1975 WFL Pro Draft

Because of the uncertainties which attended the renascence of the World Football League this past winter, the conducting of a draft of college seniors was out of the question.

As a result, in an effort to enable WFL staffs to concentrate on rebuilding without overlapping each others scouting and recruiting efforts, the WFL held a draft of entire teams at it's meetings in Birmingham in May, 1975.

WFL teams drafted entire National Football League and Canadian Football League teams, thereby acquiring exclusive WFL negotiating rights to all players on the clubs they selected (except those which in 1974 played for another WFL team; in that case, WFL teams were still conceded to have negotiating rights to players who once played for them or their predecessor).

The right to negotiate with a player is considered to have a definite value, and clubs wishing to deal with a player to whom they do not have such rights are expected first to obtain permission from the club owning the rights.

Listed below are the World Football League clubs and the NFL/CFL teams they chose:

Birmingham Vulcans - Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (CFL)

Charlotte Hornets - Baltimore Colts, Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills

Chicago Winds - Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets and Edmonton Eskimos (CFL)

Hawaiians - San Francisco 49'ers, Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles

Jacksonville Express - Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers

Memphis Southmen - Toronto Argonauts (CFL), St. Louis Cardinals and New England Patriots

Philadelphia Bell - Montreal Alouettes (CFL), New York Giants and Washington Redskins

Portland Thunder - Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, Ottawa Rough Riders (CFL), and Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL)

San Antonio Wings - Dallas Cowboys, Houston Oilers, Calgary Stampeders (CFL) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats (CFL)

Shreveport Steamer - New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals

Southern California Sun - Los Angeles Rams, British Columbia Lions (CFL) and San Diego Chargers

NOTE: This page was taken from the 1975 Portland Thunder Media Guide.