1987 Arena Football League Media Guide

Arena Football League (1987-2019)

Tombstone

Formed: 1987
Folded: 
November 27, 2019

First Game: June 19, 1987
Final Game: August 11, 2019

Seasons: 32
States & Provinces: 30 plus District of Columbia
(AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OK, Ontario, OR, PA, TN, TX, UT, WA, WI)

Leadership

Commissioner:

  • June 1994 – : James Drucker
  • November 1996 – July 2008: C. David Baker

Attendance

Trophy Case

Arena Football League Most Valuable Player*

YEARPLAYERPOSITIONTEAM
1987Russell HairstonWide Receiver/Defensive BackPittsburgh Gladiators
1988Ben BennettQuarterbackChicago Bruisers
1989George LaFranceOffensive SpecialistDetroit Drive
1990Art SchlichterQuarterbackDetroit Drive
1991George LaFranceOffensive SpecialistDetroit Drive
1992Jay GrudenQuarterbackTampa Bay Storm
1993Hunkie CooperOffensive SpecialistArizona Rattlers
1994Eddie BrownOffensive SpecialistAlbany Firebirds
1995Barry WagnerWide Receiver/Defensive BackOrlando Predators
2011Nick DavilaQuarterbackArizona Rattlers
2012Tommy GradyQuarterbackUtah Blaze
2013Erik MeyerQuarterbackSpokane Shock
2014Nick DavilaQuarterbackArizona Rattlers
2015Dan RaudabaughQuarterbackPhiladelphia Soul
2016Nick DavilaQuarterbackArizona Rattlers
2017Randy HippeardQuarterbackTampa Bay Storm
2018Tommy GradyQuarterbackAlbany Empire
2019Tommy GradyQuarterbackAlbany Empire
*No MVP Award was given from 1996 through 2010. The league instead awarded an Offensive Player of the Year Award during these seasons.

 

Arena Football League Defensive Player of the Year

YEARPLAYERPOSITIONTEAM
1996David McLeodWide Receiver/Defensive BackAlbany Firebirds
1997Tracey PerkinsDefensive SpecialistTampa Bay Storm
1998Johnnie HarrisDefensive SpecialistTampa Bay Storm
1999James BaronDefensive LineNashville Kats
2000Kenny McEntyreDefensive BackOrlando Predators
2001Kenny McEntyreDefensive BackOrlando Predators
2002Clevan ThomasDefensive BackSan Jose SaberCats
2003Clevan ThomasDefensive BackSan Jose SaberCats
2004Kenny McEntyreDefensive BackOrlando Predators
2005Silas DemaryOffensive Line/Defensive LineLos Angeles Avengers
2006Jerald BrownDefensive BackColumbus Destroyers
2007Greg WhiteOffensive Line/Defensive LineOrlando Predators
2008Dennison RobinsonDefensive BackChicago Rush
2009No AwardSeason CancelledN/A
2010Gabe NyenhuisDefensive LineTulsa Talons
2011Vic HallDefensive BackChicago Rush
2012Joe SykesDefensive LineSan Jose SaberCats
2013Clevan ThomasDefensive BackSan Jose SaberCats
2014Jason StewartDefensive LineSan Jose SaberCats
2015Joe SykesDefensive LineJacksonville Sharks
2016Tracy BeltonDefensive BackPhiladelphia Soul
2017Beau BellFullback-LinebackerPhiladelphia Soul
2018Terence MooreLinebackerAlbany Empire
2019James RomainDefensive BackPhiladelphia Soul

 

Our Favorite Stuff

Arena Football League
1987-2002 Logo T-Shirt

This logo tee from Old School Shirts reps the original Arena Football League logo, used for the league’s first 16 seasons as the circuit grew from four to sixteen franchises. The design includes uprights to imply one of the most unique innovations of the  indoor game –  the taut netting surrounding narrowed uprights that ricocheted kickoffs and missed field goals back into live play. Curiously, the netting wasn’t incorporated into the graphic which seems like a missed opportunity.
This design is also available as a Hooded or Crewneck Sweatshirt from Old School Shirts today!
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

 

Background

The original Arena Football League was a patented 50-yard indoor football game system developed by a former NFL employee named Jim Foster. Foster first came up with the idea while watching a Major Indoor Soccer League match at Madison Square Garden in 1981.  It took six years for Foster to fully develop the concept and launch the league in 1987. The first season was modest but Arena Football had an ESPN contract for that first campaign, which helped Foster’s strange little league gain a modest measure of national attention.

The league muddled along in fits and starts through the rest of the 1980’s and most of the 1990’s.  Towards the end of the Nineties a sequence of events came together to raise Arena Football’s profile.  In 1998, ABC broadcast Arena Bowl XII to a national broadcast audience on Wide World of Sports.  Two years later, a former grocery store clerk and Arena Football star named Kurt Warner rose from obscurity to win first the St. Louis Rams’ quarterback job and then MVP honors in Super Bowl XXXIV.

NFL Investment Fuels Speculative Bubble

As the 2000’s dawned, Arena Football franchise valuations shot upwards.  Expansion fees increased from $250,000 in 1993 to $16.2 million by 2003.  A national broadcast contract with NBC made the league sexier to speculators, as did the influx of investment from the National Football League.  Eventually six NFL ownership groups would purchase Arena Football franchises in the early 2000’s: the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans.

For a time the league gorged on fat expansion fees and trumpeted rising attendance, which helped to paper over large operational losses. But by the mid-2000’s, the expansion pipeline began to dry up.  The Lions, Saints and Titans shuttered their Arena League franchises. The bubble burst when the 2009 season was cancelled as league attempted a financial restructuring. The effort failed and the original league closed down and filed for bankruptcy in August 2009.

