The USL offered Sharp's group a place, and the rest of the teams who had been planning to play in the ASL in 1984 either also defected to the new league or folded over the next few months.

The new Fort Lauderdale club chose the name Sun, and they joined the Tea Men and Charlotte Gold in the Southern Division of the nine team USL.

Teófilo Cubillas, Jim Tietjens, Ernst-Jean Baptiste, and player-coach Keith Weller all signed with the Sun (though Cubillas would only commit to playing home games), and they were joined by former English international Dave Watson and Scottish international Asa Hartford, giving the Sun one of the most talented rosters in the league.

They would achieve this on-field success despite primary owner Ronnie Sharp's arrest less than a month into the season for alleged participation in a large drug smuggling operation.

This game also ended tied after regulation and overtime, but the Sun would win the shootout round this time to clinch the first USL championship.

[4] Later in the month, an investors group composed primarily of local doctors who had sat together at Strikers games purchased the team from the troubled Ronnie Sharp.

Within a few weeks the NASL had cancelled its upcoming season and five USL teams (including the Sun's division rivals in Charlotte and Jacksonville) had officially folded, while another had withdrawn to become an independent club.

[2] The renamed South Florida Sun were joined by only the Dallas Americans, Tulsa Tornado's (who had moved from Oklahoma City and re-branded), and an expansion team in El Paso/Juarez for the USL's 1985 season.

The Sun was soon facing payroll issues of their own, but the team still managed to finish at the top of USL Cup table with a 4-2 record.

[13][5] On June 27, 1984 the Sun made their only appearance in the Florida Derby, falling to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, 5–1, in an inter-league friendly.