The Monarchs didn’t have it much easier, bunking on the campus of a once-masonic boys school known for serving as a popular filming location for British murder mysteries. Rosters, however, had more global flair thanks to the World League’s talent search program, Operation Discovery, which mandated that each team field four players from a pool of 40-plus soccer players, ruggers, sprinters, boxers, wrestlers, javelin throwers and other world-class athletes who had pivoted to semipro American football abroad. The sidelines, however, were stuffed with what SI described as coaching “retreads”-Frankfurt’s Jack Elway, father of John Barcelona’s Jack Bicknell, late of Boston College and London’s Larry Kennan, who was coming off a stint as the Colts’ offensive coordinator-a side effect of the WLAF’s difficulties luring young talent from the NFL ranks. “I remember Mike Lynn giving me this whole sell job, that we were going to spread American football around the globe and be huge,” says Brandt, now a sports law professor at Villanova (and regular SI contributor). Behind the scenes, front offices soon filled up with rising industry stars: former NFL quarterback Oliver Luck, 30, the Galaxy general manager Michael Huyghue, 29, credited as pro football’s first Black GM in Birmingham and Brandt, 32, then working as a player agent.
