The Bismarck Blaze were a professional

indoor American football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller a ...

team based in

Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck () is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the state's second-most populous city, after Fargo. The city's population was 73,622 in the 2020 census, while its metropolitan popula ...

. They were members of the original

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 amon ...

founded in 1999 and began play in 2000. They competed in the Northern Division of the Western Conference.

History

The Blaze were founded as an expansion team in 1999 and joined the original incarnation of the

along with several others expansion franchises. In the only season in the IFL, the team compiled an 11–3 record finishing in first place in the Western Conference and qualified for the IFL Gold Cup playoffs. They defeated the

Sioux City Attack The Sioux City Bandits are a professional indoor football team based in Sioux City, Iowa, and compete as a member of Champions Indoor Football (CIF). The team was founded in 1999 as the Sioux City Attack. In 2001, the team assumed their current ...

30–14 in the second round of the playoffs, then the

Topeka Kings Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Un ...

51–-27 in the semifinals advancing to the 2000 Gold Cup, only to lose to the

Peoria Pirates The Peoria Pirates were a professional arena football team that last played in AF2, the minor league to the Arena Football League (AFL). They played their home games at Carver Arena, part of the Peoria Civic Center in Illinois, and were coached b ...

in the championship game 69–42. After the IFL was bought out by

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 ...

, the Blaze were not among the many teams that moved to the new league and subsequently folded. However, a new franchise resurfaced in Bismarck to play in 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, A ...

for the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

References

Bismarck, North Dakota Indoor Football League (1999–2000) teams American football teams in North Dakota {{amfoot-team-stub