The New England Surge were an indoor football team that was a member 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 ...

in 2007 and 2008.The Rise And Fall Of The New England Surge
/ref> The Surge played home games at the

DCU Center The DCU Center (originally Centrum in Worcester, formerly Worcester's Centrum Centre and commonly Worcester Centrum) is an indoor arena and convention center complex in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. The facility hosts a variety of events, ...

in downtown

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. On April 24, 2007, only four games into the team's first season, head coach Rick Buffington was fired, replaced by team president Roy Lucas Jr. The team shut down its operations after the 2008 season. The mascot's name was Surgeo the Leopard.

Season-by-season

, - , 2007 , , 8 , , 4 , , 0 , , 2nd Atlantic , , Won AD Semifinal (

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...

)
Lost AD Championship (

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

) , - , 2008 , , 8 , , 3 , , 0 , , 1st Atlantic East , , Lost AD East Finals (

) , - !Totals , , 17 , , 9 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

2007 season

The Surge started their inaugural season by losing their first two games before Defeating New York/New Jersey by a score of 61–6 in front of a home crowd of 4,724 fans. However, following a 1–3 start, team owner Roy Lucas Jr. fired

Rick Buffington Richard B. Buffington (born April 16, 1945) is an American former American football, football player and coach. After briefly playing college football at BYU Cougars football, BYU, he played for 17–19 different Minor league football (gridiron), ...

and named himself as a coach.Surge Express Blocked By Raiders
/ref> The team would dramatically improve under Lucas winning 7 of their final 8 games en route to a #2 seed in the playoffs. The Surge would defeat the

Lehigh Valley Outlawz The Lehigh Valley Outlawz were a professional indoor football team based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The team began play as a semi-pro team in the Labelle Community Football League as the ''Philly Outlawz''. The team was later a charter member of ...

58–34 in the Atlantic Division Semifinal game before losing 80–45 to 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 ...

in the Championship game. Notable players * Harold Shaw, former New England Patriots

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

* Tyler Grogan, son of former New England Patriots

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Steve Grogan Steven James Grogan (born July 24, 1953) is a former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for sixteen seasons with the New England Patriots. He played college football at Kansas State University and was sel ...

* Marc Eddy * Derek Stephens, Born in Worcester, he played 3 years at Linebacker for the Detroit Lions of the NFL

2007 CIFL standings

2008 season

The Surge would start the 2008 season with a 5–0 record, highlighted by a dramatic 49–41 victory over the Chesapeake Tide and a ferocious rally to defeat the Flint Phantoms 49–48, before losing a 62–20 game against Rochester. They would finish the season with an 8–3 record and won the Atlantic Division East regular-season title. They would go into the playoffs as the #1 seed. On the eve of their semifinal playoff matchup with the

, Offensive Coordinator Jerry Snay abruptly resigned from the team, stating that he had not been paid in two years. The Surge would go on to lose the game by a score of 27–21. This would end up being the last game played by the Surge.

2008 CIFL standings

Team demise

After only two years in existence as a franchise, the team investors stated that the Surge had lost a total of about $577,000. Still, on January 29, 2009, Lucas told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, "we can guarantee there will be indoor football in Worcester in 2009." Shortly thereafter the investors voted 5–1 to remove Lucas as president. The same investors, mostly small business owners and retirees who borrowed some of the money they put up and had no experience in professional sports, allege that Mr. Lucas buried the team with sloppy bookkeeping, poor business practices, and out-of-control spending on hotel rooms, restaurant tabs, rental cars, airline tickets, and marketing expenses. The Surge announced that they would be leaving the CIFL and would be starting a new league (the United States Indoor Football League) along with the

. Three other teams were announced but despite promises, the league never produced a schedule and is presumed defunct. Reasons cited for the huge losses include the $40,000 plus tab the team ran up the first season with the Hilton Garden Inn hotel to house players, as well as money for plane tickets. Several out-of-state players were brought in and housed in the hotel rather than the Surge using local talent. Others cite that Lucas took on too many duties when he named himself the team’s coach and tried to handle on-field duties and the general manager’s job at the same time. Last, the Surge spent a large amount of $107,000 in advertising costs in its first season. On April 3, 2009, Lucas notified The DCU Center that it would be voiding the third and final year on its lease with the Arena. Several court cases have been filed as investors, creditors, as well as players and coaches, have all attempted to recover money owed to them.

References

{{CIFL 2007 establishments in Massachusetts 2009 disestablishments in Massachusetts American football teams established in 2007 American football teams disestablished in 2009 American football teams in Massachusetts Defunct sports teams in Massachusetts Former Continental Indoor Football League teams Sports teams in Worcester, Massachusetts