In the 1970s and early 1980s, the former WFL franchise Memphis Southmen / Memphis Grizzlies sued the NFL in an attempt to be accepted as an expansion franchise.

The team became the fourth NBA franchise to relocate since 1985 ; the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento, the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis and the Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans.

There is also a Major League Soccer team called the Chicago Fire, and there are / were also NBA teams called the Memphis Grizzlies ( 2001 – present ) and Charlotte Hornets ( 1988 – 2002 ) ( although the nickname " Hornets " for minor league baseball teams in Charlotte long precedes the WFL entry, and the " Grizzlies " name for the Memphis NBA team was selected when the franchise was still in Vancouver ).

The team's majority owner is Michael Heisley, who controls a 95 % share of the franchise ; the remaining 5 % is controlled by several local owners, including AutoZone founder J. R. (" Pitt ") Hyde, his wife Barbara Hyde, equity manager Staley Cates, and former NBA player and University of Memphis point guard Elliot Perry.

Because they had lost money and had low attendance, the Memphis Mad Dogs were forced to fold after the 1995 season, marking the end of the franchise and the CFL's unfortunate three years south of the border.

In July, 1974, Wilson, along with Isaac Hayes, Al Wilson ( singer ), Mike Storen and others, bought the Memphis Tams franchise in the American Basketball Association.

The league changed and expanded to Memphis and Durham, and the Cardinals shifted their Triple-A affiliation to Memphis, Tennessee and the new Memphis Redbirds not-for-profit franchise.

The Memphis franchise of the former American Basketball Association had intended to move to Baltimore for what turned out to be that league's final season, 1975 – 76, but then folded without ever actually playing a game in Baltimore.

Prior to the 1975-76 season a group of Maryland businessmen bought the troubled Memphis franchise ( which the ABA league officers had taken over midway through the previous season ) for $ 1 million and relocated it to Baltimore.

In August, 1975, ABA Commissioner Dave DeBusschere suddenly awarded the franchise to another group in Memphis due to apparent financial problems involving the Baltimore owners.

Mike Storen left the team ; he later surfaced with the ABA's Memphis franchise.

The history of the Hooks ' franchise dates all the way back to 1968, when it got its start in the Texas League as the Memphis Blues.

The Tampa Bay Bandits ' majority owner were Canadian businessman John F. Bassett ( who was still in litigation against the NFL over his previous Memphis Southmen franchise from the World Football League in the mid-1970s ) and Miami attorney Steve Arky.

The Memphis Showboats were a franchise in the United States Football League.

Memphis businessman Logan Young was awarded an expansion franchise for Memphis in July 1983.

Rodgers and general manager Steve Erhart would later emerge with the Memphis Mad Dogs, a Canadian Football League franchise that played one season in 1995.

However, this attempt caused the city of Memphis to decide on expanding the stadium, in the hopes of luring an NFL franchise to the city.

At the time of his appointment, his destination Nashville had been evacuated by the Confederates after the fall of Ft. Donelson, and the government which he was displacing had fled to Memphis.

The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta.

On May 6, 1993 ( the day the murder victims were found ), Hutcheson took a polygraph exam by Detective Don Bray at the Marion Police Department to determine if she had stolen money from her West Memphis employer.

The High Priests of Memphis — where the king was crowned — were particularly important, as they were the highest religious authority of the time and had influence throughout the kingdom.

Hence, although the government of Egypt had been Greek-speaking ever since the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Memphis decree, like the two preceding decrees in the series, included texts in Egyptian to display its relevance to the general populace by way of the literate Egyptian priesthood.

The Teen Kings went to Memphis and although Orbison had grown weary of " Ooby Dooby ", Phillips wanted to cut the record again in a better studio.

In May 2011, it was reported that Crow and longtime acquaintance Doyle Bramhall II ( musician, Sheryl Crow touring band member, and " 100 Miles From Memphis " producer ) had begun dating.

Director William Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle ( 1944 ) and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered.

There were headquarters of imperial administration at Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon while Bactria, Ecbatana, Sardis, Dascyclium and Memphis also had branches of imperial administration.

Memphis had a population of 646, 889 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee, the third largest in the Southeastern United States, and the 20th largest in the United States.

The greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, had a 2010 population of 1, 316, 100.

Beale Street is a national historical landmark, and shows the impact Memphis has had on American blues, particularly after World War II as electric guitars took precedence.

In 2006, the Memphis metropolitan area ranked number one in violent crimes for major cities around the U. S according to the FBI's annual crime rankings, whereas it had ranked second in 2005.

By the early 20th century, Memphis had two major passenger railroad stations.

Memphis International is also a secondary hub of Delta Air Lines and had 4, 930, 000 boarding passengers in 2010.

