The Oklahoma Defenders were a professional indoor football team and a charter member of the

Champions Professional Indoor Football League The Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) was an indoor football minor league based along the Midwestern United States region. The league began play in February 2013. In August 2014, the CPIFL and Lone Star Football League (LSFL) c ...

(CPIFL). Based in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, the Defenders played their home games at the

Cox Business Center The Cox Business Convention Center (formerly the Tulsa Assembly Center, Tulsa Convention Center, and Maxwell Convention Center) is a 310,625 square foot convention center located in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Cox Business Convention Center (C ...

. It was announced in August 2014, that the team would go dark and cease all operation for the 2015 season, with the goal to return in the 2016 season. Many expect the team to fold and not return for the 2016 season. The Defenders are the second arena/indoor team based in Tulsa, following the

Tulsa Talons Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

which played in

arenafootball2 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 ...

from the league's inaugural season in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

until its final season of

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, and later in the

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 ...

from

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

until

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, after which the Talons moved to San Antonio.

History

The Defenders began play in 2012 as a member of the

American Professional Football League The American Professional Football League (APFL) was an indoor football league that was founded in 2003. After the 2012 season, most of the teams left to start the Champions Professional Indoor Football League. The league consisted of profes ...

. The Defenders experienced immediate success, finishing the regular season with a 9–3 record, tied for second place with the Council Bluffs Express. However, the Defenders would get the #3 seed because of the Express holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. In the teams' first-round playoff game, the Defenders lost to the Express 37–32. For the 2013 season, the Defenders played in the Champions Professional Indoor Football League. They posted a 3–9 record in their inaugural season in the CPIFL. The team's sophomore season in 2014 in the CPIFL was not much better with a duplicate 3–9 record. It was announced in August 2014, that the team would go dark and cease all operation for the 2015 season, with the goal to return in the 2016 season.

Final roster

Season-by-season

, - , colspan="6" align="center" , Oklahoma Defenders (APFL) , - , 2012 , , 9 , , 3 , , 0 , , 3rd League , , Lost Semi-final (

Council Bluffs Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is lo ...

) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Oklahoma Defenders (CPIFL) , - , 2013 , , 3 , , 9 , , 0 , , 8th League , , -- , - , 2014 , , 4 , , 8 , , 0 , , 7th League , , -- , - !Totals , , 16 , , 20 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

2014

Season schedule

Past seasons

2013

Season schedule

2012

Season schedule

Source:

References

External links

Oklahoma Defenders official website
{{CPIFL American football teams in Oklahoma Champions Professional Indoor Football League teams Defunct American football teams in Oklahoma Sports in Tulsa, Oklahoma American football teams established in 2012 American football teams disestablished in 2014 2012 establishments in Oklahoma 2014 disestablishments in Oklahoma