Quad City Steamwheelers | |
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Current season | |
Established 2017 Play in Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Illinois steamwheelersfootball.com | |
League/conference affiliations | |
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Current uniform | |
Team colors | Navy blue, gold and scarlet red |
Personnel | |
Owner(s) | Doug Bland |
General manager | Destiny Brown [1] |
Head coach | Cory Ross |
Team history | |
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Championships | |
League championships (0) | |
Conference championships (1) | |
Division championships (0) | |
Playoff appearances (4) | |
Home arena(s) | |
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The Quad City Steamwheelers are an indoor American football team that began play in 2018. They played their first season as part of the Champions Indoor Football, and then joined the Indoor Football League prior to their second season. [2] Based in Moline, Illinois, the Steamwheelers play their home games at the Vibrant Arena at The MARK. The team announced it would be dormant for the 2021 season due to the arena capacity restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but returned to play in 2022.
The Steamwheelers are named after the Quad Cities' previous team of the same name, which played in all ten of the AF2's seasons (2000–2009) and won the first two ArenaCups.
After the original Quad City Steamwheelers folded along with the AF2, TaxSlayer Center director Scott Mullen had been in talks with various investors seeking to bring back the Steamwheelers, but none were financially secure enough to meet his standards. During 2017, a splash page emerged allegedly belonging to a revived Steamwheelers team in the CIF, however, neither Mullen nor the CIF would comment on the page. [3]
On August 15, 2017, the Center confirmed that a deal had been reached which would see the Wheelers return as members of the CIF for 2018, with a press conference taking place the following day. [4] At the press conference, the Wheelers introduced their owner/general manager Doug Bland (previously part-owner of fellow CIF team the Dallas Marshals) and head coach Cory Ross (most recently head coach for the Omaha Beef). [5]
After one season in the CIF, the Steamwheelers announced they were joining the Indoor Football League for the 2019 season. [2]
After playing only one game in 2020, the Steamwheelers' season was initially postponed and the league's season was eventually cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 23, 2020, the team announced that due to the restrictions on arena capacity during the pandemic, they would be dormant for at least the 2021 season. [6] In September 2021, they announced they planned to return for the 2022 season. [1]
Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
| Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen
| Linebackers
Defensive backs
Special teams
| Reserve list
Rookies in italics → More rosters |
League champions | Conference champions | Division champions | Playoff berth | League leader |
Season | League | Conference | Division | Regular season | Postseason results | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Finish | Wins | Losses | Ties | |||||
2018 | CIF | North | 3rd | 8 | 4 | 0 | Lost Conference Semifinal (Sioux City) 46–54 | |
2019 | IFL | 7th | 6 | 8 | 0 | |||
2020 | IFL | — | 1 | 0 | 0 | Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | ||
2021 | IFL | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | ||
2022 | IFL | Eastern | 3rd | 9 | 7 | 0 | Won First Round (Massachusetts Pirates) 39–38 Won Second Round (Frisco Fighters) 48–41 Lost Championship (Northern Arizona) 45-47 | |
2023 | IFL | Eastern | 4th | 9 | 6 | 0 | Lost First Round (Frisco Fighters) 29-57 | |
2024 | IFL | Eastern | 4th | 8 | 8 | 0 | Lost First Round (Green Bay Blizzard) 23-34 | |
Totals | 41 | 33 | 0 | All-time regular season record (2018–2020) | ||||
2 | 3 | — | All-time postseason record (2018–2022) | |||||
35 | 28 | 0 | All-time regular season and postseason record (2018–2022) |
The AF2 was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup championship in August. The AF2 continued to operate while the AFL suspended operations for its 2009 season. The league was effectively disbanded in September 2009 when no team committed to playing in 2010, but several of the stronger franchises transferred into the reconstituted AFL.
James Foster is the inventor of the game of Arena Football,, the founder and first commissioner of the Arena Football League (AFL).
