The Wisconsin Wolfpack was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

franchise based in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The Wolfpack name and brand was used for two teams: an indoor football team in the

Continental Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLI ...

and a traditional (outdoor) football team in the Mid Continental Football League. The indoor team played its home games at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County, Wisconsin, Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin b ...

in its inaugural season of 2009, but moved to the Hartmeyer Arena for the 2010 season. The outdoor team was somewhat

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

throughout its history with regards to where it played its home games, however, outdoor games were generally played in the

Milwaukee metropolitan area The Milwaukee metropolitan area (also known as Metro Milwaukee or Greater Milwaukee) is a major metropolitan area located in Southeastern Wisconsin, consisting of the city of Milwaukee and the surrounding area. There are several definitions of the ...

Indoor history

Prior to the Wolfpack franchise's 2008 outdoor campaign, the Milwaukee Bonecrushers of the

approached the Wolfpack coaches and staff and asked them to assist with the completion of their 2008 season following

Gilbert Brown Gilbert Jesse Brown (born February 22, 1971) is a former American football player. A nose tackle who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (1993–99, 2001–03), Brown played 125 Packers games (103 starts) recording 2 ...

's decision to resign as head coach and the resulting resignation of most of the Bonecrushers' staff. Kopac assumed the role of general manager for the Bonecrushers, and brought with him the core coaches of the Wolfpack outdoor team that would later become the core of the Wolfpack indoor team. Kopac led the team to its only win, a 51-46 victory of the Muskegon Thunder. With infrastructure already in place from the outdoor team, and following the previous year's experience with the Bonecrushers, Wolfpack management announced in early 2009 it would field both indoor and outdoor teams that year. To start the indoor team, Kopac coordinated with Lowe Entertainment, owners of the

Rock River Raptors The Rock River Raptors were a professional indoor football team based in Rockford, Illinois. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. The franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a ...

, also in the CIFL, to have Lowe run the indoor franchise while retaining Kopac as head coach. The Wolfpack were Madison's second indoor football franchise and the first to call Madison home since the

Madison Mad Dogs The Madison Mad Dogs were an indoor football team that played in the Professional Indoor Football League ( PIFL) in 1998, and in the Indoor Football League (IFL) in 1999 & 2000. The Mad Dogs franchise was owned by Keary Ecklund. The team office ...

folded in 2001. The Wolfpack played its inaugural season's home games at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the campus of the

Alliant Energy Center Alliant Energy Center (formerly Dane County Coliseum) is a multi-building complex located in unincorporated Madison, Wisconsin. It comprises of greenspace and includes the Exhibition Hall, the 10,000-seat Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Willow ...

and used

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has ...

previously belonging to the Pensacola Barracudas 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 ru ...

. In its inaugural season, the team finished 7-5 and qualified for the CIFL Playoffs, The team started 5-1 but struggled late in the season after former All-American UW-Platteville quarterback Tom Stetzer was lost to injury. The Wolfpack would fall to the eventual undefeated CIFL champion

Chicago Slaughter The Chicago Slaughter were an American professional football team based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Having been inactive since 2013, the franchise was a part of the CIFL from 2007 to 2009, winning the championship in 2009. The Slaughter joine ...

in the 2009 CIFL Western Conference Championship Game, 63-19. For 2010, the Wolfpack chose to move its home games to the Hartmeyer Arena on the northeast side of Madison. 2010 also saw the team stock its roster with more players from the nearby

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin). They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level (NCAA Di ...

football program. Joining defensive lineman Kurt Ware and linebacker James Kamoku from the 2009 Wolfpack would be tight end Andy Crooks, safety Josh Nettles, defensive lineman Ricky Garner, offensive lineman Kenny Jones and, following a season-ending injury to quarterback Brian Ryczkowski, Matt Schabert. Under Schabert's guidance, the Wolfpack had its most successful season to date, indoor or outdoor, finishing the regular season 8-2 and becoming the only team to defeat the then-undefeated

Cincinnati Commandos The Cincinnati Commandos were a professional indoor football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team suspended operations for the 2013 season, with hope of returning in 2014. They began play in 2010 as an expansion team in the Continental Indoo ...

. The Wolfpack would win its first-ever home playoff game, beating the Fort Wayne FireHawks, 25-24, before falling to the Commandos in the 2010 CIFL Championship Game, 54-40, in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

Season-by-season

, - ,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, , 7 , , 5 , , 0 , , 2nd, Western , , Lost Western Division Championship (

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

) , - ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, , 8 , , 2 , , 0 , , 2nd , , Won Semifinals ( Fort Wayne)
Lost

CIFL Championship Game The CIFL Championship Game was the annual championship game of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL). In 2006, it was the meeting of the two semifinal game winners. Following the 2007 and 2008 season, the game was between the Great Lakes ...

(

) , - !Totals , , 16 , , 9 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

Outdoor Wolfpack

Season-by-season

, - , 2008 , , 8 , , 2 , , 1 , , NAFL: 2nd, Dells , , Won Round 1 ( Kane County)
Lost Round 2 ( Indianapolis) , - , 2009 , , 3 , , 5 , , 0 , , MCFL: 3rd, North , , , - , 2010 , , 1 , , 6 , , 0 , , MCFL: T-7th , , Mid-States Tournament
Won Round 1 (

Chicago Falcons The Chicago Falcons were an American soccer team which won the 1953 National Challenge Cup, the precursor to the US Open Cup, and also participated in the Chicago-area National Soccer League in the 1950s. The Falcons won promotion to the NSL Majo ...

)
Won Round 2 ( Michigan Gators)
NFE Florida Bowl
Lost (Orlando Rage) , - !Totals , , 15 , , 15 , , 1 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

Racine Raiders merger

After much speculation, the Racine Journal Times reported on December 9, 2010, that Jordan Kopac would return to coaching the Racine Raiders in 2011. This effectively marked the end of the Wolfpack as a franchise.

References

{{Wisconsinsports 2009 establishments in Wisconsin 2010 disestablishments in Wisconsin