The Louisville Fire was an

arena football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

team that played its home games at the Brown-Forman Field in Freedom Hall in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. They were a 2001 expansion team of the af2. Their owner/operator was former

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

lineman and Louisville native

Will Wolford William Charles Wolford (born May 18, 1964) is a former American football offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Buffalo Bills, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Playing career Wolford attended St. Xav ...

. The team was somewhat successful. After a rocky first few seasons they finally found success in 2004 and then made it all the way to the Arena Cup in the 2005 season. On December 19, 2001,

Jeff Brohm Jeffrey Scott Brohm (born April 24, 1971) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current head football coach of the Louisville Cardinals. Brohm played college football at the University of Louisville for coach Howard Sc ...

was named the head coach of the Louisville Fire

team. The Fire started the 0–7 before they defeated the

Carolina Rhinos The Carolina Rhinos were one of the original 15 teams to join the inaugural 2000 AF2 season. They were members of the American Conference for their entirety of existence, and the Eastern Division in 2001 and 2002. In their first year, they won 7 ...

31–28 to improve to 1–7. The Fire would finish the season 2–14. In 2003, English was hired to replace Brohm as the head coach of the Louisville Fire af2 team. He was fired after just two games with a record of 2–2. In July 2007, it was announced that the team planned on selling portions of the team to local ownership (aka the NFL's

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the t ...

) in an attempt to boost season ticket sales and then buy the shares back in time before the team joined the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

.Louisville Fire Press Release: Fire seek season ticket and ownership support in quest for AFL
/ref> In November 2008, the Louisville Fire ceased operations.

Award winners

* 2004 – Takua Furutani – International Player of the Year * 2005 –

Matthew Sauk Matthew Sauk (born March 15, 1976) is an arena football coach and former quarterback. He played college football at Utah State, was an af2 quarterback from 2001 to 2005, and an AFL quarterback from 2002 to 2008. He has been a football coach si ...

– Offensive Player of the Year * 2005 – Danny Kight – Kicker of the Year * 2006 – Brett Dietz – Rookie of the Year * 2006 – Rob Mager – Offensive Player of the Year * 2008 – Elizabeth "Liz" Horrall – Miss Louisville Fire Football

Season-by-season

Birmingham Steeldogs against the Louisville Fire

, - , 2001 , , 6 , , 10 , , 0 , , 6th NC Midwest , , -- , - , 2002 , , 2 , , 14 , , 0 , , 4th NC Midwest , , -- , - , 2003 , , 5 , , 11 , , 0 , , 3rd NC Midwest , , -- , - , 2004 , , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 2nd NC Midwest , , Won NC Round 1 ( Quad City 53–48)
Lost NC Semifinal (

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

49–42) , - , 2005 , , 11 , , 5 , , 0 , , 2nd AC East , , Won AC Round 1 ( Macon 55–54)
Won AC Semifinal (

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

69–56)
Won AC Championship (

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

70–40)
Lost

ArenaCup The ArenaCup was the af2's championship game. For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, the 2005 ArenaCup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana. The 2006 Ar ...

VI ( Memphis 63–41) , - , 2006 , , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 4th AC East , , Lost AC Round 1 ( Memphis 83–61) , - , 2007 , , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 3rd AC Midwest , , Won AC Round 1 (

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

62–35)
Lost AC Semifinals ( Green Bay 37–27) , - , 2008 , , 8 , , 8 , , 0 , , 4th AC Midwest , , -- , - !Totals , , 62 , , 71 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

Coaching staff

References

External links

* Defunct af2 teams American football teams in Kentucky American football teams established in 2001 American football teams disestablished in 2008 2001 establishments in Kentucky 2008 disestablishments in Kentucky {{Louisville-sport-stub

Award winners

Season-by-season

Coaching staff

See also

References

External links