1975 Season
The Winds did not have much success of the field or at the box office. They lost both pre-season games, to Jacksonville and Charlotte (Parilli's old team). Unlike the defunct Chicago Fire, which sold 15,000 season tickets in 1974, the Winds managed only 1,600. In late July, the league took swift action by firing Parilli and replacing him with Abe Gibron, who had been fired from the Chicago Bears after the 1974 season. (An amusing typo in a New York Times story indicated Gibron had become coach of the Chicago Winos.) A very reluctant Leo Cahill left a (relatively) comfortable position as Memphis Southmen GM to the precarious situation with the wobbling Winds. Gibron only had 48 hours or so to learn about his new team.
The Winds lost their first two regular-season contests, 10-0 in Birmingham and 38-18 in Shreveport, before beating the Portland Thunder, 25-18 in overtime, in front of just 3,501 fans at Soldier Field. After two more road losses (at Hawaii and Memphis), the team was 1-4 and swimming in red ink.
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