The Alabama Hammers were a professional indoor football team based in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...

. The team played in the

Professional Indoor Football League The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor Foo ...

(PIFL) from 2012 to 2015. The Hammers originally began play as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

in the

Southern Indoor Football League The Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) was an indoor football league based in the Southern and Eastern United States. The most recent incarnation of the league was a consolidation of an earlier league of the same name that was formed by Thom H ...

in 2011. The Hammers are the fourth indoor football team to play at the Von Braun Center; these were the

Alabama Vipers The Alabama Vipers were a professional arena football team, that played in the Arena Football League. For most of their history, the Vipers played as the Tennessee Valley Vipers in the now-defunct af2, the minor league for the original Arena Fo ...

of the AFL (2010), the

Tennessee Valley Vipers Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

of the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) 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 ru ...

(2000–2004 and 2006–2009), and the

Tennessee Valley Raptors The Rock River Raptors were a professional indoor football team based in Rockford, Illinois. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. The franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a c ...

of the

United Indoor Football United Indoor Football (UIF) was an indoor football league in the United States that operated from 2005 to 2008. Ten owners from the National Indoor Football League, including one expansion (the Dayton Warbirds, which never played a game in UIF) ...

league (2005). The owner of the Hammers is Southern Sports Entertainment, LLC. The Hammers play their home games at the

Von Braun Center The Von Braun Center (known as the Von Braun Civic Center until 1997) is an entertainment complex, with a maximum arena seating capacity of 9,000, located in Huntsville, Alabama. The original facility debuted in 1975 and has undergone several si ...

. Their name comes from the

Yellowhammer The yellowhammer (''Emberiza citrinella'') is a passerine bird in the bunting family that is native to Eurasia and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. Most European birds remain in the breeding range year-round, but the eastern ...

, the state bird of Alabama.

Franchise history

2011

On November 5, 2010, it was announced that indoor football was to stay at the

in the form of the Alabama Hammers who would be playing in the

(SIFL). The nickname "Hammers" was chosen due to the state bird of Alabama being the yellowhammer. On December 19, 2010, the Hammers announced that Marty Hammond, who had coached the

Rio Grande Valley Dorados The Rio Grande Valley Dorados were a professional arena football team. They began playing in 2004 as an expansion member of af2, the minor league to the Arena Football League. They played their home games at Obra Homes Field at Dodge Arena in ...

from 2006 to 2009, as their first ever head coach. On March 19, 2011, the Hammers took the field for their first ever game as a franchise, losing 20–67 to the

Columbus Lions The Columbus Lions are a professional indoor football team based in Columbus, Georgia and are a member of the American Indoor Football Alliance. The were a founding member of the National Arena League (NAL) for the 2017 season. The Lions were f ...

. The Hammers achieved the first victory in forfeit fashion, as the

Mobile Bay Tarpons The Mobile Bay Tarpons were a professional indoor football team in the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL). Based in Mobile, Alabama, the Tarpons were to play their home games at the Mobile Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds. The Tarpons were the ...

forfeited their April 29 game. The Hammers finished the regular season with a 4–8 record, failing to qualify for the postseason.

2012

Before the season began, the Hammers joined the

after the Southern Indoor Football League dissolved. The Hammers went 3–9 in 2012, failing to making the playoffs.

2013

For the 2013 season, the Hammers hired former

coach

Dean Cokinos Dean Cokinos is an American football coach. College career Cokinos attended University of Massachusetts Boston, where he was a running back for the Beacons. He was a college teammate of Pat Sperduto, whom he later served under in Nashville. C ...

to be their head coach. The Hammers have achieved the level of success expected of coach Cokinos, who has a great winning percentage in lower level indoor football. They won their first championship when they won the PIFL title over the

Richmond Raiders The Richmond Raiders were a professional indoor football team located in Richmond, Virginia the Richmond Coliseum as their home arena. The Raiders began play in the 2010 as an expansion team of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). The ...

70–44.

2014

The Hammers did not return to their championship form in 2014, losing their first 4 games of the regular season. After the Hammers seemed to have righted the ship with 3-straight wins, they went on another 4-game losing streak. The Hammers finished the season 4–8, tied for 4th placed in the American Conference, failing to qualify for the playoffs.

2015

During the offseason, Cokinos took a job as the head coach of the New Orleans VooDoo of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

. He was replaced with Cosmo Dematteo, who had coached the filler team,

Georgia Fire The Georgia Fire were a professional Indoor American football, indoor football team based in Rome, Georgia. They were members of the American Conference in the Professional Indoor Football League (2012), Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) ...

in 2014. However, in January 2015, Dematteo stepped down due to family issues before coaching a game for the Hammers. Scott Sharp was named the new Hammers' head coach on January 27, 2015. In 2015, the Hammers folded upon the league folding.

Franchise history

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Players

Final roster

Awards and honors

Head coaches

Coaching staff

Season-by-season results

References

External links