The World Indoor Football League (WIFL) was an indoor football league founded by Harry Pierce, owner of the Rome Renegades and Raleigh Rebels of the

American Indoor Football League 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 ...

. The league was a splinter league that formed after disgruntled ownership in the AIFL, caused significant turmoil and resulted in several teams leaving the league. Both the Rebels and Renegades were to play in the league, with the Rebels to be renamed as the

Carolina Bombers The Raleigh Rebels were a professional indoor football team based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. They played their home games at the Dorton Arena and were members of the American Indoor Football League (AIFL). During the team's inaugural seas ...

. However, on October 16, 2006, Pierce folded both franchises. Daytona Beach Thunder player Javan Camon, in his second year with the club, died as a result of injuries received during a game against the

Columbus Lions The Columbus Lions are a professional indoor football team based in Columbus, Georgia and are a member of the American Indoor Football Alliance. The were a founding member of the National Arena League (NAL) for the 2017 season. The Lions were ...

on February 26, 2007. Camon was involved in a helmet-to-helmet block during the late stages of the game. He was attended by paramedics and doctors at the Ocean Center arena for approximately 25 minutes without recovering. He was pronounced

dead on arrival Dead on Scene ('' 'DOS' '') Found dead before first responders get on scene and no medical treatment was given. Dead on arrival (DOA), also dead in the field and brought in dead (BID), are terms which indicate that a patient was found to be ...

at an area hospital

So, in his honor, the league's Most valuable player, MVP award was named after him as the Javan Camon Awar

The award was given to Marvin Stone of the Augusta Spartans. Columbus Lions' Jason Gibson was named Coach of the Year, and Danny Burnham of Rome, Georgia. was named Fan of the Year for his efforts assisting the league's PR department. Daytona Beach also made some news in the indoor football ranks when arena football legend

Barry Wagner Barry Wagner (born November 24, 1967) is a retired American football player in the Arena Football League for the Orlando Predators, with whom he won his first ArenaBowl Championship, and the San Jose SaberCats, with whom he won two championships ...

joined the team in March 2007; Daytona Beach had previously attempted such a publicity stunt by signing

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...

to a similar contract in 2006. The Osceola Ghostriders also featured former New England Patriot Greg Jefferson for one game. On June 30, the league's only championship game, the World Indoor Bowl, took place in Columbus, Georgia with the Augusta Spartans defeating the host Columbus Lions 63-60 before a crowd of 3,529. Two teams – Columbus and Augusta – announced on September 28, 2007, that they were moving to a reformed

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 ...

for 2008

The announcement came after the Daytona Beach Thunder announced they were leaving the WIFL in hopes of joining

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 ...

for either the 2008 or 2009 season

World Indoor Bowl

The World Indoor Bowl was the championship game of the World Indoor Football League. The only World Indoor Bowl was played between the regular season champion

and the Augusta Spartans, who won a semi-final game against the Osceola Ghostriders to earn the berth.

2007 teams

* Augusta Spartans – rejoined AIFA for 2008 under new ownership as the Augusta Colts. Folded after 2008 season *

– joined AIFA for 2008 *

Daytona Beach Thunder The Daytona Beach ThunderBirds were an arena football team based in Daytona Beach, Florida. They were founded in 2005 as the Daytona Beach Hawgs playing in the National Indoor Football League. In 2006, they changed their name to the Daytona Thu ...

– joined

in 2008 but folded after the season * Osceola Ghostriders – folded after 2007 season

Announced WIFL teams that never participated in league play

– ceased operations during 2006 off-season *

Charleston Sandsharks The Charleston Sandsharks were a professional indoor football team based in North Charleston, South Carolina, a suburb of the metropolitan area of Charleston, South Carolina, with home games at the North Charleston Coliseum. The team played in ...

– announced move from NIFL, then withdrew and joined AIFA *

Huntington Heroes The Huntington Heroes were a professional indoor football franchise and member of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). The Heroes played their home games during their inaugural 2006 season at the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse in Hunti ...

– announced move from, then returned to, AIFA * Rome Renegades – ceased operations during 2006 off-season *

Tallahassee Titans The Tallahassee Titans were an American Indoor Football Association team that began play as a 2007 member. The team played its home games at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Florida. History The owner of the team, David Morris had been ...

– were to move from the AIFA to WIFL for the cancelled 2008 season.

External links

Official WebsitePress releaseWIFL's 2007 Stats
{{Professional gridiron football leagues in North America Defunct indoor American football leagues in the United States