Columbus Thunderbolts

Arena Football League (1991)

Tombstone

Born: August 1990 – Arena Football League expansion franchise¹
Moved: February 1992 (Cleveland Thunderbolts)

First Game: June 1, 1991 (L 33-12 vs. Dallas Texans)
Last Game: August 3, 1991 (L 57-17 @ Albany Firebirds)

Arena Bowl Championships: None

Arena

Fairgrounds Coliseum (6,500)²

Marketing

Team Colors: Purple, Black & Silver

Ownership

Owners: Joe Marsalka & Donald Cullen

Attendance

The T-Bolts ranked last place in the AFL attendance charts during their only season in Columbus.

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Print Download

Source: 1992 Arena Football League Media Guide (re-built & averaged from individual game figures)

Background

Not just a One-Year Wonder, but a winless One-Year Wonder. The Columbus Thunderbolts lasted for just a single season in the Arena Football League in the summer of 1991. Along the way, they compiled a record of 0-10 under Head Coach Dave Whinham and attempted a failed public stock offering to the citizenry of greater Columbus.

Signing of Major Harris

The T-Bolts gained a few national headlines for signing former University of West Virginia All-American quarterback Major Harris in the spring of 1991. One of the most thrilling college quarterbacks of the 1980’s, Harris was a Heisman Trophy finalist after both his sophomore and junior seasons. In one of the all-time NFL draft miscalculations, Harris forfeited his senior season to enter the draft a year early in 1990. NFL scouts took a dim view of Harris’ abilities and he dropped all the way to the 12th round. He never played a down in the NFL. The Canadian Football League didn’t work out either. Harris signed with the Thunderbolts in June of 1991 for the standard Arena League pay of $500 a game plus $100 for each victory.

Harris wasn’t a particularly adept passer in Arena Football (the NFL scouts were right, it seems). But he may have been the best scrambler the league ever saw. Despite missing the first couple of games, Harris rushed for 429 yards and 14 touchdowns in a league where hardly anyone ran the ball ever. The 429 yards stood as a league record for the next 13 season. But he couldn’t lead the ‘Bolts to a single win (even with the tantalizing promise of an extra hundred bucks).

The hapless T-Bolts’ high water mark in Columbus came on July 19th, 1991 when the ‘Bolts hosted the Detroit Drive at Fairgrounds Coliseum. The game marked the Columbus homecoming of former Ohio State star Art Schlichter, who quarterbacked the Drive. Schlichter, a 1982 1st round draft choice of the Baltimore Colts, was banned from the NFL due to his crippling gambling addiction. Schlichter’s first football game in Columbus in a decade drew a season-high crowd of 5,293. The Harris-Schlichter match up was also carried nationwide on cable television. Detroit trounced Columbus 56-20 to drop the T-Bolts record to 0-8. The team never played another home game.

Move To Cleveland

Following the season, the franchise relocated to the Richfield Coliseum outside Cleveland. The team played three more seasons as the Cleveland Thunderbolts (1992-1994) before folding. The Arena Football League returned to Columbus in 2004 with the arrival of the Columbus Destroyers, who played five seasons (2004-2008).