Super Bowl XVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1981 season. The 49ers defeated the Bengals by the score of 26–21 to win their first Super Bowl.
The Pontiac Silverdome was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the first use of the architectural technique in a major athletic facility. With a seating capacity of 82,666+, it was the largest stadium in the National Football League (NFL) until FedExField in Landover, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. expanded its capacity to over 85,000 in 2000.
The Port Huron Pirates were a professional indoor football team based in Port Huron, Michigan. The team was a charter member of the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLIFL) joining the league in 2006 as an expansion team. The Pirates were the first professional indoor football team to be based in Port Huron. They played their home games at McMorran Arena in Port Huron, Michigan.
George William Wilson, Sr. was a professional football end for the Chicago Bears and later a coach for the National Football League (NFL)'s Detroit Lions and the American Football League (AFL)'s Miami Dolphins. Wilson attended and played football at Northwestern University. He went undrafted in 1937, before being signed by the Chicago Bears. Wilson played for ten seasons with the Bears, compiling overall record of 111 pass receptions, 1,342 receiving yards, and fifteen touchdowns. He was a member of the Bears during their five appearances in the National Football League Championship Game from 1940–1943 and 1946. Additionally, he was selected for the NFL All-Star Game from 1940–1942. He also played one season of professional basketball for the Chicago Bruins in 1939–40. Wilson won seven championships combined as a player and coach.
Boston Shamrock Rovers were an American soccer team that competed in the United Soccer Association (USA) league in 1967. The team was based in Lynn, Massachusetts and played their home games at the Manning Bowl. The team folded when the USA merged with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American Soccer League.
Mark Justin Dantonio is an American football coach and player. His most recent head coaching position was at Michigan State University, a position he had held from 2007 to 2019, presiding over one of the most successful eras in the program's history.
James Ninowski Jr., also known as Nino, was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints. He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans and was selected in the fourth round of the 1958 NFL draft.
The BYU Cougars football team is the college football program representing Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. The Cougars began collegiate football competition in 1922, and have won 23 conference championships and one national championship in 1984.
Detroit is home to four professional U.S. sports teams; it is one of twelve cities in the United States to have teams from the four major North American sports. Since 2017, it is the only U.S. city to have its MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL teams play within its downtown district and one of only four U.S. cities to have said teams play within the city limits of their namesake.
Wisner Memorial Stadium is an athletic facility located in Pontiac, Michigan.
Garland A. Rivers is an American former professional football defensive back who was selected in the 1987 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played briefly for the Chicago Bears in the 1987 NFL season after having starred as an All-American for the Michigan Wolverines football team for whom he set the single-game tackles record as a sophomore. This record still stands. After returning to the University of Michigan to complete his bachelor's degree, he returned to professional football for several seasons in the Arena Football League (AFL). However, before returning to professional football he became embroiled in a scandal involving sports agents engaging amateur athletes.
Ronald Allen Carpenter Jr. is a former professional American football player who played defensive back for five seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings. New York Jets, and St. Louis Rams. He played college football at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was a three-time first-team All-Mid-American Conference player and served as captain his senior season. He was voted to the Miami University All-Millennium team by The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2000. He was also inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame on October 14, 2016. Carpenter was also an All-World League player for the Amsterdam Admirals and spent seasons with the New York CityHawks of the Arena Football League (AFL), the Los Angeles Xtreme of the XFL, and the Nashville Kats, Georgia Force, and Detroit Fury of the AFL. He owns a Super Bowl ring from the 1999 Rams and an XFL Championship ring from the 2001 Xtreme. Following his professional career, Carpenter took up coaching and scouting, having scouted for Pro Football Scouts Inc., the Tennessee Titans as a scouting intern, and coached for Princeton High School in Ohio, the Georgia Force, Central State University, Indiana University, Miami University and the University of Central Arkansas.
The Northern Kentucky River Monsters were a professional indoor football team based in Highland Heights, Kentucky. The River Monsters began play as a charter member of the Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL) for its inaugural 2011 season spending one season in the UIFL before reaching an agreement with league management to leave. After a two-year hiatus, the River Monsters returned in 2014 as a member of the South Division of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL). The River Monsters played their home games at The Bank of Kentucky Center. On June 6, 2011, it was announced that the UIFL and the River Monsters mutually agreed to part ways, leaving the team free to join another league. However, the UIFL had a lease agreement with the arena, which hampered the likelihood the River Monsters would play in Highland Heights in 2012. The team had been mentioned as a charter member Stadius Football Association in 2012, but that league never got off the ground. The team suspended operations on October 1, 2014.
Sports in Atlanta has a rich history, including the oldest on-campus NCAA Division I football stadium, Bobby Dodd Stadium, built in 1913 by the students of Georgia Tech. Atlanta also played host to the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between the A&M College of Alabama and the University of Georgia in Piedmont Park in 1892; this game is now called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. The city hosts college football's annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10 km race. Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics, and Downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park was built for and commemorates the games.
Derrick L. Shepard is a former American arena and indoor football defensive lineman. Shepard grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and attended Meadowdale High School. His football ability earned him a scholarship to Georgia Tech, where he participated in football for four years.
The Atlanta Blaze were a professional men's field lacrosse team in Major League Lacrosse (MLL). The Blaze became the ninth team in MLL as an expansion team for the 2016 season and played its home games at Atlanta Silverbacks Park in Atlanta, Georgia.
William Jacob Fromm is an American professional football quarterback for the Detroit Lions (NFL). He played college football at Georgia and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL draft. Fromm has also been a member of the New York Giants and Washington Commanders.
The Pontiac Indians were a minor league baseball team based in Pontiac, Michigan. In 1912 and 1913, the Indians played exclusively as members of the Class D level Border League, hosting home games at Wisner Park.
Jarrid Williams is an American football offensive tackle for the DC Defenders of the United Football League (UFL). He played college football at Houston and Miami (FL).
2019–20 RPFL season