The Mad Dogs hired Pepper Rodgers, a Memphis native, as their first head coach. Rodgers was familiar to Memphis pro football fans as he was the head coach of one of the city's previous pro football team, the Memphis Showboats of the USFL; the Mad Dogs had also hired Steve Erhart, the Showboats' general manager, in the same capacity. The team's mascot was a black Labrador retriever named Alien, who was known for charging the field and retrieving the kicking tee following each kickoff.