May 1, 1923: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Opens

May 1, 1923, 100 years ago: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum opens, adjacent to the campus of the University of Southern California. It completed a stretch of two weeks in which three of the greatest stadiums ever built on planet Earth opened: The original Yankee Stadium in New York on April 18, and the original Wembley Stadium in London on April 28. Of the three, the Coliseum is the only one that still stands, 100 years later.

Unless you count the nearby HOLLYWOOD sign and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as "buildings," the Coliseum is the most famous building in the State of California.

At its opening, seating capacity was 75,144. It was expanded to 101,574 for the 1932 Olympic Games. A renovation, necessary after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, dropped capacity to 93,103. Another recent renovation, including wider seats, and bigger media facilities requiring the removal of some seats, has made the current capacity 77,500, making it the 2nd-biggest stadium in California, behind the Rose Bowl in nearby Pasadena.

It hosted a football game for the 1st time on October 6, 1923. The University of Southern California hosted Pomona College, and won, 23-7. The USC Trojans have used the Coliseum as their home field ever since.

Their nearby rivals, the University of California at Los Angeles, played home games there from 1933 to 1981. The UCLA Bruins now play home games at the Rose Bowl, which, due to the Trojans' success, has often seemed like a secondary home field to them, not just every other year when they play UCLA in their home-and-home series, but also on January 1, when the Rose Bowl game is usually played.

The Coliseum has also been the leading professional football venue in Southern California. In the NFL, the Los Angeles Rams played there from 1946 to 1979, and again from 2016 to 2019; the Los Angeles Raiders from 1982 to 1994; Super Bowl I in 1967 and Super Bowl VII in 1973; and the postseason Pro Bowl from 1951 to 1972, and again in 1979.

Other pro football teams using the Coliseum: The Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949, the Los Angeles Chargers of the American Football League in 1960, the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League from 1983 to 1985, and the Los Angeles Xtreme of the XFL in 2001.

It has hosted the U.S. national soccer team 20 times, starting in 1965; and Mexico's team 61 times. In 1967, the only season of play for the United Soccer Association, it hosted the Los Angeles Wolves, who won that league's title. It also hosted the city's entry in another league starting that season, the Los Angeles Toros of the National Professional Soccer League. After that year, the two leagues merged to form the North American Soccer League, whose Los Angeles Aztecs used the Coliseum as their home field in the 1977 and 1981 seasons.

The Los Angeles Dodgers used the Coliseum as their 1st home field after leaving Brooklyn, while waiting for Dodger Stadium to be built, from 1958 to 1961. Their home games in the 1959 World Series against the Chicago White Sox attracted over 92,000 fans, the highest-attended competitive games in Major League Baseball history. An all-time record crowd for baseball, 115,300, attended a preseason game between the Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox on March 29, 1958, honoring the Dodgers' 50h Anniversary in Los Angeles.

And, of course, the Coliseum was the main venue for the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games, and will be again in 2028.

In 2018, naming rights to the playing surface were sold. It is now United Airlines Field. The Coliseum name remains for the stadium as a whole.

How Long It's Been: A Los Angeles Team Won the Super Bowl

Last night, the Los Angeles Rams won the NFL Championship, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

For all of L.A.'s success in college football, mostly by USC but some by UCLA, this was only the 3rd NFL Championship won by a team from that metropolitan area. The Rams won the title in 1951, and the Raiders won Super Bowl XVIII in 1984.

But after the 1994 season, the Raiders moved back to Oakland. In 2020, they moved again, to Las Vegas. The Rams moved to St. Louis, and won Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000. But in 2016, they moved back to Los Angeles. And the San Diego Chargers moved to Los Angeles in 2017.

So the Rams' win last night was the 1st NFL Championship for a Los Angeles area team since the Raiders' win in Super Bowl XVIII, a 38-9 demolition of the Washington Redskins at Tampa Stadium. That was on January 22, 1984, 38 years and 23 days ago. How long has that been?

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The Raiders were owned by Al Davis, and coached by Tom Flores. They were quarterbacked by Jim Plunkett, winner of the 1970 Heisman Trophy. They had running back Marcus Allen, winner of the 1981 Heisman Trophy. They had receiver Cliff Branch, tight end Todd Christensen, defensive linemen Lyle Alzado and Howie Long, linebackers Ted Hendricks and Matt Millen, defensive backs Lester Hayes and Mike Haynes, punter Ray Guy and placekicker Chris Bahr. Davis, Flores, Allen, Branch, Long, Hendricks and Guy are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Buccaneers, New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, the San Diego Chargers, the Atlanta Falcons, the team then known as the Houston Oilers, the Seattle Seahawks, the New Orleans Saints had never reached an NFL Championship Game, under any name. The Denver Broncos had, but, along with the Pats, the Bucs, the Hawks, the Saints, had never won one. The Chicago Bears, the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Eagles, the franchise then known as the Cleveland Browns, and the team then known as the St. Louis Cardinals had, but not in the Super Bowl era. All of those facts have since gone from true to false.

Only 4 of the 28 teams playing in the 1983 season, capped by Super Bowl XVIII, are playing in the same stadiums they were in then: The Bills, the Green Bay Packers, the Kansas City Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints. A few stadiums had domes, but none had a retractable roof. Tampa Stadium, site of Super Bowl XVIII, has been replaced and demolished. So has the Orange Bowl in Miami, which hosted 5 Super Bowls; Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, which hosted 3; and the Pontiac Silverdome, which hosted 1. Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California, which hosted 1, has been torn down and replaced with a new stadium on the same site.

There was an NFL team in Baltimore -- for 2 more months -- but it was the Colts, not the Ravens. There was an NFL team in St. Louis, but it was the Cardinals, not the Rams. There was an NFL team in Houston, but it was the Oilers, not the Texans.

The NFL did not yet have teams in Indianapolis or Carolina. Nor did it have teams in Arizona, Jacksonville, Tennessee (Memphis or Nashville), or, at the time, Oakland. And has never had teams in San Antonio, Oklahoma (Oklahoma City or Tulsa) or Birmingham. But the United States Football League did have teams in those places.

And while the Giants played at the Meadowlands, and the Jets were in the process of moving there from Shea Stadium, they still called themselves "New York" -- always have, always will. The USFL already had Herschel Walker, playing for a team proudly calling itself the New Jersey Generals, and was about to feature future Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Reggie White, Steve Young, Jim Kelly and Gary Zimmerman.

Major League Baseball had a team in Montreal, while people in the Washington, D.C. area had to brave nasty traffic to go up to Baltimore. The NBA had teams in Seattle, San Diego and Kansas City. The NHL had teams in Quebec City and Hartford.

NFL pioneers Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, Don Hutson, Johnny "Blood" McNally and Fritz Pollard were still alive. NFL founder George Halas had been dead for only a few weeks.

