Ozarks Lunkers | |
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Current season | |
Established 2023 Play in Springfield, Missouri | |
League/conference affiliations | |
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Current uniform | |
Team colors | Red, Foliage Green, Sky Blue, Darker Lake Blue |
Mascot | Lunky the Lunker |
Cheerleaders | Lady Lures |
Personnel | |
Owner(s) | Mark Burgess |
General manager | Caleb Scott [1] |
Head coach | Cam Bruffett |
Team history | |
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Championships | |
League championships (0) | |
Conference championships (0) | |
Division championships (0) | |
Home arena(s) | |
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The Ozarks Lunkers are a professional indoor football team based in Springfield, Missouri. They are currently members of The Arena League (TAL). They will play their home games at Wilson Logistics Arena, a multipurpose arena built next to the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds.
On March 9, 2023, League Commissioner Tim Brown announced Springfield, Missouri as one of four cities that would be receiving an Arena League team. [2] The Lunkers are the second Arena Football team in Springfield, Missouri, after the short-lived Springfield WolfPack of the APFL.
On October 20, 2023 CoxHealth signed into a partnership with the Lunkers as the team's health care provider. [3] [4]
After receiving nearly five thousand entries for the name-the-team contest, Ozarks Lunkers was selected; submitted by Nixa resident, Diane Buatte. Lunker is an exceptionally large specimen, particularly a fish. The team's primary logo depicts a leaping largemouth bass wearing a red football helmet. The logos were designed by Ryan Foose.
Many submissions were related to fishing, Route 66, soda jerks, or the Great Cobra Scare of 1953.
The first of two open tryouts for the Lunkers was held on October 21, 2023. [5] The Lunkers held a closed scrimmage of 19 players on November 19, 2023. [6] The second open tryout was held on December 9, 2023. [7]
On December 5, 2023, the Lunkers signed Matt Rush, the first player to sign with a TAL team. [8] Rush went to Springfield's Hillcrest High School and played defensive back at Missouri State.
Ozarks Lunkers roster | ||||||
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Players
| Reserve lists
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Front office
| Head coaches
Offensive coaches
Defensive coaches
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On June 14, 2023, the league announced Mark A. Burgess, a local airline owner, would be the principal owner of the team and that the team would be called the Ozarks Lunkers for their inaugural season. [9]
On October 4, 2023 the team announced Cam Bruffett as the head coach. [10]
The Arena Football League (AFL) can refer to one of three successive professional indoor American football leagues in the United States. The first of these was founded in 1986, and played its first official games in the 1987 season, running for 22 consecutive seasons until going bankrupt following the 2008 season. The second league, consisting largely of teams from the first AFL and arenafootball2, purchased the first league's assets out of bankruptcy and resumed play in 2010 as a continuation of the first AFL; this second AFL ran for ten further seasons, before again going bankrupt following the 2019 season. The third and current AFL, which is not directly connected to the previous two iterations of the league but claiming their histories and trademarks, launched in 2024.
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