Detroit Wheels Book - Mark Speck

Nothing but a Brand-New Set of Flat Tires
The Sad, Sorry Saga of the
1974 Detroit Wheels
of the World Football League

Mark Speck

Detroit's pro football history is alive with the names of many wonderful heroes from a colorful past…Benny Friedman, Jimmy Conzelman, Potsy Clark, Buddy Parker, Bobby Layne, Joe Schmidt, Night Train Lane, Dick LeBeau, Barry Sanders, Bubba Wyche, Sheldon Joppru, Wimpy Winther…

Wait…Bubba Wyche? Sheldon Joppru? Wimpy Winther?

Don't recognize them? Well, they, too, are a part of Detroit's pro football legacy. As members of a team called the Detroit Wheels in 1974, they managed to write their own chapter in the city's professional football history.

Their story, unlike that of the storied Lions, was part tragedy, part comedy, and required a significant suspension of disbelief. Their saga lasted less than a year, but was filled with more anguish and despair than five seasons with the Lions. One would think that a team owned by financial heavyweights such as entertainer Marvin Gaye and pizza magnate Mike Illitch would end the way it did. That's because most of the team's 33 owners - that's right, 33 - had no clue whatsoever about how to run a professional football team.

Mark Speck is the author of three other football books on the WFL, including …and a Dollar Short: The empty promises, broken dreams, and somewhat-less-than-comic misadventures of the 1974 Florida Blazers, WIFFLE: The wild, zany and sometimes hilariously true story of the World Football League and the co-author with Tod Maher of the World Football League Encyclopedia. Mark is also a major contributor to the World Football League official Web site. When he is not researching pro football, Mark works full-time as a Quality Assurance Specialist for the nonprofit organization Able2 in Elmira, New York. Mark lives in Horseheads, New York, with his ever-understanding and patient wife, Elsie.

ISBN: 9781937943479 - 320 Pages - $24.95

Price: $24.95

Shipping: $5.00

*NOTE: Mention the World Football League Web site and the shipping cost will be waived.

Orders can be made by phone (201) 387-1529 or send a check to:

St. Johann Press
ATTN: Dave Biesel
P.O. Box 241
Haworth, New Jersey 07641