Quad City Steamwheelers

Afl2 team
name =Quad City Steamwheelers
logo =QuadCitySteamwheelers.pngconference =American
division =Midwest
founded =1999
arena =i wireless Center
location =Moline, Illinois
championships =2
(2000, 2001)
owner =????The Quad City Steamwheelers are a professional arena football team. They are a charter member of the af2. They play their home games at i wireless Center in Moline, Illinois.

The team was founded on September 1, 1999 when the Quad Cities was awarded an arena football franchise. Managing Owner (and inventor of arena football) Jim Foster coined the team's nickname.

Team history

Back-to-back ArenaCup wins

The Steamwheelers played their inaugural season in 2000 and dominated the league for its first two seasons. They went undefeated in 2000 behind coach Frank Haege, even winning one game by a score of 103-3, en route to capturing the first-ever ArenaCup Championship. In 2001, the Steamwheelers nearly repeated that accomplishment by finishing 18-1 and winning a second-straight league title. During this two season span, the Steamwheelers set a record for the longest winning streak in the af2 at 24 consecutive wins.

Banned from 2002 playoffs

Allegations of rules violations plagued the Steamwheelers during the second season and the they were eventually banned from the 2002 playoffs for salary cap violations under Haege.

econd coach

Coached by Rich Ingold from 2002-2004, the Steamwheelers were still successful as they clinched two more division titles. However, the team failed to win any additional league championships and lost 14 games over that three-year span. Ingold left the Steamwheelers after the 2004 season and was replaced by Rick Frazier, former coach for the Milwaukee Mustangs of the Arena Football League.

The 2006 season, under coach Frazier, was the first losing season for the franchise in its history.

New ownership

In October 2006, the league awarded the right to operate the franchise to a new ownership group. The resulting change in ownership oversaw the change in team leadership from Frazier to new head coach Sean Ponder. Ponder was the team's offensive coordinator during the 2006 season.

eason-by-season

-
2000 || 16 || 0 || 0 || 1st NC || Won Round 1 (Pensacola)
Won Semifinal (Norfolk)
Won ArenaCup I (Tennessee Valley)
-
2001 || 15 || 1 || 0 || 1st NC Midwest || Won Round 1 (Macon)
Won Semifinal (Carolina)
Won ArenaCup II (Richmond)
-
2002 || 10 || 6 || 0 || 2nd NC Midwest || Banned from playoffs
-
2003 || 14 || 2 || 0 || 1st NC Midwest || Lost NC Semifinal (Arkansas)
-
2004 || 10 || 6 || 0 || 1st NC Midwest || Lost NC Round 1 (Louisville)
-
2005 || 9 || 7 || 0 || 3rd NC Midwest || Lost NC Round 1 (Rio Grande Valley)
-
2006 || 7 || 9 || 0 || 5th AC East || --
-
2007 || 10 || 6 || 0 || 1st AC Midwest || Lost AC Round 1 (Green Bay)
-
2008 || 8 || 8 || 0 || 3rd AC Midwest || Lost AC Round 1 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
-!Totals || 105 || 50 || 0
colspan="2"| (including playoffs)
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External links

* [http://www.steamwheelers.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.arenafan.com/teams/?page=clubhouse&team=61 Quad City Steamwheelers on ArenaFan]