The Fort Wayne Freedom was a professional indoor football team based in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

. The team was most recently a member of the

Continental Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLIF ...

, but originally began play in 2003 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

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 ...

. The Freedom were the original indoor football team to be based in Fort Wayne. After four years of being the only indoor team in Fort Wayne, the franchise folded and the

Fort Wayne Fusion The Fort Wayne Fusion was a 2007 af2 (Arena Football League's minor league) expansion team in the Midwest Division of the American Conference. They played their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which w ...

was established as part 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 ...

in 2007. After a failed year in AF2, the Freedom came back in 2008 with new ownership and continued through the 2009 season. In 2010, another indoor team, the Fort Wayne FireHawks, replaced the Freedom in the CIFL. The owner of the second version of the Freedom was Bill Fahlsing. The Freedom played their home games at

Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Allen County War Memorial Coliseum is a 13,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, near present-day Johnny Appleseed Park. It opened in 1952 with a construction cost of nearly $3 million. The Allen County War Memorial Colise ...

in Fort Wayne.

Franchise history

2003

Schedule

2004

The original Fort Wayne Freedom was a professional indoor football team. They were most recently a member 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 (UIF), and played their home games at the

. In 2004, the Freedom set the single game record for attendance at 10,225.

Schedule

# = set single game indoor football attendance record with 10,225 fans. ***2004 stats do not include a NIFL playoff games with the Show Me Believers and at Ohio Valley (Wheeling, West Virginia)***

2005

The 2005 season was the best season in franchise history. This was the first year in the UIF, the team moved to the association, after two years in the NIFL. Finishing a league-best 14-2, and winning the UIF Midwest Division. In the first-round of the UIF playoffs. 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 ...

upset Freedom 57-22.

Schedule

2006

Matt Land Matt Land (born February 10, 1972) is the athletic director and former head football coach for Trine University. 2006 was his first season as the program's head coach. The team finished 2–8. In 2007, they finished with a record of 6–4. In ...

left the Freedom to become head coach at

Tri-State University Trine University is a private university in Angola, Indiana. It was founded in 1884 and offers degrees in the arts and sciences, business, education, and engineering. Trine University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. History Tri ...

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

. The Freedom selected offensive coordinator Dan Pifer to be their new head coach. Pifer would later serve as the offensive coordinator for NCAA Division III Tri-State, later renamed Trine, under former coach Matt Land. He had worked previously as an assistant coach at the University of St. Francis, an NAIA institution, and

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private Conservatism in the United States, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was founded in 1844 by Abolitionism, abolitionists known as Free Will Baptists. Its missio ...

in Michigan. Pifer also was a high school assistant and played quarterback at the University of California in Pennsylvania. After completing its fourth year of football, the assets of the Freedom were sold to Jeremy Golden, who moved the franchise to AF2. Meanwhile, leaders with United Indoor Football did find an ownership group (that included investor Bill Bean) that also sought a lease with Randy Brown and the Memorial Coliseum. Brown opted to go with the AF2 franchise.

Rumored move to AF2

The team had been heavily rumored to move to

for quite some time, and Coffey sold the assets to Golden on November 10, 2006. Golden had already applied for and was awarded an AF2 franchise, but because only the assets and not the Freedom's corporate entity were sold, the

AF2 franchise is not a continuation of the UIF team.

Schedule

2008: The return of the Freedom

In October 2007, the group Fort Wayne Sports Partners owned by Todd Ellis, John Christener and Mike McCaffrey, adopted the name Freedom as a new franchise in 2008. Only the name, and some players from the 2003–2006 teams were associated with the original franchise. . The team also announced that Eddie Brown, who had coached the Fusion the season before, would be the head coach for the Freedom, who would be joining the

. Since the Fusion ownership had failed mid season in 2007, Brown and McCaffrey made majority owner Todd Ellis guaranteed them both that if the team ran into financial trouble they would not be responsible for any of the unpaid bills. The teams poor financial history left every part of owning the franchise more difficult, even as far as ownership of the team's turf. The team's new ownership also showed signs of financial trouble right away, as they were banned from the CIFL in January 2008, for failing to pay league dues. These troubles made Brown and McCaffrey question the ownership, and Ellis fired them both, replacing Brown with Willie Davis Jr. and McCaffrey with himself. The Freedom were able to work out a deal with CIFL Commissioner, Jeff Spitaleri, and paid their $22,500 league fee, which removed the ban and allowed the team to join the CIFL in 2008.

Schedule

Standings

2009

In September, 2008, the Freedom announced that former Freedom Assistant GM Brad Harris (who was with the original Freedom from 2003–2005) had been hired as GM. Head coach Matt Land also returned for the 2009 to coach the team for the full season. In 2008, Land, who had been the team's head coach for the 2005 campaign, was asked by team co-owner William Fahlsing to lead the team for the final four games of the season when original head coach Willie Davis, Jr. was fired the morning of the May 17 game against the Chicago Slaughter. With only 15 minutes of practice, Land's second term began with a 41-33 loss to the Slaughter, despite a solid performance by the Freedom defense. In 2009, the Freedom had success on the field but struggled financially. Toward the end of the 2009 season players were not paid promptly and then not at all. Team Co-owners Bill Fahlsing and Mark Chappius were forced to ask for public support to help get the team through the season. Despite the financial issue with salaries, the players continued to play for the Freedom and won the Eastern Conference Championship over the Marion Mayhem but lost the 2009 CIFL championship game to the Chicago Slaughter.

Schedule

Standings

Fans

The Freedom Force is the official fan club of the Fort Wayne Freedom.

Notable coaches

Head coaches

''Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the

2009 Continental Indoor Football League season The 2009 Continental Indoor Football League season was the league's fourth overall season. The regular season began on Friday, March 6. The league champion was the Chicago Slaughter. Standings Playoffs 2009 award winners *CIFL Most Valuable P ...

.''

Coaching staff

Season-by-season results

References

{{CIFL United Indoor Football teams Former Continental Indoor Football League teams Sports in Fort Wayne, Indiana Defunct American football teams in Indiana American football teams established in 2003 American football teams disestablished in 2006 American football teams established in 2007 American football teams disestablished in 2009 2003 establishments in Indiana 2006 disestablishments in Indiana 2008 establishments in Indiana 2009 disestablishments in Indiana

Franchise history

2003

Schedule

2004

Schedule

2005

Schedule

2006

Rumored move to AF2

Schedule

2008: The return of the Freedom

Schedule

Standings

2009

Schedule

Standings

Fans

Notable coaches

Head coaches

Coaching staff

Season-by-season results

See also

References