Bill Belichick was coaching linebackers and special teams for Bill Parcells on the Giants. Neither of them had yet been employed by a Super Bowl winner. Pete Rozelle was still Commissioner. Current Commissioner Roger Goodell was -- are you ready? -- an intern for the Jets! Current Raiders coach Josh McDaniels was 7 years old. Current Rams coach Sean McVay... wasn't born yet.

The Quarterback Class of '83 -- John Elway, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, Ken O'Brien, Todd Blackledge and Tony Eason -- had just finished their rookie seasons. Terry Bradshaw, whom most of you only know from Fox NFL Sunday, had just retired as a player.

Ray Lewis was 8 years old, Peyton Manning was 7, Tom Brady was 6, Drew Brees was 5, Eli Manning was 3, Troy Polamalu was 2, Ben Roethlisberger was a year and a half, Aaron Rodgers was a newborn; and Colin Kapernick, Matthew Stafford, Richard Sherman, Russell Wilson, Nick Foles, Cam Newton, Rob Gronkowski, Jimmy Garoppolo and Odell Beckham Jr. weren’t born yet.

Current Giants coach Brian Daboll was 8 years old, and Jets coach Robert Saleh was about to turn 5. Mets manager Buck Showalter had just retired as a player, and been hired as a coach with the Oneonta Yankees. Tom Thibodeau of the Knicks was an assistant coach at Salem State College in Massachusetts. Lindy Ruff of the Devils was playing for the Buffalo Sabres. Barry Trotz of the Islanders was playing for the minor-league Hershey Bears, Gerard Gallant for the minor-league Adirondack Red Wings, Lindy Brondello of the Liberty in high school. Aaron Boone of the Yankees was 10 years old, Steve Nash of the Nets was 9, Ronny Deila of NYCFC was 8, and Gerhard Struber of the Red Bulls was about to turn 7.

The Raiders won by dethroning the defending Champions, the Redskins. The other defending champions were the Baltimore Orioles, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the New York Islanders. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Larry Holmes. Out of the Raiders, the O's, the Sixers and the Isles, none of those teams have won a title since.

The Olympic Games have since been held in America 3 times; twice each in Canada, Korea and China; and once each in Bosnia (then still part of Yugoslavia), France, Spain, Norway, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, Britain, Russia and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in America, Mexico, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.

There were 26 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The idea that people of the same gender could marry each other was not seriously considered. Then again, neither was the idea that corporations were "people" and entitled to the same rights and privileges thereof. No Justice then on the Supreme Court is still on it now.

The President of the United States was Ronald Reagan, and he was doing a terrible job: Not only was the Cold War especially frigid at that point, in large (but not sole) part due to his escalating rhetoric, but unemployment was 8 percent, higher than the 7 percent he'd inherited from the unfairly maligned Jimmy Carter.

George Bush was his Vice President -- we generally didn't add the "H.W." initials until his son, George W., became President.  George W. was drinking like a fish and running an energy company into the ground. Bill Clinton was in his 2nd term as Governor of Arkansas. Barack Obama was at Harvard Law School. Former Presidents Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, and their wives, and the widows of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, were still alive.

The Governor of New York was Mario Cuomo. The current Governor, Kathy Hochul, had just graduated from law school, and had also just gotten married. The Mayor of New York, uh, was, uh, Ed Koch. The current Mayor, Eric Adams, was at the New York Police Academy. The Governor of New Jersey was Tom Kean. The current Governor, Phil Murphy, had recently begun his career at Goldman Sachs.

The Governor of Los Angeles' State, California, was George Deukmejian. The current Governor, Gavin Newsom, was in high school.  Jerry Brown, had served 2 terms as Governor already, but was in the political wilderness, and, as befitting his image as "Governor Moonbeam," went abroad to study philosophy and religion. The Mayor of Los Angeles was Tom Bradley, and the current Mayor, Eric Garcetti, was in junior high school.

There were still living veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Campaign, the Boxer Rebellion, the Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War and the Potemkin Mutiny. Polish Cold War hero Lech Wałęsa was the holder of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, was Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, teaching in San Miguel, Argentina.

Lech Walesa had recently been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau, although he was about to retire. The monarch of Great Britain was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- but the Prime Minister was Margaret Thatcher. Liverpool were the holders of the Football League title, Manchester United of the FA Cup. There have since been 7 Presidents of the United States, 7 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.

Tom Clancy was about to publish The Hunt for Red October, and Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Stephen King had recently published Pet Sematary. George R.R. Martin published the murder mystery/fantasy The Armageddon Rag. J.K. Rowling was a freshman at the University of Exeter.

Angel, about an honor student by day and a hooker by night, was in theaters. Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose was about to premiere. Footloose would arrive the next month. George Lucas was still reaping the benefits of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Gene Roddenberry was overseeing the filming of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Steven Spielberg that of Gremlins, while Lucas and Spielberg were working on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Roger Moore was still playing James Bond, Peter Davison was still playing The Doctor, Christopher Reeve was still playing Superman, and Adam West was still the last live-action Batman.

Night Court had recently premiered on NBC, and a pair of super-helicopter shows, trying and failing to copy NBC's Knight Rider, also did: ABC did Blue Thunder, based on the previous year's film; and, after showing the Super Bowl, CBS premiered Airwolf.

No one had yet heard of Celie Harris, Forrest Gump, Jack Ryan, Goku, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Terminator, the Ghostbusters, or Freddy Kreuger. All would be introduced in 1984.

Nor had anyone yet heard of the Thundercats, Marty McFly, Bart Simpson, Robocop, Codename V, John McClane, Zack Morris, Hayden Fox, the Seinfeld Four, Deadpool, Buffy Summers, Fox Mulder, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Bridget Jones, Xena, Carrie Bradshaw, Tony Soprano, Jed Bartlet, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Rick Grimes, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan, Don Draper, Katniss Everdeen, Walter White or Richard Castle.

The Number 1 song in America was "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes. It dethroned "Say Say Say," a duet between former Beatle Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. Jackson, riding the crest of Thriller, was the biggest musical star on the planet. But 5 days after the Super Bowl, while filming a commercial for Pepsi with his brothers, in preparation for their upcoming Victory Tour, a spark from an explosion set his hair on fire, and he was badly burned. While he was back performing within weeks, there are people who think his troubles began with the pain medication he took for his injury.

Yoko Ono released Milk and Honey, the album she and John Lennon were working on when he was killed. Bruce Springsteen was finishing up Born in the U.S.A. Billy Joel was enjoying the success of An Innocent Man and his relationship with Christie Brinkley (although it would be another year before they got married). Bon Jovi released their self-titled debut album the day before the Super Bowl. Madonna had debuted, but wasn't yet a superstar. Prince had released 1999, but was still working on Purple Rain.

