History

The Manchester Allstars were formed in July 1984 by five people form the North Manchester area. They began an advertising campaign in the local press and recruited over sixty potential players who started fitness training and learning the Grid Iron basics.

In November 1984, they were voted into the British League (A.F.L. UK) and after a number of fund raising events had the necessary £10,000 to import the playing equipment from the USA in February 1985.

They took part in the first competitive British League season in 1985 finishing with a won 7, lost 2 and drawn 1 record, playing home games at Swinton Rugby Club. They progressed into the playoffs defeating their local rivals the Manchester Spartans along the way, but were eventually defated by the Streatham Olympians in the Quarter Finals by a narrow 10 - 0 score.

In 1986, which was largely a year of transition to a more professionally run team and management, Jim Nendel, an ex-College player from Bend, Oregon USA was brought in as Head Coach.They played there home games at the Belle Vue stadium. The Allstars eventually finished as runners-up in the Budweiser Northern Division with a won 9, lost 3 record but were surprisingly eliminated in the first round of the payoffs by the up and coming Luton Flyers by a 29 - 27 score. This dissappointment made the Allstars even more determined to succeed in 1987.

With this Jim Nendel returned home to Whitworth College, Spokane, USA, to recruit some top class American player coaches

In 1987 the Allstars now had their full compliment of five American players. Jim Nendel (Receiver & Head Coach), Rick Bolen (QB), Mike Hatcher (Offensive Line), Malcolm Townsend (Secondary) and Mike Valente (Defensive Line). Their excellent playing ability coupled with their expert coaching of home grown players soon payed off as the Allstars stormed through the ten game regular season undefeated amassing 387 points and capturing their first Northern Championship.

The Allstars played their home games on the new Astro Turf pitch at Oldham Athletic Football Club and emerged as one of the favourites to capture the ultimate prize for any British team, the Budweiser Bowl Trophy.

In the playoffs revenge was gained against the Streatham Olympions in an exciting 26 - 25 victory in the quarter finals. Such was the success of the team at that point that the local Council in Oldham forced the game to be played on a Saturday afternoon rather than on a Sunday due to the noise that the anticipated 3,500 crowd were expected to make.

In the semi-finals the highly rated and as yet undefeated Allstars beat another excellent team of the day, the Leicester Panthers by a convincing 42 - 16 score.

The Allstars had finally made it to the British Championship final after three years of hard work. In front of a crowd of 13,000 fans they were narrowly defeated by 40 - 23 against the awsome team, the London Ravens (remember that long pass that broke our hearts) who captured their third straight British Championship title.

However, despite the defeat in the final, 1987 had been a highly successful year for the Allstars with attendences for home games averaging 2,000. Their exciting style of play which featured a great deal of passing made the Allstars one of a handful of teams at the forefront of the growth in popularity and awareness of American Football in this country.

It was always going to be hard to repeat the almost complete success of 1987, on every front it had been a fantastic year. The combination of the excellent coaching staff and the young crop of talented players from the Manchester area meant that it could have emerged as the best team in Europe. It is not unrealistic to state that if the success of 1987 had been built upon, then the Allstars would have dominated British American Football well in to the 1990's, possibly even up until today.

Unfortunately, the hang over from that season began as early as January 1988. It was as if the entire sport, shocked by the sudden and startling success of that year grew scared of failing to live up to it. All across the country American coaches who had done such an incredible job in 1987 were either sacked or resigned in dissappointment at their new contracts and poor treatment.

The rot had set in, and the Allstars, runners-up in the British Championship lasted only another 2 years. Even bringing over Danny Ford, the fantastic starting quarterback for Arizona State University could do little to halt the rapidly increasing downward spiral. In 1990 the club packed away its kit for the last time. Teammates said goodbye little realising that for many, it would be nearly 20 years before they would speak again.

The Allstars light had burned very brightly but in review for far too brief a period of time and many were left asking, what could have been? "If only" became the phrase attached to their memory.