The Tucson Sugar Skulls are a professional indoor football team based in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, that competes in 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 ...

(IFL). The Sugar Skulls began play in the 2019 season 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 team plays its home games at

Tucson Convention Center The Tucson Convention Center (previously named the Tucson Community Center) is a multi-purpose convention center located in downtown Tucson, Arizona. Built in 1971, the location includes an 8,962-seat indoor arena, two performing arts venues, a ...

's Tucson Arena. The franchise is led by owners Cathy Guy, wife of

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

' head coach

Kevin Guy Kevin Guy (born December 6, 1972) is an arena football coach and former wide receiver and defensive back who is the head coach for the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League (IFL). He played his college football at the University of West ...

, and Ali Farhang. Their head coach is Billy Back.

History

The franchise was announced by the ownership group led by Kevin and Cathy Guy at a press conference held on August 23, 2018, at the Tucson Convention Center. As

was also the head coach of the

, Cathy was named the majority owner of the Tucson team to oversee primary operations along with Mike Feder and Ali Farhang. The team announced

Marcus Coleman Marcus Coleman (born May 24, 1974) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets, Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys. He played coll ...

as its first head coach on September 12, 2018. The team name was revealed on September 20, 2018, after a name-the-team contest originating from the local tradition of creating

sugar skull A calavera (Spanish – for "skull"), in the context of the Day of the Dead, is a representation of a human skull or skeleton. The term is often applied to edible or decorative skulls made (usually with molds) from either sugar (called Alfeñi ...

s for

Día de Muertos The Day of the Dead () is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pa ...

(

Day of the Dead The Day of the Dead () is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pa ...

) and the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

holiday of

All Souls Day All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. In Western Christianity, including Roman Catholicism and certain p ...

. The team qualified for the playoffs in their first season with a 7–7 record. They lost to the eventual league champion

Sioux Falls Storm The Sioux Falls Storm are a dormant professional indoor football team based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Storm joined the original Indoor Football League as an expansion team in 1999 as the Sioux Falls Cobras, and first took the field for ...

50–47 in the first round. After the season, the Sugar Skulls hired two-time IFL coach of the year Dixie Wooten away from the

Iowa Barnstormers The Iowa Barnstormers are a professional indoor football team based in Des Moines, Iowa, that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). They play their home games at Wells Fargo Arena, known in indoor football circles as "The Well". Sever ...

as head coach and general manager for the 2020 season. However, the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

before the Sugar Skulls played any games.

Personnel

Current roster

Staff

Statistics

Season-by-season results

Head coaches

''Note: Statistics are correct through the 2022 IFL season.''

References

External links

* {{Arizona Sports American football teams in Arizona Indoor Football League teams American football teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in Arizona Sports clubs and teams in Tucson, Arizona