Andre Romelle Young had just begun deejaying under the name Dr. J, named for his favorite athlete, Julius Erving; he would soon change this to Dr. Dre. Kurt Cobain was in high school. Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dogg and Eminem were in junior high. (Though the idea of Snoop only being a junior "high" is funny.) Kanye West was 6. Kourtney Kardashian and Alecia Moore, the future Pink, were 4. Kim Kardashian, Beyonce Knowles and Christina Aguilera were 3. Justin Timberlake was about to turn 3. Britney Spears was 2. Forget Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus and Halsey: Even Khloe Kardashian, Katy Perry, Drake, Adele and Rihanna weren't born yet.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $2.71 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 20 cents, and a New York Subway ride 90 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.20, a cup of coffee $1.18, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $2.85, a movie ticket $3.46, a new car $11,374, and a new house $94,700. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the previous Friday at 1,259.11.

The tallest building in the world was the Sears Tower. Birth control pills had been long established, but there was, as yet, no Viagra. The 1st analog cellular system widely deployed in North America was introduced in 3 months earlier: The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). There were personal computers, but almost nobody had yet heard of the Internet. Even VCRs weren't in every home yet. Home video games were a battle between the Atari 5200 SuperSytem and ColecoVision -- Nintendo's systems were yet to come. Chrysler had recently introduced the 1st minivan, the Dodge Caravan.

During the Super Bowl, Apple aired, for the one and only time, its renowned "1984" ad, directed by Ridley Scott, and 2 days later put the 1st Macintosh computers on sale. The hammer-thrower, dressed in what looks retroactively like a Hooters waitress' outfit, was 17-year-old British discus thrower Anya Major. She later played the title character in Elton John's video for "Nikita." Contrary to a rumor, she did not die of cancer in 2000; rather, she is alive and well, living in England with a husband and 3 children.

In early 1984, the court-ordered breakup of AT&T's "Bell System" took effect. The British protectorate of Brunei gained independence. Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov died, taking with him the Soviet Union's best chance to survive to the present day. Medicare, Australia's universal-health care system, went into effect. And American astronauts from the space shuttle Challenger made the 1st untethered spacewalk. 

Ray Kroc, and Jackie Wilson, and Johnny Weissmuller died. Kate McKinnon, and Jon Lester, and Arjen Robben were born.

January 22, 1984. The Raiders, then in Los Angeles, won Super Bowl XVIII. It has taken this long -- and a lot of political maneuvering, in the NFL and out -- for another Los Angeles-based football team to win one.

Los Angeles' 10 Greatest Teams

This week, the Mets are in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers.

Los Angeles' 10 Greatest Teams

Note that this includes Anaheim (Angels 1965-present, Rams 1980-94, Ducks 1993-present), Inglewood (Lakers 1967-99, Kings 1967-99, and the Rams and Chargers will start playing there in 2020), and Carson (Galaxy 2003-present).

Honorable Mention to teams of the University of Southern California (USC), the Trojans.

Honorable Mention to teams of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the Bruins.

Football: USC claims 11 National Championships: 1928, 1931, 1932, 1939, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003 and 2004; 38 Conference Championships, including last year's; and 25 Rose Bowl wins. UCLA claims the 1954 National Championship (as does Ohio State) 17 Conference Championships, the last in 1998; and 5 Rose Bowl wins, the last in 1986.

Basketball: It's the reverse of football, with UCLA far more successful. They have won 11 National Championships, more than any other school: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975 (all under coach John Wooden) and 1995. They also reached the Final Four in 1962, 1974, 1976, 1980, 2006, 2007 and 2008. They've won 37 Conference Championships, most recently in 2013, and 4 Conference Tournaments. USC has made the Final Four in 1940 and 1954, won 7 Conference Championships (most recently in 1985), and won the 2009 Conference Tournament.

Baseball: USC has won 12 National Championships, more than any other school: 1948, 1958, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978 and 1998. They've made a total of 24 appearances in the College World Series, and won 38 Conference Championships. UCLA has won the 2013 National Championship, reached 5 College World Series, and won 9 Conference Championships. USC can claim Tom Seaver, but UCLA can claim Jackie Robinson, even though his best sport at UCLA as football.

Honorable Mention to the 1978-86 California Angels. The Angels -- officially, the Los Angeles Angels from 1961 to 1965, the California Angels from 1966 to 1996, the Anaheim Angels from 1997 to 2004, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim since 2005 -- are one of the better expansion teams in MLB history. To this day, in their 58th season, they have never lost more than 95 games in a season. Only 3 times have they lost more than 92. They topped .500 in 4 of their 1st 10 seasons (1961-70), and got as high as 3rd place in 1962, '69 and '70.

In 1978, they reached 2nd in the American League Western Division. They won the Division in 1979, 1982 and 1986, just missing in 1984 and '85. But they couldn't win the AL Championship Series, looking particularly bad in blowing leads of 2-0 in '82 and 3-1 in '86. They blew a huge Division lead in 1995, losing a 1-game Playoff to the Seattle Mariners, and finished just 3 games out in 1998.

Honorable Mention to the 1983-88 Los Angeles Dodgers. In 6 seasons, they won 3 NL West titles, but only 1 Pennant. Even that 1988 Dodger team was, talent-wise, one of the weakest Pennant winners ever. Still, they shocked the Mets in the NL Championship Series, and the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

The Dodgers missed the 1991 Division title by 1 game, were in 1st when the Strike of '94 hit, won the Division in '95, won the Wild Card in '96, and missed the Division by 2 games in '97. After that, it was time to rebuild. They won the Division in 2004, the Wild Card in '06, and the Division and the NLDS in both '08 and '09, but lost both NLCS to the Philadelphia Phillies.

They've now won 5 straight NL West titles, reached 3 NCLS in that span, and, last year, finally won another Pennant after 29 years, but lost the World Series in 7 games to the Houston Astros, just as they lost that 1980 NL West Playoff to the Astros, who moved to the American League in 2013.

Honorable Mention to the 1973-80 Los Angeles Rams. They won the NFC Western Division in each of their last 7 seasons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the Playoffs once more in their 1st season in Anaheim. But despite winning 12 regular-season games in 1973, '75 and '78, and reaching the NFC Championship Game in 1974, '75, '76 and '78, they only won the NFC Championship once after the 1970 merger.

That was in 1979, and belied a 9-7 regular-season record. They had to go on the road to beat both the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, earning them a berth in Super Bowl XIV at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, making them the 1st team ever to play in a Super Bowl in their own metropolitan area, though not in their own stadium. (The former has only happened once since, while the latter still hasn't.) And they were leading the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 4th quarter, but Terry Bradshaw struck, and...

And while they won another NFC West title in 1985, and reached the NFC Championship Game that season and again in 1989, they didn't reach another Super Bowl as a Los Angeles team. They moved to St. Louis in 1995, had a brief run of success from 1999 to 2004 (including winning Super Bowl XXXIV), and then fell back into mediocrity until moving back to L.A. for 2016, winning the NFC West last year. The new version of the L.A. Rams could be something big.

