History of the Arena Football League in Dallas

The Dallas Texans competed in the now-defunct Arena Football League from 1990–1993, after which the AFL team was the Dallas Desperados from 2002–2008. In 2010, the Dallas Vigilantes began playing in the American Airlines Center as a part of the restructured Arena Football League.

Dallas Texans (1990–93)

In 1990, owner H. Lanier Richey brought the Arena Football League to the state of Texas for the first time.[1] Richey named former Pittsburgh Steeler, Ernie Stautner as the Texans' first coach in franchise history.[2] The Texans made a noise in May, when they traded 4 players to the Albany Firebirds, for former MVP Ben Bennett and former Ironman of the Year, Carl Aikens, Jr..[3] Stautner lead the Texans to a 6-2 regular season record, and was named the AFL's Coach of the Year.[4] The Texans made the ArenaBowl their first season of existence, falling to the Detroit Drive 51-27.[5]

In 1991, the Texans had to replace head coach Stautner (who had left for a job with the Denver Broncos), and did so by signing former Cowboys legend, Drew Pearson.[6] Before the season began, the Texans traded Bennett to the Orlando Predators, after Bennett stated his displeasure with the Texans.[7] The team replaced Bennett with former NFL running back, Alfred Jenkins. The Texans started off in the middle of the pack going 3-2 through the first 5 games, before finishing the season 1-4 in the final 5 games. Their 4-6 record was not enough to qualify for the playoffs.

On February 21, 1992, Richey sold the franchise to Kent Kramer and Greg Gibson.[8] Kramer replaced Pearson at head coach with Texas Tech assistant coach, John Paul Young. The Texans finished the season 5-5, winning the Western Division, but due to Kramer not anticipating a playoff home game, the Texans did not have the money in their budget to host a game and were forced to travel.[9] The Texans traveled to Albany, New York to play the Firebirds, where they earned a 48-45 victory to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs.[10] The Texans would lose the following week to the eventual champion, the Detroit Drive.

In 1993, Young left the Texans to take a job as the linebackers coach with the Denver Broncos.[11] Kramer hired former Drive and Firebirds assistant, Jerry Trice to be the team's new head coach.[12] The Texans finished the season a disappointing 3-9, but still qualified for the playoffs, losing in the first round. In October, the Texans were dropped from the AFL due to being unable to meetin financial requirements.

Fort Worth Cavalry (1994)

In December 1993, the Arena Football League announced that Fort Worth would join the league as one of three expansion teams for 1994. The Fort Worth Cavalry franchise was owned by businessman and minor-league baseball team owner Peter "Woody" Kern. He folded the team after the 1994 season due to attendance and revenue problems then, in 1995, sold the franchise to concert promoter Doug Logan and purchased a majority stake in the rival Tampa Bay Storm.

The team struggled to find buyers for season tickets. In addition to ongoing season-ticket sales, the club began selling single-game tickets for the 1994 season on May 2, 1994.

To drum up regional interest in the team and the sport, the Cavalry's first pre-season game was played at the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City. The game was one of four exhibition games played by AFL teams in non-AFL cities in 1994. Halftime festivities included a tribute to longtime Oklahoma Sooners football coach Barry Switzer, then recently named as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

The Cavalry played their regular season home games at the Tarrant County Convention Center. All but the final home game were played on Monday nights due to other events tying up more lucrative weekend dates. They ended the season with the lowest home attendance of any AFL team in 1994. On the field, however, they were somewhat successful, advancing to the playoffs after finishing one game under .500 in the regular season. They lost to the Orlando Predators in the first round of the playoffs and were disbanded shortly thereafter.

Dallas Desperados (2002–08)

During a halftime interview at a Cowboys preseason game on August 12, 2000, Jerry Jones revealed to Babe Laufenberg that the AFL had granted him an expansion franchise to begin play in 2001.[13] On November 14, 2001, Dallas officially joined the AFL.[14] The team was originally going to be named the "Dallas Texans", following in the footsteps of Dallas’ former AFL franchise which existed from 1990–1993. However, that same year he sold the rights to the name "Texans" for a reported $10 million to the new Houston franchise. After a contest in which fans voted via the team’s official website, the new Dallas team was eventually named the Desperados. Jones appointed Cowboys special teams coach Joe Avezzano as head coach, and on November 21, 2001 in the AFL expansion draft, they acquired their first player, lineman Aaron Hamilton.

