Panthers had deep roots in start-up league

“The success we had there really allowed me to gain a foothold in the NFL,” Capers said. “When we went to New Orleans, we had a great first draft, but I think we took about 14 USFL players with us, and it was like having two or three drafts at once. Having that kind of familiarity allowed us to have success pretty quickly.”

The Saints hadn’t had a winning season in 19 years as a franchise before Mills and Capers and the rest of the USFL refugees arrived. They quickly built one of the NFL’s top defenses and earned the first playoff berth in franchise history.

Capers parlayed that job into a defensive coordinator role with the Steelers in 1992, and the Panthers hired him to lead their expansion team in 1995, along with Polian as general manager, Fangio as defensive coordinator, and former USFL Pittsburgh Maulers head coach Joe Pendry as offensive coordinator.

In hopes of fielding a competitive team quickly, they loaded up on veterans, beginning with Mills, and established a culture here quickly.

Of course, those first years weren’t without their challenges, but Capers said his experiences in the USFL helped with that as well.

Even though the Stars were the USFL’s top team, they weren’t immune to the start-up league’s ever-shifting tides. They moved (sort of) to Baltimore in 1995, so they were evicted from Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium as part of a lawsuit. The Stars spent the week working out at the University of Pennsylvania, and would bus to Baltimore on the weekends to play home games.

Those memories stayed in Capers’ mind when he was leading the expansion team in Charlotte. There might have been some business offices downtown near what would become the site of Bank of America Stadium, but the football took place at the Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill (a college without a football team and the normal array of facilities), and games in 1995 were played in Clemson’s Memorial Stadium. That meant a lot of long bus rides and takeout, while trying to work in a little football on the side.

So when Capers was drawing up his detailed plans for moving his Panthers team from place to place — and doing so successfully — there were frequent flashbacks to the USFL.

“With everything we went through in 1985, I at least knew how to make a schedule,” Capers said with a laugh. “In 1995, our players would joke that the only difference between a road game against the 49ers and a home game was a couple of hot meals and flight attendants, because it took the same four hours to get there.”