Honorable Mention to the 1960 Los Angeles Chargers. They won the Western Division in the 1st season of the American Football League, but lost the AFL Championship Game to the Houston Oilers.

Then they moved down the coast to San Diego, losing the AFL title game again in 1961, 1964 and 1965, but winning it in 1963. They won the AFC Western Division title in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1992, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. They reached the AFC Championship Game for the seasons of 1980, 1981, 1994 and 2007, winning it in 1994 to reach Super Bowl XXIX. Of course, none of that did Los Angeles any good.

They moved back to L.A. for 2017, going 9-7 despite playing in the soccer-specific StubHub Center in Carson, before 25,000 fans a game. And, having ceded the Rams a season's head start, they may have already blown their chance at reclaiming Southern California from the Hornheads.

Certainly, the stadium going up in Inglewood to open in 2020 is already seen by NFL fans as being the Rams' stadium, with the Chargers being relegated to second-class citizen status, as the Jets were at Giants Stadium from 1984 to 2009. We shall see.

Honorable Mention to the 1982-85 Los Angeles Raiders. "Da Raiduhs" (Los Angelenos don't have that kind of accent, but Brooklyn-born owner Al Davis did) made the Playoffs their 1st 4 seasons after arriving from Oakland, winning 3 AFC Western Division titles, and winning Super Bowl XVIII, the only Super Bowl ever won by a Los Angeles area team, and the only NFL Championship won by one since the 1951 Rams.

But after 1985, they missed the Playoffs for 4 straight seasons, before getting all the way back to the AFC West title and the AFC Championship Game in 1990. They made the Playoffs twice more, missed in 1992 and 1994, and then moved back to Oakland.

Honorable Mention to the 2011-17 Los Angeles Clippers. In their 1st 21 seasons in Los Angeles, they made the Playoffs only 3 times, and never won a Playoff series. They finally did so in 2006, beating the Denver Nuggets, and extending the Phoenix Suns to 7 games in the next round. Then they missed the next 5 Playoffs, showing that it might have been a fluke.

But then they made the next 6 Playoffs, in the 2012 to 2017 seasons. They won Playoff series in 2012, 2014 and 2015, but they still haven't gotten past the next round. Despite a 42-40 record, they missed the Playoffs in 2018.

Honorable Mention to the 1988-93 Los Angeles Kings. Gretzky got them to the Smythe Division Finals in 1989, 1990 and 1991, the last of these seasons being the one in which they won the 1st regular-season Division title in franchise history, in their 24th season.

Finally, in 1993, they reached the 1st Stanley Cup Finals, and were a few minutes away from going up 2 games to 0 with Games 3 and 4 in Inglewood. Of course, Marty McSorley got caught cheating, and the Kings didn't win another game until October. They never reached the Playoffs again until after Gretzky was gone.

Honorable Mention to the 2002-09 Anaheim Ducks. In 6 seasons (there was no 2004-05 season), they made the Playoffs 5 times, reached the Western Conference Semifinals 4 times, the Conference Finals 3 times, and the Stanley Cup Finals twice, losing to the New Jersey Devils in 2003 before beating the Ottawa Senators in 2007. They've made the Conference Finals twice since, in 2015 and 2017.

Honorable Mention to Los Angeles Football Club. They're a 1st-year expansion team, but they're almost certain to make the MLS Cup Playoffs, and have a shot at the Western Conference regular-season title.

Honorable Mention to the Los Angeles Wolves. They were actually Wolverhampton Wanderers of England's West Midlands, playing in America during English soccer's off-season, and won the 1st championship of the United Soccer Association in 1967. When the USA was merged with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American Soccer League for the 1968 season, the Wolverhampton players went home, the L.A. Wolves missed the Playoffs, and they were folded.

Honorable Mention to the Los Angeles Aztecs. They only lasted 8 seasons, but in their 1st, 1974, they won the North American Soccer League title. The closest they came after that was the 1977 Semifinals, and they folded after the 1981 season. They had George Best in 1976, '77 and '78; and Johan Cruijff in 1978 and '79 -- and yet, despite having both Bestie and Cruijff, perhaps the 2 greatest players in European soccer history, in 1978, they only got to the Conference Semifinals. (Best was washed-up.)

Honorable Mention to the 1996-2002 LA Galaxy. Yes, they usually write their location signifier as "LA," no periods, instead of "Los Angeles" or even "L.A." They won the MLS Western Conference regular-season title 5 times in 7 years, finishing 2nd the other 2. They lost the MLS Cup Final in 1996, 1999 and 2001, finally winning it in 2002. In 2000, they became the 1st American team to win the CONCACAF Champions League. In 2001, they won the U.S. Open Cup.

Honorable Mention to the 2005 LA Galaxy. They won the MLS Cup in this season, but, aside from a lost U.S. Open Cup Final the next year, they didn't do much between 2003 and 2008. Signing David Beckham was sizzle, but no steak: He was over the hill, and had very little to do with their success after that.

Now, the Top 10:

10. 2002-09 Anaheim Angels/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Finally, in 2002, it all came together. They won the AL's Wild Card, and then won their 1st Playoff series ever, beating my Yankees in the AL Division Series. They took their 1st Pennant in their 42-year history by beating the Minnesota Twins in the ALCS. And in their 1st World Series, they rode a big Game 6 comeback to beat the San Francisco Giants in 7 games. After playing second fiddle to the Dodgers for so long, the Angels were World Champions.

And then they had a losing record in 2003. They bounded back in 2004 and '05, winning the AL West both times, but got swept by the Boston Red Sox in '04 and freaked out over an apparent bad call to drop 4 straight ALCS games to the Chicago White Sox after winning Game 1. They missed the Playoffs in 2006, then won 3 straight AL West titles, but got no closer to another Pennant than a 6-game ALCS loss to the Yankees in 2009. Aside from another Division title in 2014, they haven't done so well since then.

9. 1974-81 Los Angeles Dodgers. In 8 seasons, they made the Playoffs 5 times, won the NL Western Division 4 times, won the Pennant all 4 of those times, and then smacked into Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter in the World Series, losing to the Oakland Athletics in 1974, and to the Yankees in 1977 and 1978.

By 1981, Catfish was retired, and Reggie, for once, did not have a good October. The Dodgers finally got over the hump. After a Playoff near-miss in 1982, they essentially retooled for 1983, which is why I'm counting the (chronologically) next good Dodger team as a separate entry.

8. 1949-55 Los Angeles Rams. L.A.'s 1st real major league sports team needed a little time to get off the ground, but in their 4th season, 1949, they won the NFL West Division title, losing the NFL Championship Game to the Philadelphia Eagles. They lost the 1950 Championship Game to the Cleveland Browns, but beat the Browns in the 1951 Championship Game.

