Owned by oil magnate Clinton Manges, the team played its home games in Alamo Stadium and its colors were kelly green, royal blue, silver, and white.
In 1977 the San Antonio Charros were founded by Roger Gill as a charter member of the American Football Association.
[1] Going into the 1984 season, the USFL made the decision to expand to eighteen franchises in order to boost league capital.
Ultimately, Murphy's proposed league folded before it could get off the ground when the USFL placed teams in three of its potential markets–San Antonio, Memphis, and Houston.
However, it never performed any meaningful due diligence on Manges's original application, apart from the concern about Alamo Stadium.
The Gunslingers had to add 14,000 folding chairs around the end zones to bring the stadium to the USFL's minimum capacity.
[3] In a league with free-spending owners, Steinke's Gunslingers rarely had the edge in talent but most games were very disciplined on the field, allowing them to remain somewhat competitive in spite of the team's shoestring budget.
Neuheisel played solidly for the team, nickel and diming the team up and down the field, and the intense "Bounty Hunter" defense led by players like Jeff McIntyre, John Barefield, Peter Raeford, Rich D'Amico, Jim Bob Morris, and Putt Choate kept the Gunslingers within striking distance almost every week.
[2] The playing surface was an extremely thin AstroTurf carpet atop a concrete slab, resulting in numerous knee injuries.
[3] The Gunslingers only drew 15,444 fans per game, in large part because they had already built a reputation for being short of professional standards.
For instance, they tried to save money by mailing press releases in bulk, resulting in them arriving days after games.
With Manges suddenly unwilling and/or unable to underwrite the franchise's mounting expenses, the club found itself in a situation not unlike those faced by many teams in the ill-fated WFL.
When the San Antonio Express-News broke the story, Manges reacted by revoking the paper's press credentials.
The situation got so dire at one point that several players traded tickets for food and stayed with sympathetic fans because they couldn't afford to pay the rent for their apartments.
[5] Years later, Neuheisel told ESPN that the players raced each other to the bank to cash their checks, knowing that half (if not more) of them would bounce.
The San Antonio Light reported that the Internal Revenue Service had slapped two liens on the Gunslingers for over $400,000 in back payroll taxes, further squeezing the franchise's financial picture.
They only made it back to San Antonio after Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby, a Manges confidant, intervened to guarantee payment.
[2] On one occasion, an arbitrator threatened to release 30 players from their contracts if Manges didn't make good on their bounced checks.
[6] After a month of missed paydays, Bates threatened to quit unless the players were paid by the team's contest against the Oakland Invaders.
Due in large part to a nonexistent rushing attack (their leading rusher, George Works, only ran for a total of 452 yards), they finished with the second-worst record in the league.