The Darmstadt Diamonds are an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team from

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The club has spent six seasons in the

German Football League The German Football League (GFL) is an American football league in Germany and was formed in 1979. Playing rules are based on those of the American National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA. In 1999, the league switched its name from ''Ameri ...

, the GFL, from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2006 to 2008, reaching the play-offs on two occasions. The ''Diamonds'' have had much greater success at junior level, having won the

German Junior Bowl The German Junior Bowl, usually only referred to as ''Junior Bowl'', is the annual national championship game for junior teams in the sport of American football in Germany. It is contested by the two best teams of the GFL Juniors. It is the seco ...

on two occasions. They are currently situated in the GFL 2.

History

The club was formed in September 1985. The ''Diamonds'' entered league football in 1986, joining the Regionalliga Mitte, followed by joining the Verbandsliga Hessen in 1988. After league championships in 1987 and 1988 the side achieved promotion to the 2nd American Football Bundesliga, now the GFL 2, where it played in the now defunct central division. After winning its division in its first season in the league, Darmstadt earned promotion to the American Football Bundesliga, the predecessor of the GFL, for 1990. The club came second in its division in its first season and qualified for the play-offs but lost to the

Noris Rams Norris or Noris may refer to: Places In Canada *Norris, Ontario, in Algoma District In the United Kingdom *Hampstead Norreys (or Norris), Berkshire In the United States * Norris, Illinois * Norris, Missouri * Norris, Nebraska * Norr ...

in the opening round. The club declined after this first season and, by 1992, was relegated again. The next four seasons were spent in the 2nd Bundesliga again, where the ''Diamonds'' did not come close to promotion again but instead was relegated in 1996. The club was now back in the Regionalliga Mitte for three seasons, where it had started a decade before but managed to win the league in 1999 and earned the right to return to the second tier. In the next six seasons, Darmstadt's performance varied greatly but culminated in a division title in 2005 that allowed it to return to Germany's highest league, now renamed GFL, for a second stint. Once more it showed its best performance in its first season there, finishing fourth and qualifying for the play-offs once more. In the first round the club was drawn against the

Braunschweig Lions The New Yorker Lions are an American Football team from Braunschweig, Germany. Until late 2010, the team was known as the Braunschweig Lions.

, the most dominating club in league history, and lost 79–0. In its next two GFL seasons, the club only won one game all up, against the

Saarland Hurricanes The Saarland Hurricanes are an American football team from Saarbrücken, Germany. Saarbrücken is the capital of the federal German state of Saarland, which the club is named after. The club was formed in 1996 in a merger of the two local sides S ...

in 2007, which saved the ''Diamonds'' from relegation that year. In 2008, the side performed even worse, losing eleven out of twelve games and only drawing once, against the

Cologne Falcons The Cologne Falcons are an American football team from Cologne, Germany. The Falcons currently play most of their home games at Müngersdorf Sportpark, Ostkampfbahn. The team was founded in 1994 by former members of the Red Barons Cologne, which ...

. Darmstadt had to face the

Plattling Black Hawks The Plattling Black Hawks are an American football team from Plattling, Germany. The club was, until 2004, known as the Deggendorf Black Hawks. The club's greatest success was earning a promotion to the German Football League in 2008 and qualifyi ...

in the promotion-relegation round and lost both games there, too, condemning the club to relegation. Back in the GFL 2 the club achieved average results for 2009 and 2010 but came close to promotion once more in 2011. The side finished on equal points in second place with the Rhein-Neckar Bandits and the Holzgerlingen Twister behind champions

Franken Knights The Franken Knights are an American football team from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Between 1995 and 1996 the club played in Würzburg for two seasons but returned to Rothenburg again the following year. The club, originally formed as the R ...

. The final placings in the league had to be decided by the games played between the three clubs, in which the ''Bandits'' had the best record and earned promotion while the ''Diamonds'' had the worst ended up in fourth place. The following season, 2012, the club came last in the GFL 2 southern division and was relegated from the league. The 2013 season saw the club rebound, winning the

Regionalliga Mitte The Austrian Regional League Central (german: Regionalliga Mitte) is a third-tier division of Austrian football, established in the 1994–95 season. It covers the Austrian states of Carinthia (with East Tyrol), Styria and Upper Austria and is on ...

without defeat and returning to the GFL 2 for 2014. Originally relegated at the end of the 2015 season after finishing seventh the club was offered to retain their league place after the withdrawal of the Holzgerlingen Twister but opted to step down to the

for 2016. The ''Diamonds'' junior team has historically performed much better than the senior side, having reached the German Junior Bowl on seven occasions and won two of those.

Honours

* GFL ** League membership: (6) 1990–1992, 2006–2008 ** Play-off qualification: 1990, 2006 *

GFL 2 The German Football League 2 (GFL2) is the second tier of American football in Germany, below the German Football League The German Football League (GFL) is an American football league in Germany and was formed in 1979. Playing rules are based ...

** Southern Division champions: 2005 ** Central Division champions: 1989 * Junior Bowl ** Champions: 1995, 2001 ** Runners-up: 1991,1998, 2000, 2002, 2003

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the club:Football History
Historic American football tables from Germany, accessed: 16 December 2011GFL 2 2010
www.football-aktuell.de, accessed: 16 December 2011GFL 2 2011
www.football-aktuell.de, accessed: 11 December 2011 * RR = Relegation round * PR = Promotion round * QF = Quarter finals

References

External links

*
Official website
*
German Football League official website
*
Football History
Historic American football tables from Germany {{Authority control American football teams in Germany German Football League teams American football teams established in 1985 1985 establishments in West Germany American football in Hesse Darmstadt