They lost a Divisional Playoff to the Detroit Lions in 1952, and lost the Championship Game to the Browns in 1955. After that, despite going 8-4 in 1958 and 8-6 in 1966, they didn't make the Playoffs again until 1967. They went 11-1-2 that year, but lost a Playoff game to the Green Bay Packers. They were Division Champions again in 1969.

7. 1960-74 Los Angeles Lakers. They made the Playoffs in each of their 1st 14 seasons as a Los Angeles team, but it was frustrating. They reached the NBA Finals in 1962, '63, '65, '66, '68, '69 and '70, but never won. Even the end of the Boston Celtic dynasty couldn't help them, as they lost to the Knicks in 1970.

After a Conference Final loss in 1971, they finally got it done in the 1971-72 season, winning 33 straight games, still a record for a North American major league sport, and stormed through the postseason, going 12-3, including avenging their defeat to the Knicks in a 5-game Finals.

The Knicks got them back the next year, though, and after 1 more good season, the retirement of Jerry West put them into a transition. The acquisition of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 helped, but they needed more. They would get it.

6. 2009-14 LA Galaxy. In 6 seasons, they won 3 MLS Cups (2011, '12 and '14), reached another Final (2009), won 2 Supporters' Shields for best overall regular-season record (2010 and '11), and won 1 other Western Conference regular-season title (2009).

This run of success gave them 5 MLS Cups, more than any other team. And those 5 titles are as many as the Dodgers have won since their move, as many as the Lakers have won since the Galaxy's founding in 1996, and as many as all other current L.A. area teams combined (Kings 2, Angels 1, Ducks 1, Rams 1 not counting their 1 in St. Louis, Clippers none, Chargers none).

Prior to The Trade, getting Wayne Gretzky in 1988, the Kings' best performances had been reaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs' round of 4, under whatever name, in 1969, and the round of 8 in 1968 (their 1st season), 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1982. In other words, they usually made the Playoffs, but didn't get very far.

5. 2007-13 Los Angeles Lakers. Finally, it was Kobe's team. But they didn't quite get it done in 2008, losing in the Finals to the Boston Celtics as in days of yore (1962, '63, '65, '66, '68, '69 and '84). Still, Kobe led them to back-to-back titles, making the final count Kobe 5, Shaq 4. Kobe followed with 2 more Division titles before he finally got old.

4. 2009-14 Los Angeles Kings. After 6 seasons (7 if you count the canceled 2004-05) of not making the Playoffs, they reached again in 2010. They lost in the 1st round that year and the next, but in 2012, they finally won the team's 1st Stanley Cup, in their 45th season (or 44th). Unfortunately for me, they beat my New Jersey Devils in the Finals, following some tactics that can only be described as cheating.

They lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Conference Finals in 2013, but reversed those in the 2014 Conference Finals, and then beat the New York Rangers to make it 2 Cups in 3 seasons. They've struggled since, winning only 1 Playoff game in the last 4 seasons, but I wouldn't put another Cup run past them just yet.

3. 1959-66 Los Angeles Dodgers. The Bums' 1st season in L.A., 1958, was a bad one, but it was a transition year, as some of the Brooklyn Boys of Summer finally lost their places, although Duke Snider and Gil Hodges hung on a little longer. But in 1959, they tied the Milwaukee Braves for the Pennant, won a Playoff, and then beat the Chicago White Sox for the 1st World Series ever won by a team west of St. Louis.

They weren't that close in 1960 or '61, and lost a Playoff to the San Francisco Giants in '62, shades of their New York loss of '51. But by then, Sandy Koufax had emerged as the best pitcher in baseball, and they won the Pennant going away in 1963, and swept the Yankees in the World Series. An injury to Koufax kept them from repeating in 1964, but they won it all again in 1965, and another Pennant in 1966. Then Koufax retired, and some other players fell victim to age and/or injury. By the time they got back to the postseason, it was a very different team. Still, this is the team that defines the Dodgers' West Coast experience.

2. 1999-2004 Los Angeles Lakers. The years of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant -- and, no matter how much it might burn Kobe up, it is in that order. Which, I suppose, makes the next great Laker team Wings to these Lakers' Beatles.

You can talk about how the referees gave the Lakers the Conference Finals against Portland in 2000 or Sacramento in 2002. But the Lakers did win 3 straight NBA Championships, including 2001, when they went 15-1, losing only once to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Finals. That was appropriate, since the previous best record in an NBA Playoffs was set by the Sixers in 1983, when they went 12-1, including a sweep of the Lakers in the Finals.

After a loss in he Conference Semifinals in 2003, the Lakers went for broke in 2003-04, adding future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton. It almost worked, but the Detroit Pistons beat them in the NBA Finals. The team was then broken up, until a team could be built around Kobe, not Shaq.

1. 1979-91 Los Angeles Lakers. Add Earvin "Magic" Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and... "Showtime!" 12 seasons, 12 Playoff berths, 10 Pacific Division titles, 10 Conference Finals, 9 Western Conference Championships, and 5 NBA Championships. This may have been the greatest team in NBA history, especially the 1985 and 1987 editions of the Lakers. Certainly, it was the greatest sports team that Southern California has ever had, and up there with the 1980s San Francisco 49ers as California's greatest.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Al Davis for Moving the Los Angeles Raiders Back to Oakland

December 23, 1994: The Los Angeles Raiders play what turns out to be their last home game before moving back to Oakland. They lose 19-9 to the Kansas City Chiefs in front of 64,130 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

So why, after only 13 seasons in L.A., did they go back to Oakland?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Al Davis for Moving the Los Angeles Raiders Back to Oakland

5. The Anaheim Rams. L.A.'s 1st major league sports team had already moved out of the Los Angeles Coliseum, down the freeway to Anaheim. And, at the same time, they wanted out of Southern California, too.

4. College Football. With USC  playing at the Coliseum, and UCLA playing at the Rose Bowl, L.A. already had 2 high-profile football teams. The Raiders were never more popular than either one.

3. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The reasons that the Rams left were still there when the Raiders moved into the Coliseum after 1 NFL-less season: The NFL team didn't own the stadium (the City did), USC always got first dibs (and still do), the location puts it on the edge of the South Central ghetto, transportation links weren't very good (they have since improved), and it's hard for even a great team to sell 93,000 seats.

Then there was the Northridge Earthquake of January 17, 1994. It damaged Anaheim Stadium, but it really caused problems for the Coliseum.

January 18, 1994

Al Davis knew he couldn't stay at the Coliseum, due to the stadium's age, condition, location, and lack of skyboxes. But he also knew that the only viable alternatives were Anaheim, which was a lousy stadium for football even with the additional seats; and the Rose Bowl, which is even older than the Coliseum (by 7 months) and didn't have luxury boxes, either. So he made his deal with Oakland.

