver drove from its own 23 to the Oakland five, but halfback Harry Sydney fumbled the ball and it was recovered by nose guard Dupre Marshall. The Invaders then killed the clock to score their eighth victory against seven losses and take a one-game lead over Los Angeles with three games left to play. Denver fell to 6-9.