| Established | 1946 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Based in | Chambersburg, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League titles | 1 (2011) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Chambersburg Cardinals Official Website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current uniform | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Chambersburg Cardinals are an American football team based in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The team plays in the Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL).
The team was founded in 1946 by local players returning from World War II. In 1956, the team disbanded due to difficulty scheduling quality teams. The Cardinals would not field another team until 1968.
The second incarnation of the Cardinals entered the Interstate Football League as an expansion team in 1968. They played in the IFL until 1971 when a portion of the IFL, including Chambersburg, merged with the Mason-Dixon Football League to become the Seaboard Football League—A league that held, among other teams, the Hartford Knights, Long Island Chiefs and New England Colonials, who were, or would move to, the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1973. [1] They went on to win the league crown in 1973 (when some of the better teams left for the ACFL) before the team and league folded midseason in 1974. [2] King Corcoran played for the Cardinals in 1972, after the Cardinals offered him a starting job. [3] Corcoran had played for the Montreal Alouettes but refused to take a job as a backup. [4] The team had four different quarterbacks start that year and it was Jim Haynie that started in the championship game. Corcoran left for the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League in 1974.
Between 1977 and 1984, the Cardinals won 72 straight regular season games, including five perfect seasons, a record for non-collegiate football, [5] although there is record of at least one loss in that time frame, to the Racine Gladiators in the 1981 Minor Professional Football Association championship. [6]
In 2006, after a reorganization of the American Indoor Football League that saw the departure of the Syracuse Soldiers, the Cardinals were asked to fill two holes in the schedule. In their first game against the nearby Johnstown Riverhawks, the Cardinals lost by a score of 68–0, [7] billed as the first shutout in AIFL history, although, since it was an AIFL team against a non-AIFL team, that would not be a fair comparison. Their second game against league powerhouse Reading Express had a similar result, a 74-0 loss. The AIFL declared that all records set against the Cardinals and the Ghostchasers, a team hastily established to fill the schedule of another team, the Carolina Ghostriders (which, in turn, had been hastily assembled to fill the schedule of yet another team the year before), would be marked with an asterisk. [8]
In 2010, the Cardinals joined the Gridiron Developmental Football League and won the league title in 2011.
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six and eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007.
American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America.
The Steubenville Stampede was an indoor football franchise, most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. They played their home games at the St. John Arena in Steubenville, Ohio, United States.
The Johnstown Riverhawks was a professional indoor American football team based out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. A charter member of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA), it played its home games at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
The Reading Express were a professional indoor football team based in Reading, Pennsylvania. They were most recently a member of the United Conference of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Express began play in 2006, as an expansion team of the American Indoor Football League. The team was originally going to be named the Reading RiverRats, but passed on that name in favor of the "Reading Express." The RiverRats name and logo was moved to an AIFA team in Pittsburgh in 2007. The owners of the Express were Ted & Lisa Lavender. They played their home games at the Sovereign Center.
The Carolina Ghostriders were an indoor football team and charter member of the American Indoor Football League.
The Huntington Heroes were a professional indoor football franchise and member of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). The Heroes played their home games during their inaugural 2006 season at the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse in Huntington, West Virginia, before moving to the larger Big Sandy Superstore Arena for the 2007 and 2009 seasons. The Heroes were the second indoor football franchise for Huntington, following the River Cities LocoMotives, who played one season (2001) in the National Indoor Football League, and were followed by the Huntington Hammer in 2011. The Heroes were usually known for featuring many former Marshall University football players from the Marshall Thundering Herd program located in Huntington.
The Syracuse Soldiers was a 2006 expansion member of the American Indoor Football League. They played their home games at the War Memorial at Oncenter in Syracuse, New York until the AIFL ended their season on Friday, May 19, 2006.
The Dallas Diesel is an American football team, founded in 1997, which plays in the Midwest Division of the Impact Conference in the Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL). The team is also known as the DTF Diesel. The team is the 2006 NAFL champion. The Diesel defeated the Nashville Storm 24-19 in the championship game played at the Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in October 2006. Kicker Sean Riley was the leading scorer for 2006.
