New Orleans Breakers Flashback: Mark Schellen

The New Orleans Breakers were a United States Football League franchise that played in the Louisiana Superdome for one season, in 1984.

The Breakers began their USFL tenure in Boston, in 1983, but a stadium issue forced a move, allowing New Orleans real estate developer Joe Canizaro to buy the team, and move it to New Orleans for the 1984 season.

In 1984, the Breakers began the season 5-0, but went 3-10 the rest of the way, and missed the USFL playoffs.

New Orleans supported the team well, with the Breakers averaging 30,557 per game, but the USFL opted to move their schedule from the spring to the fall in 1986, and with the Saints in town, the franchise elected to move to Portland for the 1985 season.

All summer long, we’re looking back at former players for the New Orleans Breakers.

Today, fullback Mark Schellen.

A native of Waterloo, Nebraska, Schellen went on to play his college football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, where he rushed for 584 yards and two touchdowns, over his two years, from 1982-1983.

The 5-foot-10, 220-pound Schellen was part of the Nebraska team that won the national championship in 1983, and he also shared the same backfield as Mike Rozier, the 1983 Heisman Trophy winner.

In his one year of professional football, with the New Breakers in 1984, Schellen rushed for 392 yards and four touchdowns on 99 carries, while catching another 22 passes for 122 yards.

Schellen was a great blocker for a talented New Orleans backfield, which included Marcus Dupree and Buford Jordan.

Below, watch Schellen, wearing number 25, make a great block against Oklahoma, spring Rozier free for a 63-yard touchdown run back in 1983:

Below, watch Schellen and the Breakers take on the Chicago Blitz in week 5 of the 1984 USFL season: