The Texas Revolution were an American professional indoor football team and a founding member of

Champions Indoor Football Champions Indoor Football (CIF) is a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team fr ...

(CIF). The Revolution were based in

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...

and

Frisco, Texas Frisco is a city in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Its population was 200,509 at the 2 ...

, within the

Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchor ...

. Founded in 2000 as the Arkansas Twisters, the

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

-based team played 10 seasons in af2 before that league folded. The team jumped to the

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 am ...

as the Arkansas Diamonds for the 2010 season. Remaining in the IFL, the team moved to Texas to become the Allen Wranglers for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In 2012, former NFL standout and future hall of famer

Terrell Owens Terrell Eldorado Owens (; born December 7, 1973), nicknamed T.O., is an American football wide receiver for the Knights of Degen of Fan Controlled Football (FCF). He previously played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. Regar ...

played eight games for the Wranglers before being cut in late May. In 2012, the Wranglers franchise was transferred to a new ownership group and the team was renamed the Texas Revolution for the 2013 season. After five seasons in the IFL, the team moved to the

league for that circuit's inaugural season.

History

Arkansas Twisters

The franchise began play as the Arkansas Twisters in 2000 as the only professional football team in the state of

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 O ...

. The team played 10 seasons as a charter member of af2, the "developmental" league of the original

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 ...

. The Twisters played their home games at

Verizon Arena Simmons Bank Arena (previously Verizon Arena and Alltel Arena) is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas, directly across the Arkansas River from downtown Little Rock. Opened in October 1999, it is the main entertainme ...

North Little Rock, Arkansas North Little Rock is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, across the Arkansas from Little Rock in the central part of the state. The population was 64,591 at the 2020 census. In 2019 the estimated population was 65,903, making it the seventh-mo ...

. The team enjoyed success on the field, twice reaching the league's championship game. After the AFL took a season off and was forced into

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

in 2009, the af2 was dissolved and the Twisters were announced as a planned charter member of

Arena Football 1 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 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-running ...

Arkansas Diamonds

Concerns for stability with Arena Football 1 lead to a November 2009 shift by Arkansas to the

. However, the rights to the Twisters name and logo belonged to Arena Football 1 so the Arkansas franchise held a "name the team" contest in late January and became the Arkansas Diamonds of the IFL's Intense Conference for the 2010 season. The new team colors for 2010 were Carolina blue, black, and gray. Arena football veteran Danton Barto took over as head coach, leading the team to an 11–3 regular season record and first place in the 2010 Lonestar East Division. The team's playoff run ended with a loss to the Billings Outlaws in the Intense Conference Finals. With the team struggling financially, co-owners Jim Smith and Jeff Everetts announced in September 2009 that the franchise was relocating to

Allen, Texas Allen is a city in Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas, and a northern suburb of Dallas. According to the 2020 U.S. census its population was 104,627, up from 84,246 in 2010. Allen is located approximately twenty miles (32.2 km) nor ...

, a prosperous suburb of

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Allen Wranglers

After a name-the-team contest, the team announced on September 29, 2010, it would be called the Allen Wranglers, starting with the 2011 Indoor Football League season. The relocated Intense Conference team would play their home games at the

Allen Event Center The Credit Union of Texas Event Center (formerly Allen Event Center) is an American 6,275 fixed-seat multi-purpose indoor arena located in Allen, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. The arena opened in 2009 under the name Allen Event Center. Con ...

. The team shared the name with a previous indoor football team in Allen, the Texas Wranglers, who played the 2009 and 2010 seasons in the

Independent Indoor Football Alliance The Independent Indoor Football Alliance (IIFA) was a professional indoor football league based in the state of Texas. The league played an abbreviated 2009 season punctuated by a number of forfeits. The league grew and had tighter restrictions ...

. In October 2010, the team announced that Chris MacKeown would be the Wranglers' head coach for the 2011 season. Former

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

player Drew Pearson was named

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the franchise in early December 2010. The team finished with a 10–4 regular season record and first place in the Lonestar Division. They advanced through two rounds of the IFL playoffs before losing the Intense Conference Championship to the

Tri-Cities Fever The Tri-Cities Fever were a professional indoor football franchise based in Kennewick, Washington. The Fever joined National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2005 as an expansion team. The Fever were owned by Teri Carr. From 2005 to 2016, the Fe ...

Kennewick, Washington Kennewick () is a city in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the C ...

. The Wranglers started the 2012 season strong under new head coach Pat Pimmell but after consecutive losses dropped their record to 5–3 in April, Pimmel was let go and the team's offensive and defensive coordinators shared the title "co-interim head coach" through the end of the season. The team finished with a 9–5 regular season record and reached the IFL playoffs but lost in the Intense Conference semi-finals to the Wichita Wild. National attention was focused on the Wranglers in 2012 when NFL veteran wide receiver

joined the team. Recovering from surgery and receiving no offers from NFL teams, Owens accepted a generous contract and partial ownership in the franchise to play in Allen. He swelled attendance at Wranglers home games. His debut drew a crowd of 5,711 people, larger than the Wranglers' home attendance for the entire 2011 season, but his contract allowed him to skip many away dates. Owens was released by the Wranglers on May 29, 2012, with three games left in the season, for his "lack of effort both on and off the field", failure to show up for a scheduled appearance at a children's hospital, and refusal to play in two upcoming road games, Along with his release, Owens also relinquished his ownership stake in the team.