The Alabama Hawks were a professional American football team based in Huntsville, Alabama. They were members of various minor league football circuits in the 1960s: the Southern Football League (1963–64); the North American Football League (1965–66), the Professional Football League of America (1967), and finally the Continental Football League during the league's last two years (1968–1969). While in the CoFL, the Hawks played in the Eastern Division of the Atlantic Conference. During the 1968 season, the team was also known as the Huntsville Hawks.
The 1925 National Football League (NFL) Championship, claimed by the Chicago Cardinals, has long been the subject of controversy, centering on the suspension of the Pottsville Maroons by NFL commissioner Joseph Carr, which prevented them from taking the title. The Maroons were one of the dominant teams of the 1925 season, and after defeating the Chicago Cardinals 21–7 on December 6, they came away with the best record in the league. However, Carr suspended and removed the team from the NFL after they played an unauthorized exhibition game in Philadelphia, on the grounds that they had violated the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellow Jackets. Chicago played and won two more games against weak NFL opponents, but were sanctioned because Cardinals player Art Folz hired four Chicago high school football players to play for the Milwaukee Badgers under assumed names to ensure a Cardinals victory.
The Oklahoma Thunder are a professional American football team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Starting with the 2011 season, the team competes in the Gridiron Developmental Football League, playing in the Midwest-North Division in the GDFL's Impact Conference. Players have included University of Oklahoma alumni, former major college standouts, and former NFL players, including Willie Ponder and Calvin Barnett. The team was founded by Bruce Madden, Daniel Cornelison, and Gary Joice in 2007; James Ashford later bought a piece of the team. Now, the Thunder are owned by Venkatesh Mowa. The team originally competed in the World Football League. The league was formed as a minor league for players to work on their skills in hopes of making an NFL team. During the team's time in the WFL the Thunder had players signed by several teams including the New Orleans VooDoo and the Colorado Crush of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team's name pre-dates the relocation of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team's official colors are silver and blue. The team's cheerleaders are known as the Thunder Girls.
James Sean Patrick "King" Corcoran was an American football quarterback who had a ten-year career as a journeyman in the Atlantic Coast Football League, Seaboard Football League, Midwest Football League, World Football League, and briefly in the American Football League. Corcoran played college football, mostly as a back-up, for the Maryland Terrapins. He gained notoriety for his flamboyant dress and playboy lifestyle, which earned him the reputation of being a "poor man's Joe Namath".
The Seaboard Football League was an American football minor league that operated from 1971 to 1974. It folded during the 1974 season as a result of the founding of the World Football League, which deprived the league of talent.
The Watertown Red & Black is a semi-professional American football team based in Watertown, New York. The team is the oldest active semi-pro football team in the United States, and can trace its history to 1896, although the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) claimed it was founded as an Athletic Club in 1899. Because of this, the team has the second most wins (661) and most games played (1,022) of any semi-professional team. They have an overall record of 661–318–43 for a win percentage of .647. The Red & Black have their own showcase in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as being the oldest semi-pro team in the nation.
The Norfolk Neptunes were an American football franchise based in Norfolk, Virginia that played in the Continental Football League from 1965 until 1969 and the Atlantic Coast Football League from 1970 to 1971. The team played at Foreman Field at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
The Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL) is a low-level American football minor league based in Memphis, Tennessee, using the franchise model. The GDFL acts as an umbrella group that encompasses teams from across the Contiguous United States.
The Wichita Falls Nighthawks were a professional indoor American football team. They were based in Wichita Falls, Texas. The team was headquartered in Wichita Falls and played its home games at Kay Yeager Coliseum. The Nighthawks first joined the Indoor Football League as an expansion team in 2015. The Nighthawks were announced as a member of Champions Indoor Football (CIF) for 2018, however, due to litigation, the team ceased operations for the season.
Minor league football, also known as alternative football or secondary football, is an umbrella term for professional gridiron football that is played below the major league level.