2. They Never Fit In. True, the Raiders embraced their ghetto image (the Raider gear worn in umpteen rap videos of the 1980s and early 1990s is a big reason why they would have more black fans in L.A., at least until the Rams put together their next serious Super Bowl run), but they never really fit the L.A. image.

N.W.A.

Despite having Jim Plunkett, who's 3/4 Mexican-American, they never really caught on with Southern California's Hispanics. (Although they reached out to the Latino community when they went back to the Bay Area, and now their biggest fan base is Hispanic.) And white fans, scared off by the gangsta image, never really took to them.

In 1984, the season after winning Super Bowl XVIII -- still the only NFL Championship won by a Los Angeles team except for the 1951 Rams -- the Raiders averaged 64,065 fans per home game. Only once in 8 games did they come within 10,000 seats of a sellout. And in 4 of the 8, half their games, they didn't even top 50,000. The time of the year was no excuse: Only 1 of those games was in September, when the Dodgers and Angels were still playing. (The Dodgers were at home, not headed for the Playoffs, and they didn't quite get 25,000 fans, either. The Angels were in Chicago.)

Face it: Howie Long may have been tough, but he was a cultured white New Englander. Marcus Allen played in the Coliseum for USC, but he was from San Diego, and was more USC than South Central. Hollywood? Beverly Hills? Venice Beach? These were not Raider places, and weren't going to be. And despite the heavy metal aspect to their video answer to the Chicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle," it wasn't until after the classic lineup of Guns N' Roses broke up, by which point the Raiders were trying to get back to Oakland, that Axl Rose began wearing Raider jerseys onstage.

Did you think I was kidding?

1. Their Ancestral Home. The Raiders belonged in Oakland, the way they never did in L.A.

VERDICT: Not Guilty. Al never should've taken them out of Oakland. He never would've had to move them back in.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Al Davis for Moving the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles

December 23, 1994: The Los Angeles Raiders play what turns out to be their last home game before moving back to Oakland. They lose 19-9 to the Kansas City Chiefs in front of 64,130 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Over the off-season, they moved back to Oakland. They were only in L.A. for 13 seasons. So why did Al Davis move the Silver & Black out of Oakland in 1981 in the first place?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Al Davis for Moving the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles

5. The San Francisco 49ers. It's important to remember: When the Raiders made their move, the 49ers had just won their 1st Super Bowl. Davis may have seen a parallel with the Oakland A's never really taking the Bay Area away from the Giants despite winning, and saw the writing on the wall.

Today, even after the Raiders have been back in Oakland for 21 years, the 5 Super Bowl wins from the Niners' Candlestick period means that there is not a single County anywhere in the Bay Area where there are, by Facebook Likes, more Raider fans than 49er fans. Even in Alameda County, home to Oakland, there are more 49er fans.

You want to find a place where the Raiders are the most popular NFL team? Guess what: You have to go to Los Angeles, which they abandoned every bit as much as they did Oakland -- and would like to do again, even though the 49ers have since fallen, risen again, and fallen again.

Of course, the Rams have since moved back, but they're terrible, and haven't yet reclaimed the city from Duh Raiduhs.

Speaking of whom:

4. The Anaheim Rams. By moving out of the Los Angeles Coliseum, down the freeway to Anaheim Stadium, L.A.'s 1st major league sports team created something of a vacuum.

The Rams at Anaheim Stadium, 1985

3. Oakland. The city's glory days were over. Maybe Oakland was San Francisco's "Brooklyn," thus making the East Bay suburbs their "Long Island." But the Dodgers didn't move from Flatbush to Hempstead or Islip. They moved to a completely different market.

From the Golden State Warriors taking up permanent residence (or so it was thought) at the buildng now named the Oracle Arena on October 23, 1971 until the California Golden Seals' last regular-season NHL game on April 4, 1976, Oakland actually had teams in all 4 sports: The A's, the Raiders, the Warriors and the Seals. This in spite of never having had a population over 500,000. (It's about 420,000 now.) In 1972, '73 and '74, the A's won the World Series. In 1975, the Warriors won the NBA title. On January 9, 1977, the Raiders won Super Bowl XI.

But it was already falling apart. The Seals were bankrupt, their deal to get a new arena built in San Francisco had fallen apart, and they had moved to Cleveland. The Warriors had won the Pacific Division in 1976, but were already dropping off. And the coming of free agency and owner Charlie Finley's cheapness spelled the end of the A's dynasty. The Black Panthers were a spent force, and Oakland was still gripped by racism and poverty. The Raiders were the only thing about the city that was still cool.

Finley spent the late 1970s cutting costs and looking for a buyer to take the A's away. They were inches away from being moved to Denver for the 1978 season, before the deal fell apart. For 1979, they nearly moved to New Orleans. Finley made another attempt to sell them to Marvin Davis to be moved to Denver for 1980, before selling them to Walter Haas, who kept them in Oakland.

2. The Oakland Coliseum. In 1981, of the 28 teams then in the NFL, 17 shared a stadium with a professional baseball team. (Denver was in Triple-A. The other 16 were in the majors.) Of those 17, 11 had real grass fields. Oakland may have had the worst field of these.

In addition, the stadium didn't have luxury boxes. Davis wanted them, and the money they would generate. He also wanted more say in scheduling events, because the A's had first dibs -- even though the Raiders moved in first: September 18, 1966, as opposed to April 17, 1968.

The local government wasn't willing to do these things. And the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission had already sued the NFL over the loss of the Rams, even though the Rams had only gone 30 or so miles down the freeway. Davis and the LAMCC won the case, legally allowing the Raiders to move, despite a 22-0 vote of NFL owners to refuse to allow it.

It was only in 1994, when the local government had changed its mind, and was willing to make Raider-specific improvements to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum that the Raiders chose to move back. And those "improvements," including the outfield bleachers that were named Mount Davis in Al's dishonor, ruined the Coliseum's atmosphere.

But Mark Davis, Al's son and successor as Raiders owner, still doesn't like sharing the Oakland Coliseum. With the Toronto Argonauts having moved into BMO Field from the Rogers Centre, the Oakland Coliseum is now the only stadium in North America that is home to professional teams in both baseball and football.

And both the A's and the Raiders want out. Unless somebody in the Bay Area ponies up some money, the Raiders will leave for the 2nd time, though, this time, it will most likely be Las Vegas, rather than a return to Los Angeles.

1. L.A. It was still "the city of the future," as it was in 1946 when Dan Reeves (not the later Denver coach) moved the Cleveland Rams there, in 1957 when Walter O'Malley moved the Brooklyn Dodgers there, and in 1960 when Bob Short moved the Minneapolis Lakers there.

