HISTORY OF THE LOS ANGELES HEAT FOOTBALL TEAM

On April 29, 1992, Los Angeles was rocked by the largest civil disturbance in American history. Firefighters fought an exhausting battle to save a burning city. When the smoke cleared, it became obvious to many that a new thinking would be required if the problems plaguing the communities were ever to be resolved.

In May of 1992, Los Angeles City Firefighter Ron Harmon founded the Los Angeles Football, Inc. , a non-profit organization composed of Los Angeles city and county firefighters. Harmon met with Los Angeles Police Officer Tom Hazelton and agreed to put a game together between the LAPD Centurians and the not-yet- formed L.A. HEAT . The LAPD played the role of the lead agency of setting up the game.

During the late 80's a group of firefighters from the Los Angeles , Orange County and South Bay area played a one game season for a designated charity with the South Bay Police Department. The Los Angeles HEAT team was formed utilizing only L.A. City firefighters and L.A. County firefighters for the team. Harmon selected the “Children of The Night” as the Los Angeles Heats' designated charity.

A bit of history had preceded the first Los Angeles HEAT game with the LAPD Centurians. Approximately 30 years prior there had been a tackle football game between a Los Angeles City Fire Department team and a Los Angeles City Police team. In 1927 in front of 80,000 fans, the L.A. City Fire Department football team defeated the Los Angeles Police Officers 20-0.

In 1993, the newly formed Los Angeles HEAT football team played its first game and gained their first victory against the Corona Regional Correction officers on January 30th. The second game of the season was played against a group of Los Angeles Cleveland High School All-Stars that had gone on to play Division 1 football and some to the NFL. The Heat prevailed 14-7 in that game. The third game of the season was against the LAPD Centurians at El Camino Junior College before a near capacity crowd of 20,000 screaming supporters for both teams. Fire Chiefs from the L.A. City Fire Department, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the L.A.P.D Police Chief, Los Angeles City Mayor and many L.A. City Council members were in attendance at this inaugural game throwing their support behind the Los Angeles teams. The HEAT team was playing against the defending 5-time National Police Champion Centurians, undefeated for 5 years, and shocked the Centurians with a 20-0 shutout duplicating the score of some 30 years earlier. The HEAT finished the 1993 three game football season undefeated and as the mythical “1993 National Public Safety Champions”. Armando Hogan, a Los Angeles City Fire Inspector, was the first Head Coach of the Los Angeles HEAT in 1993 .