Tombstone
Born: 1999 – AF2 founding franchise
Folded: 2003
First Game: April 8, 2000 (L 48-41 @ Pensacola Barracudas)
Last Game: July 26, 2003 (L 43-13 @ Charleston Swamp Foxes)
ArenaCup Championships: None
Arena
Richmond Coliseum (11,088)12001 Iowa Barnstormers Media Guide
Opened: 1971
Closed: 2019
Marketing
Team Colors: Blue, Black, Silver & White22001 Iowa Barnstormers Media Guide
Ownership
Owners: Harry Feuerstein, BK Katherman, et al.
Background
The Richmond Speed were one of 15 original franchises that took part in the debut season of Arena Football 2 (AF2) in the spring of 2000. AF2 served as a developmental league for the bigger budget Arena Football League (AFL) and helped spread the AFL brand and game system into small and mid-market cities.
AF2’s launch strategy was to sell its original franchises to the owners of minor league hockey teams. AF2’s founding group of 15 teams were clustered in the southeastern United States and mostly operated by East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) ownership groups. Speed founder Harry Feuerstein owned the ECHL’s Richmond Renegades during the 1990’s. By the Speed’s third season in 2002, AF2 had expanded as far afield as Hawaii and New England, though teams mostly stuck to regionalized play that allowed for lower cost bus travel for road games.
From the players’ standpoint, AF2 was a love-of-the-game proposition. Players earned $200 per game with a $50 bonus for each victory.3O’Connor, John. “Richmond Speed brought indoor football to Coliseum 10 years ago”. The Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA). April 28, 2010 Other than quarterbacks, most players in the league’s 8-on-8 format played both offense and defense, with linemen playing both sides of the ball, fullbacks also playing linebacker, and receivers doubling as defensive backs.
On The Carpet
The Speed initially hired NFL and USFL veteran Durwood “Rock” Roquemore as head coach. In the early years of the offense-happy Arena Football League, Roquemore was one of the sport’s standout defenders at the “Defensive Specialist” position. Rock was a 1999 inductee into the AFL’s Hall-of-Fame.
The Speed fired Roquemore after an 0-5 start and the team ultimately lost its first seven games in 2000. But Roquemore’s replacement, Richard Davis, engineered a late season turnaround that saw the Speed win seven of their final nine games to finish a respectable 7-9.
The following season was better yet. With Davis back at the helm, the Speed won their division with a 13-3 record, including an undefeated 8-0 home record at the Richmond Coliseum. After two playoff victories, the Speed met AF2’s dominant team, the Quad City Steamwheelers, in the Arena Cup league championship game on August 10th, 2001. Through AF2’s first two seasons, the defending champion Steamwheelers had a total regular season and playoff record of 36-1 coming into the 2001 title game.
Arena Cup II was a thriller, with the Speed holding their own against the Steamwheeler juggernaut. The game saw fifteen lead changes and the Speed held the lead with moments left to play, but a 3-yard Quad City touchdown pass with 10 seconds left on the clock put the Steamwheelers over the top 55-51.
Out of Gas
The Speed remained one of AF2’s top teams again in 2002 with a 12-4 record.
The team’s fourth and final campaign in 2003 saw turmoil in the ranks. Owner BK Katherman fired Coach Davis following a midseason argument. The team slipped back to a 6-10 record and the club folded at season’s end.
Arena Football 2 went out of business following the 2009 season.
Links
###
