Founded in 2000 as the Arkansas Twisters, the Little Rock-based team played 10 seasons in af2 before that league folded. The team jumped to the Indoor Football League as the Arkansas Diamonds for the 2010 season. Remaining in the IFL, the team moved to Texas to become the Allen Wranglers for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In 2012, former NFL standout and future hall of famerTerrell Owens played eight games for the Wranglers before being cut in late May.
In 2012, the Wranglers franchise was transferred to a new ownership group and the team was renamed the Texas Revolution for the 2013 season. After five seasons in the IFL, the team moved to the Champions Indoor Football league for that circuit's inaugural season.[1]
History
Arkansas Twisters
The franchise began play as the Arkansas Twisters in 2000 as the only professional football team in the state of Arkansas. The team played 10 seasons as a charter member of af2, the "developmental" league of the original Arena Football League. The Twisters played their home games at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The team enjoyed success on the field, twice reaching the league's championship game. After the AFL took a season off and was forced into bankruptcy in 2009, the af2 was dissolved and the Twisters were announced as a planned charter member of Arena Football 1.[2]
Concerns for stability with Arena Football 1 lead to a November 2009 shift by Arkansas to the Indoor Football League.[3] However, the rights to the Twisters name and logo belonged to Arena Football 1 so the Arkansas franchise held a "name the team" contest in late January and became the Arkansas Diamonds of the IFL's Intense Conference for the 2010 season.[4][5][6] The new team colors for 2010 were Carolina blue, black, and gray.[7] Arena football veteran Danton Barto took over as head coach, leading the team to an 11–3 regular season record and first place in the 2010 Lonestar East Division.[8] The team's playoff run ended with a loss to the Billings Outlaws in the Intense Conference Finals.[9] With the team struggling financially, co-owners Jim Smith and Jeff Everetts announced in September 2009 that the franchise was relocating to Allen, Texas, a prosperous suburb of Dallas.[10][11]
Allen Wranglers
After a name-the-team contest, the team announced on September 29, 2010, it would be called the Allen Wranglers, starting with the 2011 Indoor Football League season.[12][13] The relocated Intense Conference team would play their home games at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas.[14] The team shared the name with a previous indoor football team in Allen, the Texas Wranglers, who played the 2009 and 2010 seasons in the Independent Indoor Football Alliance.
In October 2010, the team announced that Chris MacKeown would be the Wranglers' head coach for the 2011 season.[15][16] Former Dallas Cowboys player Drew Pearson was named general manager of the franchise in early December 2010.[17] The team finished with a 10–4 regular season record and first place in the Lonestar Division. They advanced through two rounds of the IFL playoffs before losing the Intense Conference Championship to the Tri-Cities Fever of Kennewick, Washington.[18][19]
The Wranglers started the 2012 season strong under new head coach Pat Pimmell but after consecutive losses dropped their record to 5–3 in April, Pimmel was let go and the team's offensive and defensive coordinators shared the title "co-interim head coach" through the end of the season.[20][21] The team finished with a 9–5 regular season record and reached the IFL playoffs but lost in the Intense Conference semi-finals to the Wichita Wild.[22]
National attention was focused on the Wranglers in 2012 when NFL veteran wide receiverTerrell Owens joined the team.[23][24] Recovering from surgery and receiving no offers from NFL teams, Owens accepted a generous contract and partial ownership in the franchise to play in Allen.[25][26] He swelled attendance at Wranglers home games. His debut drew a crowd of 5,711 people, larger than the Wranglers' home attendance for the entire 2011 season,[25] but his contract allowed him to skip many away dates.[27][28] Owens was released by the Wranglers on May 29, 2012, with three games left in the season, for his "lack of effort both on and off the field", failure to show up for a scheduled appearance at a children's hospital, and refusal to play in two upcoming road games,[29][30] Along with his release, Owens also relinquished his ownership stake in the team.[31]
In June 2012, Wranglers owner Jon Frankel ceased operations of the team. The IFL then transferred franchise ownership to a new ownership group called Championship Sports Group[32] led by CEO Tommy Benizio, the former IFL commissioner, with co-owners in Tim Brown and Ken Paxton.[33][34] On September 19, 2012, the team unveiled its new name and colors as the Texas Revolution.[35] After three seasons in the Intense Conference, the team was realigned to the United Conference for the 2013 season.[36] In November 2012, the team named Billy Back as head coach for the 2013 season.
After a disappointing 5–9 campaign, the Revolution released head coach Billy Back and hired Chris Williams from the New Mexico Stars.[37][38] The league released its 2014 schedule in late October 2013 with the Revolution staying in the United Conference but the Chicago franchise replaced by the Bemidji Axemen in the 9-team IFL.[39] The team re-signed several key players for 2014 and, in mid-January, announced the signing of running back Jennifer Welter as the first female professional football player for a position other than kicker.[40] The team finished with a 3–11 record, missing the post-season, and head coach Chris Williams resigned after the season.
In late August 2014, the team hired former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Wendell Davis as head coach and director of football operations.[41] Days later, the team announced it was leaving the Indoor Football League for the new Champions Indoor Football.[1][42] The team's 2015 schedule began with a pre-season home game on February 27 and two regular season road games before the home opener on March 20.[42][43][44] On March 30, after just four regular season games, the team released Wendell Davis and promoted defensive coordinator Devin Wyman to head coach.[45] The team made its best playoff run since moving to Allen, advancing to Champions Bowl I but falling to the Sioux City Bandits, 76–61. Later that year, a team and potential regional rival called the Mesquite Marshals were launched in nearby Mesquite for the 2016 season.
In 2017, the Revolution won Champions Bowl III. The team then relocated to Frisco, Texas, and the Dr Pepper Arena for the 2018 season.[46] On April 9, 2018, Victor Mann returned as head coach.[47] The team finished the 2018 season 5–7 but advanced as far as the conference championship, where they lost to the eventual league champion Duke City Gladiators 41–28.
For the 2019 season, the Revolution again moved to a new arena in the Ford Center at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility, on a three-year lease.[48] Sometime just prior to the start of the season, a new ownership group called Owner's Box Inc obtained the majority ownership of the team, keeping Benizio as the CEO. However, after three home games into the 2019 season, the Revolution cancelled their home game scheduled for May 4.[49] The remainder of the team's home games were then cancelled as well and the Ford Center stated that the team's games would no longer be played there.[50] On May 9, the team announced it had ceased operations after the new ownership failed to back its financial obligations.[51]
^"Fever a team of big believers". Tri-City Herald. Kennewick, Washington. July 12, 2011. Retrieved October 11, 2012. That 70th victory came last Saturday, when his Fever beat the host Allen Wranglers 67-46 for the Intense Conference title.