However, in 2009, an NCAA investigation revealed that Derrick Rose's SAT scores had been invalidated, making him retroactively ineligible to play for Memphis.

The well known Memphis jug bands were small street groups, performing generally on Beale Street, and had their own blues style, using guitar, harmonica, banjo and a jug to accompany their blues and dance songs.

Most notably, Bassett's Toronto Northmen were forced to find a new home after the Canadian government threatened to ban any American football team from competing with the Canadian Football League ( despite the fact that the Toronto Rifles of the Continental Football League had played in Toronto just seven years prior ); though the Canadian Football Act never passed, the mere threat of it prompted Bassett to move the team to Memphis, where they became the Memphis Southmen, but were generally referred to by fans, local media, and even some official team materials as the " Grizzlies ".

Memphis had secured three top-line, but fading Dolphins stars in Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield.

Memphis head coach John McVay went on to become head coach of the New York Giants, but had more success as general manager of the San Francisco 49ers during the 1980s dynasty years.

* Memphis Southmen ( had started out as the Toronto Northmen, but moved to Memphis, Tennessee before the start of the season ) 1974 – 1975 / Memphis Grizzlies 1975 (" official " team change name to Grizzlies after league folded in attempt to join the NFL ).

Flutie struggled at times but played well overall until he suffered a broken collarbone against the Memphis Showboats in the season's 15th game and did not play again.

After Memphis, Shaughnessy struggled with back injuries for the duration of the spring, not reaching another semifinal until June at a grass tournament in's-Hertogenbosch.

Named after her grandfather Cy and her father Bill, Shepherd won the 1966 " Miss Teenage Memphis " contest at age 16, and the 1968 " Model of the Year " contest at age 18, making her a fashion star of the 1960s, resulting in fashion modeling work through high school and after.

The future Interstate 69 from northeast to southwest will pass through Memphis when it is completed, linking Brownsville, Texas to the already-existing portion that runs from Indianapolis, Indiana to Port Huron, Michigan.

The segment of the I-69 Corridor running through the Memphis area is scheduled for completion in 2012.

A large volume of railroad freight moves through Memphis, because of its two heavy-duty Mississippi River railroad crossings, which carry several major east-west railroad freight lines, and also because of the major north-south railroad lines through Memphis which connect with such major cities as Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, Mobile, and Birmingham.

After passenger railroad service declined heavily through the middle of the 20th century, the Memphis Union Station was demolished in 1969.

He arrived in Memphis in the second week of November with a much-diminished company, and ferried over the Mississippi River the next day and continued his journey on horseback through Arkansas.

Over the next three seasons, he advanced through the Astros ' farm system, playing with the single-A Dubuque Packers in, then splitting the season between the double-A Columbus Astros and the triple-A Memphis Blues in, and finally with the triple-A Charleston Charlies in.

The interstate continues east through Lonoke, Brinkley, and West Memphis on the eastern side.

The interstate goes through all of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee and its three largest cities, Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville.

The section of Interstate 40 which runs between Memphis and Nashville is often referred to as the Music Highway During reconstruction, a long section of I-40 through downtown Knoxville near the central Malfunction Junction was completely closed to traffic from May 1, 2008 and not reopened until June 12, 2009 with all traffic redirected via Interstate 640, the northern bypass route.

Travelling through Memphis with his family in 1939 on the way to see a preacher in Dallas, he slipped off to look at Beale Street, at the time the heart of the city's music scene.

The first rail service in Tipton County was established in December 1855, when the Memphis and Ohio Railroad completed the route from Memphis to Nashville, running through what is now Mason.

In July of 1917, A mass meeting was held in the Alamo Theatre in Dickson to raise $ 760 to pay for the surveying of the Bristol to Memphis Highway through Dickson County.

The Atlantic & Pacific ( Frisco ) Railroad was built through Marshfield in 1872, and by 1883 the Kansas City, Springfield, and Memphis ( Frisco ) crossed the county.

The route leaves Gratiot and goes northwest through Richmond and then north through Memphis.

Some scholars suggest that Egypt most likely became unified through mutual need, developing cultural ties and trading partnerships, although that the first capital of united Egypt was the city of Memphis is undisputed.

It has also been demonstrated through the Great Harris Papyrus, which states that a statue of the goddess was made alongside those of Ptah and their son, the god Nefertem, during the reign of Rameses III, and that it was commissioned for the gods of Memphis at the heart of the great temple.

* Jean-François Champollion, in his trip to Egypt from 1828 to 1830 through Memphis, described the giant discovered by Caviglia and Sloane, made a few digs at the site and decrypted many of the epigraphic remains.

The Memphis International Airport is nearby and provides commercial aviation through numerous carriers and is the international cargo hub for FedEx.

With the advent of the U. S. Highway System in the 1920s and 30s, U. S. Route 64 was built west from Memphis, through Wynne, and to points west.