Founded in 1933 with the expressed purpose of joining the new AFL as a natural rival of teams in Oklahoma City and Houston, the Rams played only three games that year.
Formed in late 1933 as the Tulsa Drillers, the team played (and lost) only three games that season (two against Oklahoma City, one against the St. Louis Gunners).
Formed in 1932, the Chiefs lost only one game in their inaugural year (to Portsmouth) and continued their success in 1933 as they staked their claim as being one of the two strongest minor league teams (along with the St. Louis Gunners).
Having joined the league despite not having a team organization or player roster, Houston was dropped when Oklahoma City was given the boot.
The Memphis Tigers developed into a strong independent football team, comparable to those based in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In 1929, a Memphis team that was temporarily enhanced by the addition of Ken Strong and several other NFL players defeated the Green Bay Packers.
By 1933, both Charlotte and Oklahoma City were not only able to compete toe-to-toe with Memphis and the St. Louis Gunners, but both dominated the Tigers in three out of four games that year.
Yet by the summer of 1934, his new league was to have teams representing Memphis (Tigers), St. Louis (Gunners), Oklahoma City (Chiefs), Tulsa (the newly renamed Oilers), Charlotte (Bantams), Louisville (Bourbons), Dallas, and Houston.
[5] In August, Oklahoma City was expelled from the league because their home stadium (a minor league baseball park) could hold only 2000 people in the grandstands (the Chiefs would continue as an independent team for two more months before folding); at the same time, Houston was dropped from the lineup as there was no progress in organizing a football team in time for the start of the season.
[4] St. Louis and Louisville played four games in front of diminishing crowds before folding; the Memphis squad was tentatively put together by two longtime Tigers (Red Clavette and Cliff Norvell) and bankrolled by Wilson Murrah.
While the team managed to play three games (scoring 100 points in the process), the writing was on the wall: the Tigers (and any possibility of the AFL returning in 1936) winked out of existence.