The Austin Turfcats were a professional indoor football team based in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. The Turfcats were a member of the

Indoor Football League 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 am ...

(IFL) during the 2010 season, after being a charter member of 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 ...

(SIFL) during their inaugural 2009 season. The Turfcats played their home games at Luedecke Arena at the

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is n ...

Exposition Center. This was Austin's fourth attempt at an indoor football team; the prior three were the

Indoor Professional Football League The Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) was the new incarnation of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL), which started in 1998. Two of its teams (the Madison Mad Dogs and the Green Bay Bombers) left the league and their owner, ...

Texas Terminators ''This team is not to be confused with the softball team in Texas.'' The Texas Terminators was an indoor football team that played in the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) in 1999. The Terminators franchise was owned by Jeff Parnell. T ...

(1999), the

National Indoor Football League The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, ...

's Austin Knights/Rockers (2002–2003), and 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 ...

(later

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 ...

's)

Austin Wranglers The Austin Wranglers were an arena football team based in Austin, Texas. They played four seasons in the Arena Football League from 2004 to 2007 and spent one season in af2, the AFL's developmental league, in 2008. They made playoff appearances i ...

(2004–2008) (the former two of which played in Luedecke Arena before the Turfcats).

History

Launch: 2009

On November 24, 2008, it was announced that the city of

, had been awarded an expansion franchise for the 2009 startup

(SIFL). On November 25, 2008, it was announced that the team's nickname would be the Turfcats and that they would play their home games at Luedecke Arena at the

Expo Center.

Chris Duliban Christopher E. Duliban (born January 9, 1963) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at the University of Texas. Early years Duliban attended Spring Wood ...

was the team's head coach after previously serving as the defensive coordinator of the

and then as the head coach for the

CenTex Barracudas PulteGroup, Inc. is an American residential home construction company based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company is the 3rd largest home construction company in the United States based on the number of homes closed. In total, the comp ...

of the

Intense Football League The Intense Football League (IFL) was a professional indoor football minor league that began operations in 2004. Its focus was in Texas, but it was notable for being the first professional football league to place a franchise in Alaska. History ...

in 2008. The Turfcats lost their first game 29–37 to the

Acadiana Mudbugs Acadiana ( French and Louisiana French: ''L'Acadiane''), also known as the Cajun Country (Louisiana French: ''Le Pays Cadjin'', es, País Cajún), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained mu ...

. The following week the Turfcats won their first game 34–32 over the Houma Conquerors.

Joining the IFL: 2010

In October 2009, the Turfcats were accepted into the

(IFL) for the 2010 season. They went 2–12 under head coach Duliban and folded after the season.

Season-by-season results

Personnel

Final roster

Head coaches

Front office staff

* Joe Martinez – general manager – IFL * Ronald Oswalt – general manager – SIFL/IFL * Jack Dixon – director of operations – SIFL/IFL

2010 season

Schedule

Standings

References

External links

Official website
2008 establishments in Texas 2010 disestablishments in Texas {{Texas-sport-team-stub