The Port Huron Pirates were a professional indoor football team based in

Port Huron, Michigan Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

. The team was a charter member of the

Great Lakes Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLI ...

(GLIFL) joining the league in

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 ...

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 Pirates were the first professional indoor football team to be based in Port Huron. They played their home games at

McMorran Arena McMorran Arena is an entertainment complex in Port Huron, Michigan consisting of a 4,800-seat multi-purpose arena and a theater. It was designed by Alden B. Dow and built in 1960 for $3.5 million (equivalent to $ million today). The exterior of ...

in Port Huron, Michigan. The Pirates are the only team to never lose a regular season game in the history of the

Continental Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLIF ...

, going 22–0 for the only two years that the team existed.

Franchise history

2006

In their inaugural season, Pirates owner hired Brian Hug to be the head coach. the Pirates went undefeated (10–0), defeated the Battle Creek Crunch in the semifinals, and won the inaugural

Great Lakes Bowl The Great Lakes Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played only once, on December 6, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Villanova Wildcats. The game was played at Cleveland Stadium with attendance o ...

I 40–34 over the

Rochester Raiders The Rochester Raiders were a professional indoor football team based in the Rochester, New York area. They played their home games at Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex in Rochester. The Raiders were previously a member of the Continental Indoor Foot ...

, with RB

Rayshawn Askew Rayshawn Askew (born March 28, 1979) is a former American football running back. He has played for the All American Football League, United Indoor Football, Canadian Football League, Continental Indoor Football League and the National Indoor Foot ...

winning the game's MVP title. Over 2,500 fans witnessed the game, marking one of the biggest crowds to watch a sporting event at McMorran Place. Adding some more great news was the fact that QB Shane Franzer was named the inaugural GLIFL MVP of the All-Star game and

was named the inaugural GLIFL Running Back of the Year.

Standings

2007

After the season, head coach Brian Hug left the Pirates to become head coach of the Pahrump Valley High School football team. The Pirates went on to promote assistant Karl Featherstone as their new head coach. In March 2007, Hug was hired by the

Las Vegas Gladiators {{Cat main, Thomas & Mack Center Paradise, Nevada University of Nevada, Las Vegas Wikipedia categories named after buildings and structures in the United States Wikipedia categories named after sports venues ...

as an assistant offensive/defensive line coach. Featherstone got the team off to a fast start as they defeated the

Miami Valley Silverbacks The Dayton Silverbacks were a professional indoor football team based in Dayton, Ohio. The team was a member of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL). The franchise started as the Miami Valley Silverbacks and joined the CIFL in 2007 afte ...

, 54–7, en route to another perfect regular season. Unfortunately, at halftime of the May 26 game against Marion, in front of an announced crowd of 1,216 fans, the team announced this would be their final season in Port Huron, as they could no longer pay the bills with such lackluster attendance. Speculated relocation cities included

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

, and one other Michigan city. Afterwards, the team announced they would be playing their playoff games at the

Perani Arena and Event Center The Dort Financial Center (originally IMA Sports Arena and formerly Perani Arena and Event Center) is a sports, entertainment and convention venue located in Flint, Michigan, United States. It opened in 1969 and is the home of the Flint Firebirds ...

. They were using the playoffs as a test of the arena and the city of Flint for potential relocation. They then renamed themselves The Michigan Pirates for the rest of the seaso

After winning their first 26 games, the team finally met their Waterloo in the 2007 CIFL Indoor Championship Game, losing to long-time rival

by a score of 37–27 at Rochester's

Blue Cross Arena Blue Cross Arena, also known as the War Memorial, is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Rochester, New York. For hockey and lacrosse, its seating capacity is 10,662. The arena opened on October 18, 1955, as the Rochester Community War Memor ...

. After an offseason of uncertainty regarding whether the team would return, the CIFL moved the Port Huron Pirates from the "Active Teams" section of their message board to the "Defunct Teams" section of their message board, indicating the team has left the league. It was later confirmed by league officials that The Pirates were no more, as Peter Norager sold the team to the owner of Perani Arena and the team was renamed the Flint Phantoms.

Schedule

Standings

Logos and uniforms

The logo featured a fierce pirate, symbolic of the surrounding Great

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

. In the background is a depiction of the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse.

Players of note

Roster

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all Port Huron/Michigan Pirates players who won GLIFL/CIFL Awards.

Head coaches

Season-by-season results

References

{{CIFL Former Continental Indoor Football League teams American football teams in Michigan Port Huron, Michigan Sports in Flint, Michigan American football teams established in 2006 American football teams disestablished in 2007 2006 establishments in Michigan 2007 disestablishments in Michigan