Texas Revolution (indoor football)

Chris Dixon's Texas Revolution wins indoor football title ...

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The Texas Revolution is an American professional indoor football team which is currently winless in 2018, a founding member of Champions Indoor Football (CIF), and (Thanks to Chris Dixon II) the current Champions Cup holders. Based in Frisco, Texas, the Revolution plays its home games at the Dr Pepper Arena.

Founded in 2000 as the Arkansas Twisters, the Little Rock-based team played 10 seasons in af2 before that league folded. The team jumped to the Indoor Football League as the Arkansas Diamonds for the 2010 season. Remaining in the IFL, the team moved to Texas to become the Allen Wranglers for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In 2012, former NFL standout Terrell Owens played eight games for the Wranglers before being cut in late May. The team became the Texas Revolution after a shift in ownership before the 2013 season. After five seasons in the IFL, the team moved to the Champions Indoor Football league for that circuit's inaugural season.

Video Texas Revolution (indoor football)

History

Arkansas Twisters

The franchise began play as the Arkansas Twisters in 2000 as the only professional football team in the state of Arkansas. The team played 10 seasons as a charter member of af2, the "developmental" league of the original Arena Football League. The Twisters played their home games at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The team enjoyed success on the field, twice reaching the league's championship game. After the AFL took a season off and was forced into bankruptcy in 2009, the af2 was dissolved and the Twisters were announced as a planned charter member of Arena Football 1.

Arkansas Diamonds

Concerns for stability with Arena Football 1 lead to a November 2009 shift by Arkansas to the Indoor Football League. However, the rights to the Twisters name and logo belonged to Arena Football 1 so the Arkansas franchise held a "name the team" contest in late January and became the Arkansas Diamonds of the IFL's Intense Conference for the 2010 season. The new team colors for 2010 were Carolina blue, black, and gray. Arena football veteran Danton Barto took over as head coach, leading the team to an 11-3 regular season record and first place in the 2010 Lonestar East Division. The team's playoff run ended with a loss to the Billings Outlaws in the Intense Conference Finals. With the team struggling financially, co-owners Jim Smith and Jeff Everetts announced in September 2009 that the franchise was relocating to Allen, Texas, a prosperous suburb of Dallas.

Allen Wranglers

After a name-the-team contest, the team announced on September 29, 2010, it would be called the Allen Wranglers, starting with the 2011 Indoor Football League season. The relocated Intense Conference team would play their home games at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas. The team shared the name with a previous indoor football team in Allen, the Texas Wranglers, who played the 2009 and 2010 seasons in the Independent Indoor Football Alliance.

In October 2010, the team announced that Chris MacKeown would be the Wranglers' head coach for the 2011 season. Former Dallas Cowboys player Drew Pearson was named general manager of the franchise in early December 2010. The team finished with a 10-4 regular season record and first place in the Lonestar Division. They advanced through two rounds of the IFL playoffs before losing the Intense Conference Championship to the Tri-Cities Fever of Kennewick, Washington.

The Wranglers started the 2012 season strong under new head coach Pat Pimmell but after consecutive losses dropped their record to 5-3 in April, Pimmel was let go and the team's offensive and defensive coordinators shared the title "co-interim head coach" through the end of the season. The team finished with a 9-5 regular season record and reached the IFL playoffs but lost in the Intense Conference semi-finals to the Wichita Wild.

National attention was focused on the Wranglers in 2012 when NFL veteran wide receiver Terrell Owens joined the team. Recovering from surgery and receiving no offers from NFL teams, Owens accepted a generous contract and partial ownership in the franchise to play in Allen. He swelled attendance at Wranglers home games. His debut drew a crowd of 5,711 people, larger than the Wranglers' home attendance for the entire 2011 season, but his contract allowed him to skip many away dates. Owens was released by the Wranglers on May 29, 2012, with three games left in the season, for his "lack of effort both on and off the field", failure to show up for a scheduled appearance at a children's hospital, and refusal to play in two upcoming road games, Along with his release, Owens also relinquished his ownership stake in the team.

Texas Revolution

Following the folding of the Wranglers in June 2012, a new team was launched in its place for the 2013 season, the team announced that it was staying in Allen but making several critical changes. On September 19, 2012, the team unveiled its new nickname and colors as the Texas Revolution. Leadership of the new organization was provided by Tommy Benizio, a former commissioner of the Indoor Football League. After three seasons in the Intense Conference, the team was realigned to the United Conference for the 2013 season. This is not the first football team in the Metroplex to bear the name. In 2005, a "Texas Revolution" competed in the Independent Women's Football League. In November 2012, the team named Billy Back as head coach for the 2013 season.

After a disappointing 5-9 campaign, the Revolution let Head Coach Billy Back go, and hired Chris Williams away from the New Mexico Stars. The league released its 2014 schedule in late October 2013 with the Revolution staying in the United Conference but the Chicago franchise replaced by the Bemidji Axemen in the 9-team IFL. The team re-signed several key players for 2014 and, in mid-January, announced the signing of running back Jennifer Welter as the first female professional football player for a position other than kicker. The team started strong but stumbled to a 3-11 finish, missing the post-season. Head coach Chris Williams resigned after the season.

In late August 2014, the team hired former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Wendell Davis as head coach and director of football operations. Days later, the team announced it was leaving the Indoor Football League for the new Champions Indoor Football. The team's 2015 schedule began with a pre-season home game on February 27 and two regular season road games before the home opener on March 20. On March 30, after just four regular season games, the team released Wendell Davis and promoted defensive coordinator Devin Wyman to head coach. The team made its best playoff run since moving to Allen, advancing to Champions Bowl I but falling to the Sioux City Bandits, 76-61. Later that year, a team named the Mesquite Marshals weds created in nearby Mesquite. The Revolution are expected to form a strong rivalry with the Marshals.

In 2017, the Revolution won Champions Bowl III. The team then relocated to Frisco, Texas, and the Dr Pepper Arena for the 2018 season. On April 9, 2018, Victor Mann returned as head coach.