The Colorado Crush were a professional indoor football team. The Crush played its home games at the

Budweiser Events Center The Budweiser Events Center is a multi-purpose arena in Loveland, Colorado, northeast of Denver. The arena is located on The Ranch Events Complex (formerly the Larimer County Fairgrounds and Events Complex) and is owned by Larimer County, Color ...

Loveland, Colorado The City of Loveland is the home rule municipality that is the second most populous municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Loveland is situated north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver and is the 14th most populous city ...

, outside

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. The Crush began play in 2007 as the Colorado Ice, an expansion member of

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 ...

(UIF) and joined 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 amon ...

as part of the UIF-

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 ...

merger of 2009. Ahead of the 2016 season, the team changed its name to the Colorado Crush, after the

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American professional football executive and former quarterback who is the president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Elway played college f ...

-owned team of the same name that played in 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 ...

from

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

until its suspension of operations in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Despite the same name, this Crush organization is not connected to the original.

History

In July 2006, Colorado real estate executive, Danny DeGrande, was awarded an expansion franchise of

to begin play in 2007. The Ice were a sub-.500 team during their first four years of existence but still managed to make the playoffs twice in 2007 and 2009. On April 1, 2010, Tom Wigley was announced as the new owner of the Ice. The 2011 season saw an overhaul of the team's roster and a reversal of its fortunes as the Ice began the season with seven straight wins and finished with an 11–3 record plus the Mountain West Division title and their first winning season. The Ice fell to the

Tri-Cities Fever The Tri-Cities Fever were a professional indoor football franchise based in Kennewick, Washington. The Fever joined National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2005 as an expansion team. The Fever were owned by Teri Carr. From 2005 to 2016, the Fe ...

in the first round of the playoffs. This was Collins Sanders' last season as head coach before his promotion to general manager in 2012. In 2012, Heron O'Neal was hired as head coach. They recorded an 8–6 record and reached the playoffs but lost to the

in the first round. O'Neal returned as head coach for 2013 and a strong start with three consecutive home wins. Both of the Ice's 2012 All-IFL Team players returned for the 2013 season. Heron O'Neal returned as head coach for a third season in 2014. From 2011 to 2014, the team made the playoffs for four straight seasons but remained winless in the postseason. They competed Intense Conference Championship game in back-to-back seasons, losing both to the

Nebraska Danger The Nebraska Danger was a professional indoor football team based in Grand Island, Nebraska, and a member of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The team was founded in 2011 by Charlie Bosselman as an expansion member of the IFL. The Danger played ...

. On July 15, 2015, the Colorado Ice became the new Colorado Crush one year after the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

for the original AFL franchise name expired. On March 7, 2016, owner Thomas Wigley announced the team was for sale after he was diagnosed as terminally ill. Wigley assured that the team would finish 2016 season, but due to his health he would not be able to continue operations himself. In October 2016, the Crush's new owners were announced as Project FANchise, a group that also started the 2017 expansion

Salt Lake Screaming Eagles The Salt Lake Screaming Eagles were a professional indoor football team based in West Valley City, Utah, near Salt Lake City. The Screaming Eagles started as an expansion team in the Indoor Football League (IFL) and began play in 2017 with home ...

. Project FANchise-owned teams planned to be operated in conjunction with fan input by allowing them vote on every aspect of the team including hiring the head coach, signing players, and calling plays. Due to purchasing the team late in the offseason, this system was not implemented for the Crush in the 2017 season. However, during their first season under Project FANchise, it was announced that FANchise was planning its own league for the 2018 season, called the Interactive Football League, and would not be operating any teams in the Indoor Football League. After the 2017 season ended, the Crush website was shutdown and no formal announcement on the team's future was made.

Players

Final roster

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all Ice/Crush players who have won league Awards

All-IFL players

The following Ice players have been named to All-IFL Teams: * QB Willie Copeland (1) * WR Kyle Kaiser (4), Demarius Washington (1) * OL Collin Cordell (1), Michael Trice (2), James Atoe (1) * DL

Gabe Knapton Gabriel Knapton (born May 10, 1989) is an American professional gridiron football defensive end who is currently a free agent. He played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 2018 to 2019. College career Knapton p ...

(1), Michael Stover (1), Jason Jones (1) * LB Landon Jones (1) * LB/DB Joe Thornton (1) * DB Idly Etienne (1), Jovan Jackson (1), Corey Sample (2), Rashard Smith (1) * K Aric Goodman (1) * KR Daniel Lindsey (1) * Ironman Eryk Anders (1)

Individual awards

Staff

Statistics and records

Season-by-season results

Head coach records

Radio

Games and weekly coach's show are broadcast on

KFKA KFKA ("NoCo's Home for News, Sports and Talk") on 1310 AM is a radio station licensed to Greeley, Colorado that serves the Fort Collins-Greeley area. It is the flagship station for the University of Northern Colorado Bears football and basketball ...

(1310 AM).

References

External links

Colorado Crush official website
{{Colorado Crush (IFL) seasons United Indoor Football teams Former Indoor Football League teams Sports in Fort Collins, Colorado Loveland, Colorado American football teams in Colorado 2006 establishments in Colorado American football teams established in 2006 2017 disestablishments in Colorado American football teams disestablished in 2017