The Frankfurt Universe are a German

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 wi ...

team from

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

. The club, formed in 2007, won promotion to the

German Football League 2 The German Football League 2 (GFL2) is the second tier of 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 ...

, the second tier of league football in Germany, in 2011. The team rebranded itself as "Frankfurt Galaxy" ahead of the 2015 season and won promotion to the first division

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 NCAA. In 1999, the league switched its name from ''American-Football-Bundesliga'' to ''German Foot ...

Süd (South) at the end of this season. It was renamed again as Frankfurt Universe in 2016.

History

Frankfurt Universe was formed in 2007, after the demise of the

NFL Europa NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

team Frankfurt Galaxy, by fans of the latter. Initially the club was hoping to use the Galaxy name but was prevented from this by the fact that the naming rights lay with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

.Frankfurt Galaxy vor Auferstehung
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Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ARD. Studios Do ...

'', published: 4 September 2014, accessed: 27 April 2015 The Universe entered the tier five Landesliga Hessen in 2008, finished runners-up in the league and was promoted to the Oberliga for 2009. In the Oberliga the team remained unbeaten all season and moved up to the third tier

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

, where it played in 2010 and 2011. The first season saw it finish fifth with an even record while, in the second year, it finished runners-up and won promotion.Historical American football tables & results from Germany
football-history.de, accessed: 27 April 2015 From 2012 onwards the Universe played at national level in the southern division of the second tier

. In its first two seasons the team finished runners-up behind the

Allgäu Comets The Allgäu Comets are an American football team from Kempten, Germany. The club is named after the Allgäu region of Bavaria, of which Kempten is the largest town. The club was originally formed as the Kempten Comets and renamed Allgäu Comets i ...

while, in 2014, it came third in the league. In late 2014 the club announced that it had purchased the rights for the Galaxy name, would separate the first team from the club and field it under the Galaxy name and play from 2015 onwards in the

Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion The PSD Bank Arena (formerly known as Stadion am Bornheimer Hang) is a multi-use stadium in Bornheim, a district of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and is best accessed by the Johanna-Tesch-Platz U-Bahn station, or (for away fans) the Eissportha ...

, home ground of association football team

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

. In the official 2015 table of the German Football League however the team is still listed as Frankfurt Universe.2015 GFL 2 table
German Football League website, accessed: 27 April 2015 The team won the GFL 2 south in 2015 with a perfect season and nearly 400 points Touchdown-point differential and earned promotion to the GFL after the eighth placed GFL team, the

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 ...

, withdrew from the promotion/relegation round. Frankfurt vs Nuremberg

In April 2016,

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

were announced as the main sponsor of German Football League team Frankfurt Universe. Frankfurt lost the season opener to defending GFL South champion

Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns The Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns are an American football team from Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. The club's greatest successes were winning the southern division title in the German Football League in 2009 and in every season played since 2011 (as of ...

in 2016.

Honours

The team's honours: *

German Bowl The German Bowl is the annual national championship game in the sport of American football in Germany. It is contested by the two best teams of the German Football League. The New Yorker Lions, from Braunschweig, are the record winners of the Ger ...

** Runners-up: 2018 *

Eurobowl The Eurobowl was the championship final game of a tournament style playoff to determine the champion of all of the American football leagues in Europe. The tournament featured the top or champion clubs from each countries top league that was cal ...

** Runners-up: (2) 2017, 2018 * EFL Bowl ** Champions: 2016 *

BIG6 European Football League The BIG6 European Football League (BIG6) was a European Cup style tournament for European American football teams. Originally organized by the EFAF (European Federation of American Football), the tournament had been run by the German Football ...

** Participations: (2) 2017, 2018 *

– Southern Division ** Runners-up: (4) 2016–2019 ** League membership: (4) 2016–present *

– Southern Division ** Champions: 2015 ** Runners-up: 2012, 2013

German Bowl appearances

The club's appearances in the German Bowl: * Champions in bold.

Eurobowl appearances

The club's appearances in the Eurobowl: * Champions in bold.

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the Universe: * QF = Quarter finals * SF = Semi finals * GB = German Bowl

References