Tombstone
Born: December 11, 2003 – The Bakersfield Blitz relocate to Fresno, CA
Folded: 2010
First Game: March 27, 2004 (L 68-35 vs. Hawaiian Islanders)
Last Game: July 25, 2009 (L 76-35 @ Tri-Cities Fever)
Arena Cup Championships: None
Arena
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners: Tachi Yokut Tribe (Clarence Atwell, Jr., Chairman) & George Chung
Background
The Central Valley Coyotes were a Fresno-based indoor pro football team that played six seasons in Arena Football 2, the small-market developmental league of the original Arena Football League. The Coyotes were the second AF2 franchise to try and make a go of it at Fresno’s Selland Arena, following on the heels of the ill-fated Frenzy, who closed up after only one summer of play in 2002.
The Coyotes were formed out an existing partnership between the Tachi Yokut Tribe and martial arts impresario George Chung, who promoted boxing matches at the Tribe’s Palace Indian Gaming Center in Lemoore. Chung and the Tribe purchased the AF2’s Bakersfield Blitz franchise in December 2003 and announced plans to move it to Fresno.
On The Carpet
The Coyotes original Head Coach, Cree Morris, departed the team midway through the team’s debut season of 2004 after a 1-8 start. Fred Biletnikoff Jr., son of the Oakland Raiders Hall-of-Fame receiver took over coaching duties and ran the Coyotes for the next five-plus years until the team folded.
During the 2006 season Coyotes quarterback Scott Rislov set an all-time Arena Football record by throwing 106 touchdown passes during a 16-game schedule. The record covered both the six-year old AF2 developmental league and and the top flight 20-year old Arena Football League. Weirdly, it was the only year that Rislov ever handled starting duties in his brief pro career and he would attempt only two more passes before leaving football.
Demise
The sport of Arena Football fell on hard times at the end of the 2000’s. The original Arena Football League filed for bankruptcy and closed down after the 2008 season. AF2, which was a separate entity, continued for one more season in 2009 and the folded also. The Coyotes were left without a league to play in. Long-time stalwart Fred Biletnikoff worked to get the Coyotes into a lower-budget league, but his efforts came to naught and the club folded quietly in 2010.
Trivia
Coyotes co-founder George Chung played an Elvis impersonator in the 1992 Nicholas Cage-Sarah Jessica Parker rom-com Honeymoon in Vegas.
Coyotes Video
Central Valley Coyotes on the road against the Everett (WA) Hawks. June 24, 2006 game broadcast.
Links
###