Texas Revolution

In June 2012, Wranglers owner Jon Frankel ceased operations of the team. The IFL then transferred franchise ownership to a new ownership group called Championship Sports Group led by CEO Tommy Benizio, the former IFL commissioner, with co-owners in Tim Brown and

Ken Paxton Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton has described himself as a Tea Party conservative. Paxton was re-elected to a t ...

. On September 19, 2012, the team unveiled its new name and colors as the Texas Revolution. After three seasons in the Intense Conference, the team was realigned to the United Conference for the 2013 season. In November 2012, the team named Billy Back as head coach for the 2013 season. After a disappointing 5–9 campaign, the Revolution released head coach Billy Back and hired Chris Williams from the

New Mexico Stars The New Mexico Stars were a professional indoor football team based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The Stars played their home games at the Santa Ana Star Center. They began play in the Indoor Football League (IFL) during the 2012 season as an expa ...

. The league released its 2014 schedule in late October 2013 with the Revolution staying in the United Conference but the Chicago franchise replaced by the Bemidji Axemen in the 9-team IFL. The team re-signed several key players for 2014 and, in mid-January, announced the signing of running back

Jennifer Welter Jennifer Welter (born October 27, 1977) is an American football coach who is currently linebackers coach for the Vegas Vipers of the XFL. She was a defensive coaching intern for the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals during the ...

as the first female professional football player for a position other than kicker. The team finished with a 3–11 record, missing the post-season, and head coach Chris Williams resigned after the season. In late August 2014, the team hired former

cornerback

Wendell Davis Wendell Tyrone Davis (born January 3, 1966) is a former professional American football wide receiver who played for the Chicago Bears for six seasons from 1988 to 1993. He was selected by the Bears in the 1st round (27th overall) in the 1988 N ...

as head coach and director of football operations. Days later, the team announced it was leaving the

for the new

. The team's 2015 schedule began with a pre-season home game on February 27 and two regular season road games before the home opener on March 20. On March 30, after just four regular season games, the team released Wendell Davis and promoted defensive coordinator

Devin Wyman Devin Edward Wyman (born August 29, 1973) is a former American football player. On March 30, 2015, he was named head coach for the Texas Revolution of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. Personal life Wyman was born on August 29, 1973 i ...

to head coach. The team made its best playoff run since moving to Allen, advancing to

Champions Bowl I Champions Bowl I was the inaugural title game of Champions Indoor Football. It was played on June 20, 2015, at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa. The one-seed Sioux City Bandits defeated the two-seed Texas Revolution by a score of 76� ...

but falling to the

Sioux City Bandits The Sioux City Bandits are a professional indoor football team based in Sioux City, Iowa, and compete as a member of Champions Indoor Football (CIF). The team was founded in 1999 as the Sioux City Attack. In 2001, the team assumed their current ...

, 76–61. Later that year, a team and potential regional rival called the

Mesquite Marshals Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

were launched in nearby

Mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under gr ...

for the 2016 season. In 2017, the Revolution won Champions Bowl III. The team then relocated to

, and the

Dr Pepper Arena Comerica Center (previously Deja Blue Arena and Dr Pepper Arena) is a multi-purpose arena in Frisco, Texas. It is the home of the Texas Legends of the NBA G League and the Frisco Fighters of the Indoor Football League, as well as the executive o ...

for the 2018 season. On April 9, 2018, Victor Mann returned as head coach. The team finished the 2018 season 5–7 but advanced as far as the conference championship, where they lost to the eventual league champion

Duke City Gladiators The Duke City Gladiators are a professional indoor football team based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, a suburb of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They began play in March 2015 as members of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. The Gladiators played a ...

41–28. For the 2019 season, the Revolution again moved to a new arena in the

Ford Center at The Star Ford Center at The Star is a 12,000-seat indoor stadium located in Frisco, Texas. Its main use is as the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility. It is also used for Whataburger's Friday Night Stars, an event every Friday showcasing Frisco Independent ...

, the

' practice facility, on a three-year lease. Sometime just prior to the start of the season, a new ownership group called Owner's Box Inc obtained the majority ownership of the team, keeping Benizio as the CEO. However, after three home games into the 2019 season, the Revolution cancelled their home game scheduled for May 4. The remainder of the team's home games were then cancelled as well and the Ford Center stated that the team's games would no longer be played there. On May 9, the team announced it had ceased operations after the new ownership failed to back its financial obligations.

Season-by-season results

Players

All-IFL players

The following Revolution players have been named to All-IFL Teams: * RB Darius Fudge (1) * WR

Clinton Solomon Clinton Solomon (born October 21, 1983) is an American football wide receiver for the Texas Revolution of Champions Indoor Football (CIF). He played college football at the University of Iowa. College career Solomon signed to play football f ...

(1) * DL Demario Dixon (1) * LB James Lancaster (1) * LB/DB Javicz Jones (1) * DB Joey Longoria (1), Frankie Solomon, Jr. (3)

Notable players

* WR

* RB

References

External links

Texas Revolution official website
{{Af2 Defunct 2013 establishments in Texas 2019 disestablishments in Texas