Relaunch & Final Bankruptcy

Throughout the 2000’s, the Arena Football League had an affiliated “minor league” known as AF2, which ran lower-budget clubs in small markets like Shreveport, Spokane and Tulsa.  A group of AF2 investors plus a few of the non-NFL investors in the original Arena League banded together to purchase the intellectual property rights to Arena Football from the bankruptcy court for $6.1 million in late 2009.

This group of owners re-launched the Arena Football League in 2010 and claims the records and history of the original 1987-2008 league. In a few cases, franchise names and owners carried over between the two leagues. But for the most part, the new league was substantially poorer and less disciplined than the original organization.

In a bid for attention, the league awarded expansion franchises to KISS stars Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley (Anaheim) and Motley Crue front man Vince Neil. Both clubs soon folded, with Neil’s Las Vegas Outlaws supplying an especially embarrassing black eye to the league by going out of business in 2015 without completing a full season of play.

By 2018 the AFL was reduced to just four active teams in the Northeastern U.S. In October 2019, shortly after concluding its 32nd season of play, the AFL closed location operations of all its remaining teams while it explored a new business model. On November 27, 2019 the AFL filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and closed permanently.

 

Arena Football League Franchise List

FRANCHISEYEARS ACTIVEARENA BOWL CHAMPIONS
Alabama Vipers2010Never
Albany Empire2018-20192019
Albany Firebirds1990-20001999
Anaheim Piranhas1996-1997Never
Arizona Rattlers1992-2008 & 2010-20161994, 1997, 2012, 2013 & 2014
Atlantic City Blackjacks2019Never
Austin Wranglers2004-2007Never
Baltimore Brigade2017-2019Never
Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings2010Never
Buffalo Destroyers1999-2003Never
Carolina Cobras2000-2004Never
Charlotte Rage1992-1996Never
Chicago Bruisers1987-1989Never
Chicago Rush2001-2008 & 2010-20132006
Cincinnati Rockers1992-1993Never
Cleveland Gladiators2008 & 2010-2017Never
Cleveland Thunderbolts1992-1994Never
Colorado Crush2003-20082005
Columbus Destroyers2004-2008Never
Columbus Destroyers2019Never
Columbus Thunderbolts1991Never
Connecticut Coyotes1995-1996Never
Dallas Desperados2002-2008Never
Dallas Texans1990-1993Never
Dallas Vigilantes2010-2011Never
Denver Dynamite1987 & 1989-19911987
Detroit Drive1988-19931988, 1989, 1990 & 1992
Detroit Fury2001-2004Never
Florida Bobcats1996-2001Never
Fort Worth Cavalry1994Never
Georgia Force2002-2008 & 2011-2012Never
Grand Rapids Rampage1998-20082001
Houston ThunderBears1998-2001Never
Indiana Firebirds2001-2004Never
Iowa Barnstormers1995-2000Never
Iowa Barnstormers2010-2014Never
Jacksonville Sharks2010-20162011
Kansas City Brigade2006-2008Never
Kansas City Command2011-2012Never
Las Vegas Gladiators2003-2007Never
Las Vegas Outlaws2015Never
Las Vegas Sting1994-1995Never
Los Angeles Avengers2000-2008Never
Los Angeles Cobras1988Never
Los Angeles KISS2014-2016Never
Maryland Commandos1989Never
Massachusetts Marauders1994Never
Memphis Pharaohs1995-1996Never
Miami Hooters1993-1995Never
Milwaukee Iron2010Never
Milwaukee Mustangs1994-2001Never
Milwaukee Mustangs2011-2012Never
Minnesota Fighting Pike1996Never
Nashville Kats1997-2001Never
Nashville Kats2005-2007Never
New England Sea Wolves1999-2000Never
New England Steamrollers1988Never
New Jersey Gladiators2001-2002Never
New Jersey Red Dogs1997-2000Never
New Orleans Night1991-1992Never
New Orleans Voodoo2004-2005 & 2007-2008Never
New Orleans Voodoo2011-2015Never
New York Cityhawks1997-1998Never
New York Dragons2001-2008Never
New York Knights1988Never
Oklahoma Wranglers2000-2001Never
Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz2010Never
Orlando Predators 1991-2008 & 2010-20161998 & 2000
Philadelphia Soul2004-2008 & 2011-20192008, 2016 & 2017
Pittsburgh Gladiators1987-1990Never
Pittsburgh Power2010-2014Never
Portland Forest Dragons1997-1999Never
Portland Steel2016Never
Portland Thunder2014-2015Never
Sacramento Attack1992Never
San Antonio Force1992Never
San Antonio Talons2012-2014Never
San Jose SaberCats1995-2008 & 2011-20152002, 2004, 2007 & 2015
St. Louis Stampede1995-1996Never
Spokane Shock2010-20152010
Tampa Bay Storm1991-2008 & 2010-20171991, 1993, 1995, 1996 & 2003
Texas Terror1996-1997Never
Toronto Phantoms2001-2002Never
Tulsa Talons2010-2011Never
Utah Blaze2006-2008 & 2010-2013Never
Washington Commandos1987 & 1990Never
Washington Valor2017-2019Never

 

Arena Football League Shop

Arena Football Shop

Arena Football League
2003-2018 Logo T-Shirt

After sixteen seasons of using their original logo, the Arena Football League introduced this new look in 2003, coinciding with the league’s landmark national broadcast partnership with NBC. Though the NBC deal would end after four seasons in 2006, the AFL would use this logo for most of its remaining life, before introducing a third and final logo for its last season in 2019.  
This design is also available as a Hooded or Crewneck Sweatshirt from the guys at Old School Shirts!
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

 

 

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Comments

2 Responses

  1. I truly do miss the arena football league I really enjoyed it because it was definitely good and different and very exciting I am missing it

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