The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member 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 ...

and played their home games at iWireless Center in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in the 2020 census, it is the largest city in Rock Island County and the List of municipalities in Illinois, ninth-most populous in Illinois outside ...

. The team was founded on September 1, 1999, when the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...

was awarded an arena football franchise. Managing owner (and inventor of arena football) Jim Foster coined the team's nickname. In December 2009, it was confirmed that the Steamwheelers had ceased operations, opting not to join the new Arena Football League after the bankruptcy of 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 ...

and subsequent disbanding of

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 ...

Team history

Back-to-back ArenaCup wins

The Steamwheelers played their inaugural season in 2000 and dominated the league for its first two seasons. They went undefeated in 2000 behind coach Frank Haege, even winning one game by a score of 103-3 over Greensboro in Greensboro, en route to capturing the first-ever ArenaCup Championship. In 2001, the Steamwheelers nearly repeated that accomplishment by finishing 18-1 and winning a second-straight league title. During this two season span, the Steamwheelers set a record for the longest winning streak in the af2 at 24 consecutive wins.

Banned from 2002 playoffs

Allegations of rules violations plagued the Steamwheelers during the second season and they were eventually banned from the 2002 playoffs for

salary cap In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Seve ...

violations under Haege.

Second coach

Coached by Rich Ingold from 2002–2004, the Steamwheelers were still successful as they clinched two more division titles. However, the team failed to win any additional league championships and lost 14 games over that three-year span. Ingold left the Steamwheelers after the 2004 season and was replaced by Rick Frazier, former coach for the Milwaukee Mustangs of the

. The 2006 season, under coach Frazier, was the first losing season for the franchise in its history.

New ownership and the search for a new league

In October 2006, the league awarded the right to operate the franchise to a new ownership group. The resulting change in ownership oversaw the change in team leadership from Frazier to new head coach Sean Ponder. Ponder was the team's offensive coordinator during the 2006 season. In 2009, the tenth and final af2 season, the Steamwheelers had their second losing season in franchise history. With the folding of

in 2009, the Steamwheelers considered joining

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 ...

and the newly re-formed

.New league could aid Wheelers return
/ref> They opted to cease operations instead. In 2018, a new Steamwheelers' team returned, but were not under the same operations as the previous team.

Season-by-season

, - , 2000 , , 16 , , 0 , , 0 , , 1st NC , , Won Round 1 (

Pensacola Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which ha ...

55–19)
Won Semifinal (

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

75–27)
Won ArenaCup I (

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 ...

68–59) , - , 2001 , , 15 , , 1 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwest , , Won Round 1 ( Macon 80–55)
Won Semifinal ( Carolina 35–16)
Won ArenaCup II ( Richmond 55–51) , - , 2002 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 2nd NC Midwest , , Banned from playoffs , - , 2003 , , 14 , , 2 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwest , , Lost NC Semifinal (

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

63–61) , - , 2004 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 1st NC Midwest , , Lost NC Round 1 (

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

53–48) , - , 2005 , , 9 , , 7 , , 0 , , 3rd NC Midwest , , Lost NC Round 1 ( Rio Grande Valley 56–38) , - , 2006 , , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 5th AC East , , Did not qualify , - , 2007 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 1st AC Midwest , , Lost AC Round 1 ( Green Bay 39–34) , - , 2008 , , 8 , , 8 , , 0 , , 3rd AC Midwest , , Lost AC Round 1 ( Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 57–29) , - , 2009 , , 5, , 11 , , 0 , , 3rd AC Midwest , , Did not qualify , - !Totals , , 108 , , 53 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

References

External links

Quad City Steamwheelers on ArenaFan
{{Af2 Defunct 2000 establishments in Illinois 2009 disestablishments in Illinois Moline, Illinois Sports clubs and teams in the Quad Cities American football teams established in 2000 American football teams disestablished in 2009