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"USFL Football is top quality with a flair for being different. Check us out. You might just find the fun is back!

The USFL - where football is still a game"

That's the commercial for a new football league that formed in 1983, the United States Football League.

It would bring a new brand of football with 2-point conversions, an 18-game season and was played in the spring and summer while the NFL didn't.

Houston Gamblers and USFL fan Darrel Wheeler says, "The league was so different than the NFL. It was more about fun."

Former Gamblers offensive lineman added, "The USFL came out as if it was the NFL."

The league had television contracts with ESPN and ABC.

Former Michigan Panthers wide receiver Derek Holloway, Sr. says, "I thought the quality of play was really good. You had Reggie White, Hershel Walker, and Steve Young."

Despite all the great players who played during the USFL's three-year run, there's only one player who can say, "Scored the first two touchdowns ever in the first USFL Championship Game and that's like really big."

Holloway calls Houston home now but in 1983, he helped the Michigan Panthers be crowned the first USFL champions.

In year two, expansion would make it's way to Oklahoma, Memphis, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Houston.

"When I studied the nuances of spring football, it made so much sense. Stadiums were available, cities were available," said Dr. Jerry Argovitz, the owner of the Gamblers. Argovitz helped businessman Dave Dixon with starting the league and the former dentist, real estate mogul and sports agent ended up with a USFL team in the bayou city.

"I made a deal and bought Dave Dixon's Houston franchise."

This would be the first time he'd owned any sports team.

"Sitting on this side of the table, it's a hell of a gamble," exclaimed Argovitz.

Being a huge fan of Kenny Rogers and his song "The Gambler," the nick name for the franchise seemed appropriate, thus the Gamblers were born.

Wheeler says, "When the Gamblers came. Here's a new team I can cheer on. Man, it's like they just go up and down the field it's amazing."

What was being witnessed was the "Run 'N Shoot" offense perfectly orchestrated by quarterback Jim Kelly who threw for 5,219 yards and 44 touchdowns in his first season, both USFL records.

Boucher added, "Jim said if it hadn't been for the USFL, he wouldn't have made the Hall of Fame. He learned his quick reads there."

The gamblers would sling the ball all around the field for two seasons in the USFL before the league would make an ill-fated decision to move to the fall.

Argovitz says, "If I had to single out an individual who pretty much killed the USFL. It was my friend Donald."