The Peoria Pirates were a professional

arena 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 that last played in

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 ...

, the

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

to 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 ...

(AFL). They played their home games at

Carver Arena Peoria Civic Center is an entertainment complex located in downtown Peoria, Illinois. Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Philip Johnson and John Burgee, it has an arena, theater, exhibit hall and meeting rooms. It opened in 1982 and ...

, part of the

Peoria Civic Center Peoria Civic Center is an entertainment complex located in downtown Peoria, Illinois. Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Philip Johnson and John Burgee, it has an arena, theater, exhibit hall and meeting rooms. It opened in 1982 and co ...

in Illinois, and were coached by

Mike Hohensee Michael Louis Hohensee (born February 22, 1961) is a former professional football quarterback who played in the United States Football League, Canadian Football League, National Football League and Arena Football League. He most recently the hea ...

and

Bruce Cowdrey The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

. The Pirates originally began play as a charter member 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 amon ...

in 1999. In their existence, the Pirates played in the Indoor Football League (IFL), AF2 (twice), and

United Indoor Football United Indoor Football (UIF) was an indoor football league in the United States that operated from 2005 to 2008. Ten owners from the National Indoor Football League, including one expansion (the Dayton Warbirds, which never played a game in UIF ...

(UIF). They also won the 2000 IFL Championship. They were also, while in the UIF, known as the Peoria Rough Riders.

History

Indoor Football League (IFL) / AF2

The Peoria Pirates were charter members of the

(IFL) and were also the IFL runners-up in 1999 and won the IFL championship in 2000 before their original league folded and the franchise moved over to

. After the move, the Pirates won

ArenaCup III The 2002 AF2 season was the third season of the AF2. It was preceded by 2001 and succeeded by 2003. The league champions were the Peoria Pirates, who defeated the Florida Firecats in ArenaCup III. This is also the first time that both conferences ...

over the

Florida Firecats The Florida Firecats were a professional arena football team based in Estero, Florida. They played in the AF2, the Arena Football League's developmental league, from 2001 to 2009. They did not join the AFL following the leagues' reorganization in ...

, but couldn't repeat their performance the following year.

United Indoor Football (UIF)

After losing

ArenaCup V The 2004 AF2 season was the fifth season of the AF2. It was preceded by 2003 and succeeded by 2005. The league champions were the Florida Firecats, who defeated the Peoria Pirates in ArenaCup V. League info Standings * ''Green indicates clin ...

to the Firecats, the franchise moved to

(UIF) and became the Peoria Rough Riders. Before changing team name (along with their move to the UIF), their name was the Mutineers. However, their IFL and AF2 success did not translate with their move to

, as they finished 6–9, then 0–15. On September 15, 2006, the Rough Riders officially ceased operations.

af2 return

On August 22, 2007, it was announced that a new team would begin playing at

, which would, play in AF2, assume the old Peoria Pirates name, logo, colors, and history, and have longtime head coach Bruce Cowdrey become head coach once again. The Pirates returned to play in the

2008 AF2 season The 2008 AF2 season was the ninth season of the AF2. It was preceded by 2007 and succeeded by 2009. The regular season began on Friday, March 28 and ended on Saturday, July 26. The league champions were the Tennessee Valley Vipers, who beat the S ...

2009 closure

The domain of the Pirates official website expired on August 31, 2009. On September 7, 2009, the Pirates announced that they were closing down, would not play in 2010, and were selling off the team equipment later in the week. The team could not provide the required commitment and two $100,000

letters of credit A letter of credit (LC), also known as a documentary credit or bankers commercial credit, or letter of undertaking (LoU), is a payment mechanism used in international trade to provide an economic guarantee from a creditworthy bank to an exp ...

by the af2s September 8 deadline for the 2010 season. Later in the week, the ''

Peoria Journal Star The ''Journal Star'' is the major daily newspaper for Peoria, Illinois, and surrounding area. First owned locally, then employee-owned, it became a Copley Press entity in 1996. In 2007, the paper was sold to Fairport, New York-based GateHouse M ...

'' noted that one of the owners of the nearby

Bloomington Extreme The Bloomington Edge was a professional indoor football team based in Bloomington, Illinois. While it was in operation, the team hosted home games at Grossinger Motors Arena. Originally named the Bloomington Extreme, the team was a member of Unit ...

was interested in assisting with the launch of a new Peoria team as part of a new Midwest division for the

Season-by-season

, - , colspan="6" align="center" , Peoria Pirates (IFL) , - , 1999 , , 11 , , 1 , , 0 , , 1st EC Northern , , Won Semifinal (

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

)
Lost Gold Cup I ( Green Bay) , - , 2000 , , 14 , , 0 , , 0 , , 1st EC Northern , , Won Round 1 (

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

)
Won Semifinal ( Steel Valley)
Won Gold Cup II ( Bismarck) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Peoria Pirates (af2) , - ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 4th NC Midwestern , , -- , - ,

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 ...

, , 11 , , 5 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwestern , , Won NC Round 1 ( Wichita)
Won NC Semifinal (

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

)
Won NC Championship (

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

)
Won

(

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) , - ,

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 ...

, , 5 , , 11 , , 0 , , 4th NC Midwestern , , -- , - ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 3rd NC Midwestern , , Won NC Round 1 (

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

)
Won NC Semifinal (

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

)
Won NC Championship (

Tulsa 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. ...

)
Lost

(

) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Peoria Rough Riders (UIF) , - ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, , 6 , , 9 , , 0 , , 3rd Midwest , , -- , - ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , 0 , , 15 , , 0 , , 3rd Central , , -- , - , 2007 , , colspan="6" align="center" , ''Did Not Play'' , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Peoria Pirates (af2) , - , 2008 , , 4 , , 12 , , 0 , , 6th AC Midwest , , -- , - , 2009 , , 5 , , 11 , , 0 , , 5th AC Midwest , , -- , - !Totals , , 79 , , 76 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

Notes

External links

Peoria Pirates on ArenaFan

Rough Riders' 2005 Stats

Rough Riders' 2006 Stats
{{Af2 Defunct 2001 establishments in Illinois 2009 disestablishments in Illinois