The Macon Knights were a professional

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, playing in 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 ...

league. They were a

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

expansion member of af2. They played their home games at

Macon Coliseum The Macon Coliseum is a multi-purpose arena in Macon, Georgia, United States. It is home to the Macon Mayhem, a minor-league hockey team in the SPHL. The Centerplex was home to the Macon Whoopee (ECHL), Macon Whoopee (CHL) and Macon Trax ice ...

. The Knights were owned and operated by Beverly Olson. The Knights were formerly coached by Derek Stingley, who was a Defensive Specialist with the Albany Firebirds in the original Arena Football League. And he also is the son of former

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

Darryl Stingley Darryl Floyd Stingley (September 18, 1951April 5, 2007) was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for five seasons with the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). His career was ended at age 26 by ...

History

The franchise was created in 2001, the second year of the af2. Olson's first successful move as owner operator was to bring in local football star Kevin Porter to coach the upstart team. Porter, an alumnus of

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

, and the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

was also an arena football veteran. Under his leadership, the inaugural team made the playoffs and was named "Expansion Franchise of the Year" by the league. He went on to coach the

New Orleans VooDoo The New Orleans VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were members of the Arena Football League from 2004 to 2015. The VooDoo were the second team to play in the Arena Football League and play in ...

and Kansas City Brigade of the

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

. Two seasons later, Porter led the Knights to the

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 ...

, af2's championship game, where the Knights lost to the

Tulsa Talons Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-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 ...

58–40. Afterwards, he left for the parent AFL and a number of his players followed. Porter was replaced by AFL veteran Mike Hold. Despite his success with other franchises, Hold did not have as good a fortune in Macon. In 2005, after a bad start, Hold was replaced by Derek Stingley. Stingley took a club that had fallen to 2–5 and, by season's end, managed to get them into the playoffs. The Knights however, lost to the

Louisville Fire The Louisville Fire was an arena football team that played its home games at the Brown-Forman Field in Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. They were a 2001 expansion team of the af2. Their owner/operator was former Pro Bowl lineman and Loui ...

in the opening round. After the 2006 season, the team announced they would be shutting down operations. However, on October 10, 2008, the ''

Macon Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', frequently called The Macon Telegraph, is the primary print news organ in Middle Georgia. It is the third-largest newspaper in the State of Georgia (after the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' and ''Augusta Chronicle''). Founde ...

'' reported that an investor is "deeply interested" in relaunching the Knights franchise in Macon, as early as 2009, but no later than 2010.

Head coaches

''Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2006 af2 season.''

Statistics and records

Season-by-season results

''Note: The Finish, Wins, Losses, and Ties columns list regular season results and exclude any postseason play.''

Notes

External links

Official website

Macon Knights on ArenaFan.com

Official Fan Club
{{Af2 Defunct 2001 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2006 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)