NEW YORK -- They had no equipment, no field and no uniforms. Nothing more than a passion for the game.

That was good enough for ex-NFL wide receiver Duke Fergerson, who took a bunch of kids from Harlem and turned them into a football team.

Most kids in that neighborhood dream about basketball, about LeBron and Carmelo or the Answer and Shaq. Fergerson found the others, kids who loved football and, once they outgrew Pop Warner Leagues, had no place to play.

Harlem has no high school football. What it has are Fergerson's kids, the Harlem Hellfighters, a team of community kids who believe punts and passes are just as important as dribbling and dunking.

Fergerson watched them play for a while and started helping out when their coaches drifted off into other activities.

"One day became one week and one week became one month and one month became one season," he said. "By proxy, I became the guy running the team."

It was a major challenge. There was no discipline. Parents were accustomed to telling coaches what play to run. Kids were mouthing off to officials.

"They were willing themselves to lose," Fergerson said. "Cultural habits held them back. It had nothing to do with anything else. You're dealing with kids who are used to freeform, freestyle, ghetto activities. It took time to adjust to a different culture. I had to be a drill sergeant."

Armed with a $10,000 grant from the NFL Youth Football Fund, and booking games against schools that had open dates, Fergerson assembled a team. They adopted the nickname of the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-black unit that fought in World War I.

"We lost our practice field a couple of days before the first game and practiced on concrete," Fergerson said, "We didn't get uniforms until a day before the game."

Then there was the matter of kids qualifying to play. No grades. No games. That is Fergerson's policy. It cost the Hellfighters a fistful of players but established important guidelines.

Now they march into the suburbs to play in leafy places like Garden City, N.Y., New Hyde Park, N.Y. and, on Saturday, New Canaan, Conn., piling on a rented bus for the trip.

"One place we went, somebody said 'That's a nice bus,'" Fergerson said. "I thought, 'Yeah, we left the one with the bullet holes and graffiti back home.'

"We go to these places because we felt this was what our kids need to see, how towns organize behind their teams. It's a culture shock for a lot of kids to see how some people live."

The Hellfighters are learning. They will remember their first win and they will remember their first TD, scored on a double-tipped ball in a game they lost 34-6. And they will remember a 62-0 thumping absorbed in one game. "We'll play that team again next year," Fergerson said.

The goal is to get scholarships for at least some of the kids. Fergerson thinks he's has a couple with the potential to play college football. Meanwhile, there remains work to be done.

Next season, the Hellfighters will be included on New York City's Public School Athletic League schedule, a full eight games in places they have only dreamed about, playing a game they never thought they would.