The Miami Seahawks were a professional American football team based in Miami, Florida. They played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in the league's inaugural season, 1946, before the team was relocated to Baltimore. They are notable as the first major league sports franchise in Miami. The Seahawks were coached initially by Jack Meagher and then by Hamp Pool. The team faced a difficult schedule filled with many early road games, and finished the 14-game regular season at 3-11, last in the AAFC. The franchise, which by that time had accrued $350,000 in debt, was seized by the AAFC after the end of the season after its owner was declared bankrupt, and its assets were purchased by a group of entrepreneurs who reorganized it as the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts. Florida did not have another professional football team for 20 years, until the (fourth) American Football League (founded in 1960) added the Miami Dolphins in 1966, while the Seahawks nickname would be revived when the National Football League added the Seattle Seahawks in 1976. History The Miami Seahawks were the last of the AAFC's charter teams to be established: originally, there was a Baltimore franchise which was to have been owned by retired boxer Gene Tunney, but Tunney's bid fell through as he was unable to secure a deal to use city-owned Municipal Stadium on 33rd Street, built in 1922 in the former Venable Park of northeast Baltimore (site of the future Memorial Stadium, rebuilt 1950–1954). A group of Miami football boosters, led by Harvey Hester, seized on the chance to bring a major league team to their city. The AAFC, needing an eighth team to avoid byes in the schedule, readily granted Hester a franchise: the Seahawks thus became the first major league sports team to be based in Miami. Home games were played at Burdine Stadium, later called the Miami Orange Bowl. The Seahawks stood out from the other AAFC franchises in three major ways: Firstly, Miami was by far the smallest market in the AAFC, with roughly half the population of most other metropolitan areas with professional football teams: in fact, it was the second smallest city in the NFL and AAFC, ahead of only Green Bay. Secondly, although Miami was beginning a period of growth that continues today, it was only the 42nd-largest city in the United States at the time, while the other