The Quad City Steamwheelers 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. They were a charter member of the

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 ...

and played their home games at

iWireless Center The Vibrant Arena at The MARK, formerly known as The MARK of the Quad Cities, the iWireless Center, and the TaxSlayer Center is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Moline, Illinois. The facility opened in May 1993, under the name The MA ...

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

. The team was founded on September 1, 1999 when the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

was awarded an arena football franchise. Managing owner (and inventor of arena football) Jim Foster coined the team's nickname. In December 2009, it was confirmed that the Steamwheelers had ceased operations, opting not to join the new Arena Football League after the bankruptcy of 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 ...

and subsequent disbanding of

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 ...

Team history

Back-to-back ArenaCup wins

The Steamwheelers played their inaugural season in 2000 and dominated the league for its first two seasons. They went undefeated in 2000 behind coach

Frank Haege Frank Haege (born October 11, 1968) is an American football coach. He served as a head coach for 20 years in the Arena Football League, arenafootball2 and the NCAA from 2000-2019. He head coached 236 games, compiling a record of 119-117. Coa ...

, even winning one game by a score of 103-3 over Greensboro in Greensboro, en route to capturing the first-ever

ArenaCup The ArenaCup was the af2's championship game. For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, the 2005 ArenaCup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana. The 2006 Aren ...

Championship. In 2001, the Steamwheelers nearly repeated that accomplishment by finishing 18-1 and winning a second-straight league title. During this two season span, the Steamwheelers set a record for the longest

winning streak A winning streak, also known as a win streak or hot streak, is an uninterrupted sequence of success in games or competitions, commonly measured by at least 4 wins that are uninterrupted by losses or ties/draws. Although sometimes claimed as a ...

in the af2 at 24 consecutive wins.

Banned from 2002 playoffs

Allegations of rules violations plagued the Steamwheelers during the second season and they were eventually banned from the 2002 playoffs for

salary cap In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Sever ...

violations under Haege.

Second coach

Coached by Rich Ingold from 2002–2004, the Steamwheelers were still successful as they clinched two more division titles. However, the team failed to win any additional league championships and lost 14 games over that three-year span. Ingold left the Steamwheelers after the 2004 season and was replaced by Rick Frazier, former coach for the Milwaukee Mustangs of the

. The 2006 season, under coach Frazier, was the first losing season for the franchise in its history.

New ownership and the search for a new league

In October 2006, the league awarded the right to operate the franchise to a new ownership group. The resulting change in ownership oversaw the change in team leadership from Frazier to new head coach Sean Ponder. Ponder was the team's offensive coordinator during the 2006 season. In 2009, the tenth and final af2 season, the Steamwheelers had their second losing season in franchise history. With the folding of

in 2009, the Steamwheelers considered joining

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 ...

and the newly re-formed

.New league could aid Wheelers return
/ref> They opted to cease operations instead. In 2018, a new Steamwheelers' team returned, but were not under the same operations as the previous team.

Season-by-season

, - , 2000 , , 16 , , 0 , , 0 , , 1st NC , , Won Round 1 (

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...

55–19)
Won Semifinal (

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

75–27)
Won

I (

Tennessee Valley The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North Car ...

68–59) , - , 2001 , , 15 , , 1 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwest , , Won Round 1 ( Macon 80–55)
Won Semifinal ( Carolina 35–16)
Won

II (

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

55–51) , - , 2002 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 2nd NC Midwest , , Banned from playoffs , - , 2003 , , 14 , , 2 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwest , , Lost NC Semifinal (

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

63–61) , - , 2004 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwest , , Lost NC Round 1 (

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

53–48) , - , 2005 , , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 3rd NC Midwest , , Lost NC Round 1 (

Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...

56–38) , - , 2006 , , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 5th AC East , , Did not qualify , - , 2007 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 1st AC Midwest , , Lost AC Round 1 ( Green Bay 39–34) , - , 2008 , , 8 , , 8 , , 0 , , 3rd AC Midwest , , Lost AC Round 1 ( Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 57–29) , - , 2009 , , 5, , 11 , , 0 , , 3rd AC Midwest , , Did not qualify , - !Totals , , 108 , , 53 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

References

External links

Quad City Steamwheelers on ArenaFan
{{Af2 Defunct 2000 establishments in Illinois 2009 disestablishments in Illinois Moline, Illinois Sports clubs and teams in the Quad Cities