The Knoxville NightHawks were a professional indoor football team based in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, 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 Di ...

. The team was a member of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL). The NightHawks joined the PIFL in 2012 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 ...

. The NightHawks were the second indoor/arena football team based in Knoxville, following the

Tennessee ThunderCats Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

which played in the Indoor Professional Football League for the 2001 season before joining the National Indoor Football League where they played the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

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 ...

seasons (the latter of which they played as the

Tennessee Riverhawks Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to the ...

) before moving to

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

. The Owner of the NightHawks was Southern Sports Entertainment, LLC. The NightHawks played their home games at the

James White Civic Coliseum General James White Memorial Civic Auditorium and Coliseum (usually shortened to Knoxville Civic Coliseum) is a multi-purpose events facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, owned by the Knoxville city government and managed by SMG. Its components are ...

in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Franchise history

2012

The franchise was announced by Owner Jeff Knight on September 15, 2011. He announced the team's decision to join the Professional Indoor Football League and that the team would play at the

. On October 4, 2011, the NightHawks named Chris MacKeown the team's first coach in franchise history. The team made a splash when they signed veteran

NFL 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 major ...

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

Chris Bradwell Christopher D. Bradwell (born December 17, 1983) is a former professional American football defensive tackle. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at Troy. Bradwell was also a me ...

, and veteran

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 ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

, Tony Colston. In the team's first ever game, the NightHawks fell 45–70 to the Alabama Hammers. The team started 0–6 on the season before winning their 7th contest on May 5, 2012, an overtime victory over the Hammers. The team finished their inaugural season 1–11 with a 0.083 winning percentage, which was worst in the PIFL. Coach MacKeown said he felt that he would not be back for a second season with the team.

2013

In October 2012, the NightHawks named Cosmo DeMatteo the second head coach in franchise history. The NightHawks finished the 2013 season 2–10 with a 0.167 winning percentage, finishing in the bottom of the league.
http://knoxvillenighthawks.com/schedule.html
Knoxville Nighthawks Schedule

Players of note

Final roster

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all NightHawks players who won league awards:

Coaches of note

Head coaches

Coaching staff

Season-by-season results

References

External links

Knoxville Nighthawks official site
{{PIFL 2011 establishments in Tennessee 2013 disestablishments in Tennessee