Los Angeles skyline, circa 1981

And the Dodgers and the Lakers were doing very well. In October 1981, during the Raiders' last season in Oakland, they won the World Series, capping off a run of 4 Pennants in 8 seasons. The Lakers had won the NBA Championship in 1980 and, by the time the Raiders played their 1st home game in L.A. on November 22, 1982 (delayed by the strike), had added another. Even the NHL's Kings were doing well.

L.A. was seen as the place to be. Al Davis thought it was the right place to show his "Commitment to Excellence." In just the 2nd season there, 1983, the Raiders were World Champions.

VERDICT: Guilty. Although Davis did take the L.A. market away from the Rams, and the legacy he laid down there remains in the way of the restored Rams and the Chargers (who also might move back, after leaving in 1960) becoming the city's favorite team, they still didn't become a part of the local culture the way they did in Oakland. They were still Oakland's team, and Davis realized that.

Until he no longer cared. And his son doesn't care now. He wants out. He'd prefer Las Vegas, but he'd settle for L.A.

He's learned nothing from this mistake by his father. And moving to Los Angeles was a mistake.

How Long It's Been: An NFL Game Was Played In Los Angeles

This Sunday, the restored Los Angeles Rams will host the Seattle Seahawks at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It will be their 1st game in the L.A. area since they moved to St. Louis after the 1994 season, having moved back after 21 seasons.

In their last game in the L.A. area, on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1994, they lost to the Washington Redskins, 24-21 at Anaheim Stadium, and finished 4-12. Only 25,705 came out, the smallest crowd in Rams' history, aside from their 1 home game during the "scab games" of the 1987 strike.

On the same day, the Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 19-9 at the Coliseum. Their attendance was much better: 64,130. They soon moved back to their original hometown, Oakland.

The last big crowd in L.A. football history was on November 13, when the Rams played the Raiders at Anaheim: 65,208. The Raiders won, 20-17. The L.A. edition of the Raiders finished 4-1 against the Rams.

Why did they move? Both teams were upset with their leases. There were also secondary excuses. The L.A. Coliseum was built in 1923, didn't have modern amenities, was damaged in the Northridge Earthquake at the beginning of 1994, and is on the edge of the South Central ghetto. Anaheim Stadium was a baseball stadium that had football bleachers added, and as a result wasn't really all that good for either sport. It's also 28 miles from downtown L.A., nearly 3 times as far as the Coliseum. And the only other stadiums in the L.A. area that were large enough were Dodger Stadium (designed for baseball, no pro football team has ever called it home) and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (a few months older than the Coliseum, and not really suitable for NFL games, which is why it hosted 5 Super Bowls, but none since 1993).

The Rams' last previous game at the Coliseum was on December 16, 1979, a 29-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints, in front of 53,879. They actually got to the Super Bowl, but, while their 9-7 record was good enough to win the NFC Western Division, it meant that they had to go on the road for their Playoff games. They went to Irving, Texas and beat the Dallas Cowboys, then to Tampa and beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ironically, they became the 1st team ever to have a Super Bowl "at home," as Super Bowl XIV was scheduled for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. But they lost it to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Both teams underachieved in Los Angeles. In 49 years, the Rams made the NFL or NFC Playoffs 21 times, but none in their last 5 seasons; won the NFL or NFC Western Division 14 times, but none in their last 9 seasons; reached the NFL Championship Game only 5 times (the last in Super Bowl XIV, in the 1979-80 season, their last at the Coliseum before moving to Anaheim), and won only 1 NFL Championship, in 1951. In 13 seasons in L.A., the Raiders made the Playoffs 7 times, won the AFC West 4 times, and reached Super Bowl XVIII, winning it.

But in nearly half a century, despite their huge population base, all the money in Southern California that could have been spent on the teams, all the media attention, and all the potential for success -- including having 2 teams for the last 13 seasons -- Los Angeles has only ever won the NFL Championship twice, in the 1951 and 1983 seasons. Just the 1 in the last 64 years (44 seasons). Judging by the 28-0 egg they laid against their restored arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, on their Monday Night Football-set return last night, the Rams aren't going to be adding another this season.

There hasn't been a regular-season National Football League game played in, or around, the City of Los Angeles since December 24, 1994. When they kick off on Sunday, it will have been 21 years, 8 months and 25 days. How long has that been?

*

Since the Rams and Raiders skedaddled, the Cleveland Browns have become the Baltimore Ravens and been replaced, the Houston Oilers have become the Tennessee Titans, the Houston Texans have been established to replace the Oilers, and the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars have also been established.

In other sports, the Montreal Expos have become the Washington Nationals, the Vancouver Grizzlies have been established and become the Memphis Grizzlies, the Charlotte Hornets have become the New Orleans Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans, the Charlotte Bobcats have been established and become the new Charlotte Hornets, the Seattle SuperSonics have become the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Quebec Nordiques have become the Colorado Avalanche, the Winnipeg Jets have become the Phoenix Coyotes and now the Arizona Coyotes, the Hartford Whalers have become the Carolina Hurricanes, the Atlanta Thrashers have been established and become the new Winnipeg Jets, and the Tampa Bay Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Raptors, Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets, and the as-yet-unnamed Las Vegas NHL team have been established.

The Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seattle Seahawks, the New Orleans Saints, the Colts since moving to Indianapolis, had never won a Super Bowl. The Rams had won an NFL Championship, but not in the Super Bowl era. The Buccaneers, the Oilers/Titans, the Browns/Ravens, the Panthers, the Seahawks, the Saints, the Colts since moving to Indy, the San Diego Chargers, the Atlanta Falcons, the Arizona Cardinals had never been in one. All those facts have since changed.

Only 9 NFL stadiums in use in 1994 are in use in 2016: The L.A. Coliseum, the Oakland Coliseum, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, New Era Field (then Rich Stadium) outside Buffalo, Hard Rock Stadium (then Joe Robbie Stadium) outside Miami, Qualcomm Stadium (then Jack Murphy Stadium) in San Diego, the Superdome in New Orleans, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Next year, when the Falcons move into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the number will drop to 8.

The defining players of my childhood were all gone, as Joe Montana had just played his last game. The current holder of the Heisman Trophy, Derrick Henry of the University of Alabama, now with the Tennessee Titans, was 5 months old.

The Rams' coach at the time was Chuck Knox. He was fired after the season, and, despite being a 3-time Coach of the Year, has never worked in the NFL again. He is still alive, at the age of 83.

Terry Collins was the manager of the Houston Astros. Alain Vigneault was an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators. Jack Capuano was an assistant coach with the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks. Todd Bowles was out of football, and looking for a coaching job, which he would get the next season. Joe Girardi was playing for the Colorado Rockies. Jeff Hornacek was playing for the Utah Jazz. Kenny Atkinson was playing pro basketball in Spain. John Hynes was playing hockey at Boston University. And Ben McAdoo was playing football in high school.

