The Johnstown Riverhawks was 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 ...

team based out of

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, whi ...

. They were a charter member of the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

(AIFA). They played their home games at

Cambria County War Memorial Arena The Cambria County War Memorial Arena is a 4,001-seat multi-purpose arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that is managed by SMG Entertainment. It was built in 1950, for the Johnstown Jets of the Eastern Hockey League. The arena was built on the si ...

History

Indoor Football League (1999–2000)

The Riverhawks began play in 1999 as the Topeka Knights 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 am ...

. They missed the playoffs in their inaugural season, finishing third in the Northern Division at 6-6. During the second season, the team changed ownership and became the Topeka Kings. The team finished with a much better record, going 10-4 and winning the Western Conference, Southern Division championship. In the playoffs, they defeated the Black Hills Machine in the quarterfinal round before losing to the

Bismarck Blaze The Bismarck Blaze were a professional indoor American football team based in Bismarck, North Dakota. They were members of the original Indoor Football League founded in 1999 and began play in 2000. They competed in the Northern Division of the ...

in the semifinals.

Move to Tennessee (2001–2003)

After the season, they moved to

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

became the Tennessee ThunderCats, and moved to the

Indoor Professional Football League The Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) was the new incarnation of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL), which started in 1998. Two of its teams (the Madison Mad Dogs and the Green Bay Bombers) left the league and their owner, ...

. They would impressively win the league championship in their first year. After the IPFL folded, the ThunderCats moved to the NIFL. During their tenure in the league, they had decent success in 2002, but considerably less success as the Tennessee Riverhawks in 2003.

Beyond

In 2004, while they were the Greenville Riverhawks, their ownership folded after three games. The team itself moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and played their remaining games. Then, they were re-founded by Andrew Haines, owner of the Atlantic Indoor Football League. The team was purchased by Brian Schwelling of Atlanta, Georgia in February 2005. Schwelling operated the team successfully until September of that same year when it was sold to Michael Dawson. Schwelling was successful in bringing the Riverhawks to the semifinal game in the team's inaugural season. On March 4, 2006, the Riverhawks won their first game of their second season on the road 21-14 against the Steubenville Stampede, which made AIFL history by becoming the lowest scoring game in the league's then-two year existence. On March 26, 2006, the Riverhawks lost the AIFL's very first overtime game 41-38 against the Reading Express at home. In the 2008 season, the Riverhawks ended their contract with the Johnstown War Memorial. AIFL owner Andrew Haines announced he was relaunching the defunct AIFL as the

Ultimate Indoor Football League The Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL) was a regional professional indoor football league that began its inaugural season on February 18, 2011 as the Ultimate Indoor Football League before playing as the United Indoor Football League in 2012 ...

in the 2011 season (the AIFA is technically a separate league with different owners founded to avoid Haines's legal troubles), and would be bringing back Johnstown in the process. The revived team was to bear the name "

Johnstown Generals The Johnstown Generals was a professional indoor American football, indoor football team that was based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Generals began play in 2011 as an expansion team as part of the original Ultimate Indoor Football League six. T ...

2001 Tennessee ThunderCats IPFL Schedule

Week 1 – Tennessee ThunderCats 52,

Trenton Lightning The Trenton Lightning were an indoor professional football team founded in 2000 by owner/general manager, Phillip J. Subhan and local businessman, Kenneth Samu. The team started the 2001 season in the Indoor Professional Football League ( IPFL) ...

25 Week 2 – Tennessee ThunderCats 34, St. Louis Renegades 28 Week 3 – Tennessee ThunderCats 42,

Boise Stallions The Boise Stallions are a defunct indoor football team from Boise, Idaho. They were a charter member of the Indoor Professional Football League. They originally began as the Idaho Stallions. Throughout their three seasons, 20 year old Larry Sto ...

29 Week 4 – bye Week 5 – Tennessee ThunderCats 39,

26 Week 6 – Tennessee ThunderCats 41,

24 Week 7 – Tennessee ThunderCats 40, St. Louis Renegades 23 Week 8 –

Omaha Beef The Omaha Beef is an indoor football team and a charter member of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, the Beef play their home games at Liberty First Credit Union Arena in nearby Ralston. History First 13 se ...

72, Tennessee ThunderCats 50 Week 9 – Tennessee ThunderCats 47, St. Louis Renegades 44 Week 10 –

56, Tennessee ThunderCats 29 Week 11 –

54, Tennessee ThunderCats 32 Week 12 –

40, Tennessee ThunderCats 38 Week 13 – Tennessee ThunderCats 61,

34 Week 14 – Tennessee ThunderCats 35, St. Louis Renegades 10 Week 15 – bye Week 16 – Tennessee ThunderCats 53,

9 Week 17 – bye Week 18 – Tennessee ThunderCats vs.

– Cancelled Week 19 – Tennessee ThunderCats 43, St. Louis Renegades 27 IPFL Championship – Tennessee ThunderCats 47,

Season-by-season

, - , colspan="6" align="center" , Topeka Knights (IFL) , - , 1999 , , 6 , , 6 , , 0 , , 3rd Northern , , -- , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Topeka Knights/Kings (IFL) , - , 2000 , , 10 , , 4 , , 0 , , 1st WC Southern , , Won Quarterfinal ( B.H. Machine)
Lost Semifinal ( Bismarck) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Tennessee ThunderCats (IPFL) , - , 2001 , , 11 , , 4 , , 0 , , 2nd League , , Won IPFL Championship ( Omaha) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Tennessee ThunderCats (NIFL) , - , 2002 , , 10 , , 4 , , 0 , , 2nd AC Northern , , Won Round 1 ( Lake Charles)
Lost AC Quarterfinal (

Ohio Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Tennessee Riverhawks (NIFL) , - , 2003 , , 6 , , 8 , , 0 , , 5th AC Eastern , , -- , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Greenville Riverhawks (NIFL) , - , 2004 , , 0 , , 4 , , 0 , , 5th AC Eastern , , -- , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Johnstown Riverhawks (AIFL) , - , 2005 , , 6 , , 4 , , 0 , , 3rd League , , Lost League Semifinals ( Richmond) , - , 2006 , , 8 , , 5 , , 0 , , 5th Northern , , -- , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Johnstown Riverhawks (AIFA) , - , 2007 , , 6 , , 9 , , 0 , , 5th Northern , , -- , - , 2008 , , rowspan="1" colspan="5" style="text-align: center;" valign="middle" , ''Did Not Play'' , - !Totals , , 66 , , 51 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

2007 Season Schedule

References

External links

Official Site of the Johnstown Riverhawks

Riverhawks' 2005 Stats

Riverhawks' 2006 Season & Results

Riverhawks' 2007 Stats
{{Defunct Pennsylvania sports teams American Indoor Football Association teams American Indoor Football League teams Johnstown, Pennsylvania Defunct American football teams in Pennsylvania 2005 establishments in Pennsylvania 2008 disestablishments in Pennsylvania American football teams established in 2005 American football teams disestablished in 2008