 In 1971, the Trans-American Football League took the unusual step of becoming the first football league to schedule and play all of its games in the spring rather than the autumn, a move that attracted the attention of "Sports Illustrated" pro football columnist Tex Maule.The 1971 TAFL season ran from April 25 to June 26 
.Although Maule commented that the Trans-American league's four teams' Fort Worth to San Antonio lineup "barely makes it Trans-Texas", he also noted that "This is the first bona fide attempt to play spring football," a gimmick that the United States Football League did on a larger scale eleven years later.