The Colorado Crush were a professional indoor football team. The Crush played its home games at the

Budweiser Events Center The Blue Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Loveland, Colorado, northeast of Denver. It has 24 luxury suites, 777 club seats and 6,800 general admission seats. The arena is located on The Ranch Events Complex (formerly the Larimer County Fairgrou ...

Loveland, Colorado Loveland is a List of cities and towns in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality and the List of cities and towns in Colorado, second most populous municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Loveland is situated n ...

, outside

Fort Collins A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

. The Crush began play in 2007 as the Colorado Ice, an expansion member of

United Indoor Football United Indoor Football (UIF) was an indoor American 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 ...

(UIF) and joined the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional indoor American football league in the United States. The league comprises 14 teams, divided equally between the Eastern Conference (EC) and Western Conference ...

as part of the UIF-

Intense Football League The Intense Football League (IFL) was a professional indoor football minor league that began operations in 2004. Its focus was in Texas, but it was notable for being the first professional football league to place a franchise in Alaska. History ...

merger of 2009. Ahead of the 2016 season, the team changed its name to the Colorado Crush, after the

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he then spent 1 ...

-owned team of the same name that played in 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 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

from

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

until its suspension of operations in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Despite the same name, this Crush organization is not connected to the original.

History

In July 2006, Colorado real estate executive, Danny DeGrande, was awarded an expansion franchise of

to begin play in 2007. The Ice were a sub-.500 team during their first four years of existence but still managed to make the playoffs twice in 2007 and 2009. On April 1, 2010, Tom Wigley was announced as the new owner of the Ice. The 2011 season saw an overhaul of the team's roster and a reversal of its fortunes as the Ice began the season with seven straight wins and finished with an 11–3 record plus the Mountain West Division title and their first winning season. The Ice fell to the

Tri-Cities Fever The Tri-Cities Fever was a professional indoor American football, 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. ...

in the first round of the playoffs. This was Collins Sanders' last season as head coach before his promotion to general manager in 2012. In 2012, Heron O'Neal was hired as head coach. They recorded an 8–6 record and reached the playoffs but lost to the

in the first round. O'Neal returned as head coach for 2013 and a strong start with three consecutive home wins. Both of the Ice's 2012 All-IFL Team players returned for the 2013 season. Heron O'Neal returned as head coach for a third season in 2014. From 2011 to 2014, the team made the playoffs for four straight seasons but remained winless in the postseason. They competed Intense Conference Championship game in back-to-back seasons, losing both to the

Nebraska Danger The Nebraska Danger was a professional indoor American football, indoor football team based in Grand Island, Nebraska, and a member of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The team was founded in 2011 by Charlie Bosselman as an expansion member of ...

. On July 15, 2015, the Colorado Ice became the new Colorado Crush one year after the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

for the original AFL franchise name expired. On March 7, 2016, owner Thomas Wigley announced the team was for sale after he was diagnosed as terminally ill. Wigley assured that the team would finish 2016 season, but due to his health he would not be able to continue operations himself. In October 2016, the Crush's new owners were announced as Project FANchise, a group that also started the 2017 expansion

Salt Lake Screaming Eagles The Salt Lake Screaming Eagles were a professional indoor football team based in West Valley City, Utah, near Salt Lake City. The Screaming Eagles started as an expansion team in the Indoor Football League (IFL) and began play in 2017 with hom ...

. Project FANchise-owned teams planned to be operated in conjunction with fan input by allowing them vote on every aspect of the team including hiring the head coach, signing players, and calling plays. Due to purchasing the team late in the offseason, this system was not implemented for the Crush in the 2017 season. However, during their first season under Project FANchise, it was announced that FANchise was planning its own league for the 2018 season, called the Interactive Football League, and would not be operating any teams in the Indoor Football League. After the 2017 season ended, the Crush website was shut down and no formal announcement on the team's future was made.

Players

Final roster

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all Ice/Crush players who have won league Awards

All-IFL players

The following Ice players have been named to All-IFL Teams: * QB Willie Copeland (1) * WR Kyle Kaiser (4), Demarius Washington (1) * OL Collin Cordell (1), Michael Trice (2), James Atoe (1) * DL Gabe Knapton (1), Michael Stover (1), Jason Jones (1) * LB Landon Jones (1) * LB/DB Joe Thornton (1) * DB Idly Etienne (1), Jovan Jackson (1), Corey Sample (2), Rashard Smith (1) * K Aric Goodman (1) * KR Daniel Lindsey (1) * Ironman Eryk Anders (1)

Individual awards

Staff

Statistics and records

Season-by-season results

Head coach records

Radio

Games and weekly coach's show are broadcast on KFKA (1310 AM).

References

External links

* {{Colorado Crush (IFL) seasons United Indoor Football teams Former Indoor Football League teams Sports in Fort Collins, Colorado Loveland, Colorado American football teams in Colorado 2006 establishments in Colorado American football teams established in 2006 2017 disestablishments in Colorado American football teams disestablished in 2017