A look back as the Orlando Predators
begin their 25th season in the Arena Football League.
The first player signed in the history of the Orlando Predators thought football was done with him.
Four years removed from his last game in the NFL, Herkie Walls was working as a sales representative and personal trainer at an area gym. He regained a foothold in football when he heard the new Arena Football League team in town was holding tryouts, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds and was signed.
Walls scored three touchdowns in the Preds’ arena-league debut at what is now Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, a 51-38 victory against the Tampa Bay Storm on June 1, 1991.
“I caught the ball off the net for the first time, and I turned my back as these screaming Storm players were coming to knock my head off,’’ said Walls, a wide receiver-kick returner. “I eluded them, and I was so happy. I made it to the 25-yard line, got hit up against the wall and I said, ‘This is a cool game.’’’
From the 25-yard line to 25
years as one of Orlando’s most enduring franchises, the Preds will open this milestone season against their biggest rival. The game against the Storm at 7 tonight will be at Amalie Arena in Tampa and broadcast by Bright House Sports Network, Ch. 47.
The Preds arrived in Central Florida a couple of years after the Orlando Magic. The ownership group, which included former Major League Baseball manager Davey Johnson, attempted to sell fans on indoor football played during the summer on a 50-yard field. The players were surrounded by padded walls, nets at both endsand fans within an arm’s length as loud music blared.
It was a sport with a different set of rules on the field (and often in terms of fan behavior).
“I was at the Super Bowl this year, sitting in the $3,000 seats as a former president of the NFL Retired Players Association,’’ said Mike McBath, one of the Preds’ original owners. “It was boring, sorry. Even at a $3,000 seat, what was I, 50 yards from the field?
“[In arena football,] it is like you really see the blood, sweat and tears of the players. It is in-your-face football.’’
The first Preds team in 1991 was led by veteran arena-league coach Perry Moss and finished 3-7. Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden, who later played quarterback for and coached the Preds to both of their ArenaBowl titles (1998, 2000), led the Storm to the league championship that season.
Orlando’s Reggie Collier threw for seven touchdowns in the franchise’s debut.
“You could turn it into a party and a night out,’’ said Bret Munsey, who played for the Preds in 1991 and is now on the Redskins’ coaching staff. “That sport is something I really cherish.’’
Four of the Preds’ five games in 1991 at the since-demolished Orlando Arena drew announced crowds of at least 12,000. The only exception was the Preds’ home opener, a 38-32 triumph against the Columbus Thunderbolts on June 13.
“Fans treated us like movie stars,’’ Walls said. “People loved us. Ben Bennett, Durwood Roquemore, Barry Wagner [who joined the Preds in 1992] and I would be all over the community, just promoting the game and telling people to come out.’’
Said McBath: “I can remember selling tickets in the streets for twice the price. I would walk over, and people would say, ‘ Do you have any tickets?’ They would give you double the price.’’
Jacksonville Sharks coach Les Moss, Perry’s son and a Preds assistant on that original team, said his father deserves most of the credit for what followed: the seven ArenaBowl appearances, the two titles, the record 19 consecutive playoff berths, the sustained connection with fans. Perry Moss died in 2014. “He was one of the original guys in the arena league,’’ Les Moss said. “We were from Orlando. When the arena league started and they built that arena, that was always his goal. He wanted to get an ownership group together and start an Arena Football League team.’’
Walls, who runs New Generation Gospel Church in Orlando, never could have envisioned what was to come after he first caught a ball off a net.
“I must love the game because I see it now, and I say to myself, ‘ Why are these kids out there running into the wall?’’’ said Walls, 54. “You know what? You’ve got to love the game. You’ve just got to love it.’’ Walls’ son does. Caleb Hercules Walls, a football player at Dr. Phillips, wants to play for the Preds someday. If he does, he will follow an original.