The Heavyweight Champion of the World was George Foreman. Yes, you read that right: Big George had recently regained the title at age 45. The defending World Champions in the Big Four sports were the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Rockets, the New York Rangers (ugh), and, because the 1994 postseason had been canceled, baseball's World Championship was still held by the team that won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays.

The World Cup had just been held in America. It has since been held in France, Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa and Brazil. The Olympics have since been held in America (twice), Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Canada, Britain, Russia and Brazil.

The President of the United States was Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton was the First Lady. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, their wives, and the widow of Lyndon Johnson were still alive. (The Carters and that set of Bushes still are.) George W. Bush had just been elected Governor of Texas. Barack Obama was a lawyer at a firm fighting for social justice -- yes, a "community organizer." Joe Biden was in the U.S. Senate. Tim Kaine had just been elected to the City Council in Richmond, Virginia. Mike Pence had just started a radio talk show, calling himself "Rush Limbaugh on decaf." The station was located in, oddly enough, Rushville, Indiana. Donald Trump was... probably screwing somebody over.

The Mayor of Los Angeles was Richard Riordan, the Governor of California was the newly re-elected Pete Wilson, New York Governor Mario Cuomo had just been defeated by George Pataki, the Mayor of the City of New York was Rudy Giuliani, and the Governor of New Jersey was Christine Todd Whitman.

Of the current holders of those offices: Eric Garcetti was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, while his father Gil was the District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles, overseeing, among other cases, the murder case against O.J. Simpson; Jerry Brown was between political jobs, and had just seen Wilson smear and defeat his sister Kathleen in the Governor's race; Andrew Cuomo was Assistant Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, and would become full Secretary in Bill Clinton's 2nd term; Bill de Blasio had just managed the re-election campaign of Congressman Charlie Rangel; and Chris Christie was a partner at a law firm in Cranford, New Jersey.

Only 4 Justices then on the Supreme Court are still on it today: Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the recently-appointed Stephen Breyer. Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. For all the good that did. The Pope was John Paul II. The monarch of Britain was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- and the Prime Minister was John Major, and of Canada Jean Chretien. Manchester United had won "The Double," taking both the Premier League and the FA Cup the previous spring, but would finish runners-up in each in the season now underway.

Novels of 1994 that became major motion pictures included Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, Disclosure by Michael Crichton, The Ice Storm by Rick Moody and The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. Elizabeth Wurtzel published the year's leading non-fiction book, Prozac Nation. None of the Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, Twilight or Hunger Games books had yet been published. Nor had anyone yet heard of Robert Langdon or Lisbeth Salander.

Major films out in December of 1994 included the aforementioned Disclosure, Cobb (with Tommy Lee Jones as Ty Cobb, not so much a film about baseball as one about an old man facing mortality and considering his reputation), Legends of the Fall (not about baseball, or football for that matter), Dumb and Dumber (also not about football), Nell, a version of Little Women starring Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon, a film version of the video game Street Fighter (starring Raúl Juliá as villain M. Bison in his final film), and, filmed in Princeton, New Jersey, I.Q. starring Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein.

Pierce Brosnan was filming his 1st outing as James Bond, Val Kilmer his only one as Batman, and Dean Cain new episodes of his Superman series. Sylvester McCoy was still the most recent Doctor Who. No one had yet heard of Ash Ketchum, Austin Powers, Carrie Bradshaw, Tony Soprano, Jed Bartlet, Master Chief, Jack Bauer, Omar LIttle, Rick Grimes, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael Bluth, Michael Scott, Don Draper, Walter White, Jax Teller, Richard Castle, Leslie Knope or Sarah Manning.

The Number 1 song in America was "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Ini Kamoze. TLC had recently released their landmark album CrazySexyCool. Michael Jackson and Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley were, as it turned out, right in the middle of their marriage, and in the middle of the first round of child abuse accusations against him.

The surviving members of the Beatles were working on the Beatles Anthology project. Bob Dylan was in the middle of a break in his "Never Ending Tour." Frank Sinatra had just released Duets II -- his 57th and final album -- and his health had begun to fail, leading to his last concert, on February 25, 1995, in his adopted hometown of Palm Springs, California.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.61 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 29 cents (but was about to go up to 32 cents), and a New York Subway ride $1.25. The average price of a gallon of gas $1.17, a cup of coffee $1.69, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $5.69, a movie ticket $4.06, a new car $17,803, and a new house $156,100. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the previous day at 3,383.43.

The 1st smartphone, the 1st bluetooth, and the 1st Nintendo PlayStation had all been introduced in 1994. And many people (myself included) heard the words "the Internet" for the 1st time. But tablet computers, Wikipedia, iPods, Skype, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, iPhones, Pinterest, Instagram, iPads and Vine were all still in the future. The original Sony PlayStation was the leading home video game system of the time. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra. 

Kanye West, Kourtney Kardashian and Pink were in high school. Kim Kardashian, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Jessica Alba, Natalie Portman, Chris Evans, Beyonce Knowles, Britney Spears, Kate Middleton, Hayley Atwell and Kirsten Dunst were in junior. (As Prince William would have been, had he not been a royal.) Matt Smith and Anne Hathaway were 12. Khloe Kardashian and Prince Harry were 10. Lady Gaga, Drake and Emilia Clarke were 8, and Kit Harington turned 8 just days later. Rob Kardashian and Kevin Jonas were 7. Rihanna and Emma Stone were 6. Daniel Radcliffe and Joe Jonas were 5. Emma Watson and Sarah Hyland were 4. The date of the last previous regular-season NFL games was the 3rd birthday of Louis Tomlinson. Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj were 2. Zayn Malik and Ariana Grande were a year and a half. Liam Payne and Niall Horan were 1. Harry Styles was 10 months old, Justin Bieber 9 months. Kendall Jenner, Sophie Turner, Abigail Breslin, Maisie Williams, Kylie Jenner, Ariel Winter, Rico Rodriguez and Nolan Gould weren't born yet.

In December 1994, the Australian government agreed to pay reparations to indigenous Australians who were displaced due to nuclear tests in the 1950s and '60s. The Mexican government devalued their peso, causing a financial crisis requiring that the U.S. government bail it out. The 1st version of Netscape Navigator was released. And Webster Hubbell pled guilty to counts of wire fraud and tax fraud, related to the Whitewater scandal.

Dean Rusk, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Yankee Monument Park honoree Allie Reynolds died. Jake T. Austin, and Raheem Sterling, and, on the very day in question, Colorado Rockies pitcher Miguel Castro were born.

December 24, 1994. The Los Angeles Rams lost to the Washington Redskins at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim), and the Los Angeles Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Now, this coming Sunday, nearly 22 years after it last happened, a regular-season National Football League game will be played in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as the Coliseum hosts the restored Los Angeles Rams against the Seattle Seahawks.

The last few years the 'Hawks have been championship contenders, while the Rams have struggled. We shall see if L.A. fans think regaining an NFL team was worth it.