The Vibrant Arena at The MARK, formerly known as The MARK of the Quad Cities, the iWireless Center, and the TaxSlayer Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Moline, Illinois. The facility opened in May 1993, under the name The MARK of the Quad Cities with the singer Neil Diamond as the opening act. The facility was renamed as the TaxSlayer Center on October 1, 2017. The arena started using its current name on September 1, 2022.
The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member of the AF2 and played their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois.
The Amarillo Dusters are a professional indoor football team based in Amarillo, Texas. They play their home games at the Amarillo Civic Center. The Venom began play in 2004 as a charter member of the Intense Football League, a small indoor football league based in Texas. They won the championship in their first and only season with the Intense Football League.
Richard Ingold was an Arena Football League (AFL) quarterback who played with the Washington Commandos and the Detroit Drive. He holds the all-time record for most career head coaching wins in af2 history, coaching the Quad City Steamwheelers and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, whom he led to Arena Cup VIII in 2007. His head coaching career also included a partial season coaching the Dallas Vigilantes of the AFL in 2010.
Cory Ross is a former American football, Canadian football and indoor football running back. He is now the head coach of the Quad City Steamwheelers of the Indoor Football League (IFL). He most recently played for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football at Nebraska.
The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams among indoor football leagues. As of the 2024 season, the league consists of 16 teams in two conferences with each team playing 16 games over 19 weeks.
Tyus Jackson is a former American football linebacker and coach. He lasted coached the Iowa Rampage of the Arena Football League.
Jason J. Raterink is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current quarterbacks coach at the University of Northern Colorado. He played college football at Wyoming. He went undrafted during the 2005 NFL Draft.
Champions Indoor Football (CIF) was a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team from the Indoor Football League and two expansion teams.
The Wichita Force were a professional indoor football team based in Wichita, Kansas, with home games in Wichita Ice Center. The team was founded in 2014 as an expansion franchise in the Champions Indoor Football league for the 2015 season. The Force's membership in the CIF was revoked prior to the 2022 season and the team joined the new Arena Football Association.
The Dallas Marshals were a member of Champions Indoor Football and based in Dallas, Texas. The Marshals were scheduled to play their home games at the Fair Park Coliseum, but all remaining Marshals games were listed as postponed as of April 21, 2018. The team announced it had ceased operations on April 27.
Doug Bland is an American entrepreneur and former athlete.
The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. As of the end of the 2024 season, the league consists of five teams.
The 2018 Champions Indoor Football season was the fourth season of the CIF. The regular season began on March 3, when the Wichita Force traveled to Salina Liberty, losing 17–15. The regular season concluded on June 10. This was the second season in which four teams per conference advanced to the Champions Bowl playoffs, with the top seed in each conference hosting their conference's fourth seed, and second seeds hosting third seeds in the first round.
The San Diego Strike Force are a professional indoor football team based in San Diego, California, that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Strike Force began play in the 2019 season. The team plays its home games at Pechanga Arena.
The Oklahoma Flying Aces are a dormant professional indoor football team based in Enid, Oklahoma, and members of the National Arena League (NAL). The team was founded in 2018 as an expansion franchise in Champions Indoor Football for the 2019 season. The team was dormant for the 2021 season, but did not return in for the 2022 season. The Flying Aces joined the National Arena League for the 2024 season but became dormant before the season was completed.
The Frisco Fighters are a professional indoor football team based in Frisco, Texas. A member of the Indoor Football League, the Fighters play their home games at the Comerica Center. The team was set to participate in the 2020 season, but were unable to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022 Indoor Football League season was the fourteenth season of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The league played the season with 14 teams, up from 11 teams the previous season. The Bay Area Panthers, Quad City Steamwheelers, and San Diego Strike Force, returned from dormancy after electing not to play during the 2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vegas Knight Hawks joined the league as an expansion team. The Cedar Rapids River Kings did not return and the announced 2022 expansion Columbus Wild Dogs never returned. The Spokane Shock were removed from the league in February 2022 after the team lost its lease for their home arena.