Avezzano, along with starting quarterback Andy Kelly, led the team to a respectable 7–7 record and a playoff appearance in the team's first season of play, and a 10–6 record and a second consecutive playoff berth in 2003 under new quarterback Jim Kubiak. However, Avezzano was fired from the Cowboys staff that season, and subsequently resigned as Desperados head coach when he accepted a job with the Oakland Raiders.

Before the 2004 season, Jones hired Will McClay to replace Avezzano, and McClay struggled to a 6–10 record his rookie season as coach. The team improved to 8–7–1 the following season and barely missed making the playoffs, and under the helm of quarterback/offensive coordinator Clint Dolezel, posted a 13–3 record in 2006 and made their first appearance in an AFL conference championship game, losing to the Orlando Predators. The following season saw the Desperados post an AFL record fifteen wins and the team appeared destined to make their first ArenaBowl appearance, but they were shocked by the Columbus Destroyers, who had entered the playoffs with a 7–9 record, in the first round. The upset is ranked by many among the greatest of all time. The following season saw no relief to the postseason failure as the Desperados at 12–4 lost to the 8–8 New York Dragons in Dallas. After the New Orleans VooDoo folded, the league placed the Desperados in the South Division after the team had spent five seasons as an Eastern Division powerhouse.

With the exception of one playoff game and the entirety of the 2003 season, the Desperados played all of their home games at American Airlines Center. The team’s official mascot was Kid Coyote.[15]

Dallas Vigilantes (2010–11)

The Vigilantes did not carry on the name of Dallas' previous AFL team, the Dallas Desperados, because of a unique ownership situation with the former team. Although the new AFL owns the former AFL team assets (hence the Arizona Rattlers, Chicago Rush, Cleveland Gladiators, Orlando Predators, Tampa Bay Storm, and Utah Blaze names going over to the new AF1), former Desperados owner Jerry Jones (who also owns the NFL's Dallas Cowboys) retained the team's branding rights after it folded. Jones had based most of the Desperados branding on that of the Cowboys, including the colors, prominent use of a star in the logo, and a Cowboys "Double Star" logo on the front of the Desperados' jerseys, thus making the Cowboys and Desperados branding very difficult to separate. Not willing to risk such complicated legal action, and apparently unwilling to revive the Fort Worth Cavalry (another former AFL team that played in the region that coincidentally was owned by Kern), the Vigilantes chose a new name. The Vigilantes' original logo incorporated a skull and crossbones, the flag of Texas, a cowboy hat, and revolvers. The logo was stripped down for 2011, consisting of the skull and the cowboy hat from the original logo.

The Vigilantes were left off the schedule for the 2012 season without any announcement of either the team's suspension or cessation of operations, but have never been involved in any aspect of the Arena Football League subsequently and are considered to be defunct.

References
  1. "H. Lanier Richey". www.typerpaper.com. TylerPaper.com/Tyler Morning Telegraph. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  2. David Fink (June 15, 1990). "Stautner enters brand new arena". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  3. Tom Boggie (June 21, 1990). "Preseason Deal Could Come Back to Haunt Firebirds". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  4. "Stautner Arena Coach of Year". The Victoria Advocate. August 11, 1990. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  5. "Schlichter drives Detroit to another Arena football title". The Argus-Press. August 13, 1990. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  6. "Drew Pearson replaces Stautner". The Vindicator. March 7, 1991. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  7. "Transactions". Eugene Register-Guard. July 4, 1991. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  8. "Transactions". www.nytimes.com. The New York Times Company. February 21, 1992. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  9. Tom Boggie (August 6, 1992). "Texans' coach remains unhappy about shifting game to Knick Arena". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  10. Tome Boggie (August 9, 1992). "Botched conversions by Firebirds were the difference in game". Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  11. "Sports Digest". The Spokesman-Review. February 4, 1993. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  12. "Texans, new coach Trice kick off Arena League season". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. May 15, 1993. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  13. "Dallas awarded Arena Football team". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. August 19, 2000. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  14. "Dallas joins AFL family". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. November 14, 2001. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  15. "Kid Coyote". Dallas Desperados. Archived from the original on July 1, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.