City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Spectator Sports

Telephone: (770) 965-3115

Address: 4400 Falcon Pkwy.

Description: The high point in the history of the Atlanta Falcons, a team long known for coming up short, came in January 1999, when they won the National Football Conference championship and a trip to their first Super Bowl. Despite an extraordinary season under Coach Dan Reeves, there were plenty of disbelieving fans. But folks around Georgia started doing the “Dirty Bird,” an end-zone celebration dance, and the newly christened Dirty Birds displaced the Braves for a time as the city’s sports darlings. It didn’t matter that the Falcons lost to the Denver Broncos and John Elway in the big game; just getting there was a joy. Atlanta businessman Rankin Smith was awarded the NFL’s 15th franchise in 1965, culminating a long effort to bring big-league sports to Georgia. That fall and winter, fans bought season tickets in record numbers, and the Falcons drafted their first player, Texas All-America linebacker Tommy Nobis. “Falcons” was a popular suggestion for the team name, for reasons best expressed by Griffin, Georgia, schoolteacher Julia Elliot: “The falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.” The fans suffered through a lot of dismal teams and had their hopes shattered in the playoffs when their better teams reached for the top prize. The expansion Falcons played their first game to a sold-out stadium of 54,418 fans in the new Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium on September 11, 1966. Following nine regular-season losses and two wins on the road, the Falcons sealed their first home victory on December 11, 1966, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 16–10. Nobis became the first Falcon named to the All-Pro team in 1967. The team’s first winning season came in 1971 (7–6–1) under coach Norm Van Brocklin. They made the playoffs three times from 1978 to 1982 with coach Leeman Bennett. In December 1980, the team earned its first NFC Western Division title. In the playoffs, victory seemed certain as Atlanta led 24–10 going into the fourth quarter—then 60,022 fans (a record) watched in shock as the Cowboys rallied to score 20 points. The final: Dallas 30, Atlanta 27. The Falcons changed their team colors in 1990, adopting the black uniforms they wear today. In 1991 the Falcons played their last season in Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium and moved to the new Georgia Dome, where they play their games indoors. The Falcons made the NFL playoffs in both 1991 and 1995, and in 1997 named Dan Reeves, a native Georgian, as head coach. Reeves is the NFL’s winningest active coach. Within the decade, the Falcons vaulted to their best season in franchise history. Led by record-breaking running back Jamal Anderson, quarterback Chris Chandler, receiver Terrance Mathis, and defensive back Eugene Robinson, the team posted its best record, 14–2, and defeated the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in Minnesota for the NFC championship. Perhaps tainted by a cloud of pregame off-the-field problems, the Falcons fell to the Broncos in the Super Bowl in Miami. In 1991, Falcon Deion Sanders signed to play with the Braves, becoming the first player in 30 years to play two pro sports in the same city. Other notable players to wear Falcons colors have been quarterback Steve Bartkowski, running back Gerald Riggs, center Jeff Van Note, and receiver Billy “White Shoes” Johnson. After holding training camps in a variety of locations around the South, the Falcons built a camp northeast of Atlanta off I-85 in Suwanee in April 1978. The Falcons moved to their current year-round training camp in Flowery Branch in 2000, but continue to do most of their preseason summer practice at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. In late 2001, word leaked out that Arthur M. Blank, the cofounder and retired cochairman of Atlanta-based Home Depot, was seeking to purchase the Falcons. This was confirmed by the league and approved by the owners association in February 2002. For the first time in the team’s 36-year history, someone from outside the Smith family owned the Falcons. Perhaps the darkest time in Falcons history came in 2007 when their star quarterback, Michael Vick, was busted for charges related to a dog fighting ring and suspended from playing. (He eventually served time in jail.) Just five months later and only 13 games into his first NFL season as coach, Bobby Petrino resigned, then accepted an offer to take over as the head coach at the University of Arkansas. Secondary coach Emmitt Thomas finished out the season.The 2008 season saw a new coach, Mike Smith, as well as a new general manager, Thomas Dimitroff. That year the Falcons clinched a wild card spot to go to the playoffs, only to fall prey to the Arizona Cardinals.