The Tallahassee Thunder were an

arena football Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, an ...

team based in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

. They were inaugural members 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 r ...

, 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 ...

's developmental league. They played for three seasons from 2000 to 2002, when they folded. They played their home games at the Tallahassee–Leon County Civic Center. The Thunder were established in 1999 and played in the af2's inaugural 2000 season. The team made the playoffs during their final two seasons but first-round losses to the

Tennessee Valley Vipers Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

and the

Florida Firecats The Florida Firecats were a professional arena football team based in Estero, Florida. They played in the AF2, the Arena Football League's developmental league, from 2001 to 2009. They did not join the AFL following the leagues' reorganization i ...

(respectively) contributed to the disbanding of the franchise after the 2002 season. The team's

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

was the Thunder King, a big fuzzy brown

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

who has found other work since the dissolution. After the dissolution of the Thunder, Tallahassee would be without an arena or indoor football team until they were granted the

Tallahassee Titans The Tallahassee Titans were an American Indoor Football Association team that began play as a 2007 member. The team played its home games at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Florida. History The owner of the team, David Morris had bee ...

franchise by the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) is a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

in 2006.

Record season-by-season

, - , 2000 , , 5 , , 11 , , 0 , , 7th NC , , -- , - , 2001 , , 11 , , 5 , , 0 , , 1st AC Southeastern , , Lost Round 1 (

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 C ...

70, Tallahassee 52) , - , 2002 , , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 1st AC Southern , , Lost Round 1 (

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

43, Tallahassee 31) , - !Totals , , 25 , , 25 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

References

External links

Tallahassee Thunder on ArenaFan.com
{{Af2 Defunct Defunct af2 teams American football teams in Florida Arena Football League in Florida Sports in Tallahassee, Florida American football teams established in 1999 American football teams disestablished in 2002 1999 establishments in Florida 2002 disestablishments in Florida History of Tallahassee, Florida