 | |
| Founded | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Folded | 2017 |
| Team history |
|
| Based in | Kay Yeager Coliseum inWichita Falls, Texas |
| Home arena |
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| Mascot | Swoop |
| League |
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| Colors | Black, gold, silver, white |
| Personnel | |
| Head coach | Billy Back |
| Team president | Drew Carnes |
| Owner | Drew Carnes |
| Championships | |
| League titles (1) |
|
| Playoff appearances (1) | |
| |
| Website | WFNighthawks.com |
TheWichita Falls Nighthawks were a professionalindoor American football team. They were based inWichita Falls, Texas. The team was headquartered in Wichita Falls and played its home games atKay Yeager Coliseum. The Nighthawks first joined theIndoor Football League as anexpansion team in2015.[1] The Nighthawks were announced as a member ofChampions Indoor Football (CIF) for 2018, however, due to litigation, the team ceased operations for the season.
The franchise started as an outdoorAmerican football team that played in different minor leagues before joining the IFL. Their outdoor home wasMemorial Stadium in Wichita Falls.
The Nighthawks were founded in October 2012 as a minor league outdoor football team by Jerry and Michelle Hughes. They played in the Professional American Football League in 2013 and won the championship.[2] They played in theGridiron Developmental Football League in 2014 but forfeited the season early due to financial struggles.[3][4] Hughes sold the team to Drew Carnes in the summer of 2014. Carnes' intention was to turn the franchise into an indoor football team. On August 25, 2014, the Nighthawks became official members of theIndoor Football League, the top indoor league in the country alongside theArena Football League.[5] On August 26, 2015, James Kerwin was released as the Nighthawks head coach after posting a 4-10 record his first season with the team.[6]
On October 2, 2015, the Nighthawks officially announced that they had hired Billy Back to replace Kerwin. Back had previously been the head coach for theNashville Venom, where he guided the Venom to a 2014Professional Indoor Football League championship.[7] Back helped the Nighthawks highest scoring offense in the IFL and an 11–5 record and their first ever indoor football playoff appearance. The Nighthawks lost their first playoff game 36–66 to theCedar Rapids Titans.[8]
The Nighthawks repeated as the highest scoring offense in the IFL, but with the removal of wildcards from the playoffs, the Nighthawks missed the playoffs. After the 2017 IFL season, owner Drew Carnes applied for membership inChampions Indoor Football in order to lower travel costs and league instability. Carnes had been losing $250,000 each of the previous two seasons with their closest travel game being eight hours away in Grand Island, Nebraska.[9]
On September 12, 2017, the Nighthawks announced that they had joined the CIF and signed a new three-year lease with the Yeager Coliseum. However, in October, the IFL notified the Nighthawks and the CIF of pending litigation against them for their withdrawal from the IFL. The CIF responded by stating they could not schedule the Nighthawks for 2018, leaving the Nighthawks league affiliation undetermined.[10] With the operational costs too high to return to the IFL and the lawsuit preventing them from playing in the CIF, the Nighthawks ceased operations.[11]
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| League Champions | Conference Champions | Division Champions | Playoff berth | League leader |
| Season | Team | League | Conference | Division | Regular season | Postseason results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | Wins | Losses | Ties | ||||||||
| 2015 | 2015 | IFL | Intense | 5th | 4 | 10 | 0 | ||||
| 2016 | 2016 | IFL | United | 3rd | 11 | 5 | 0 | Lost United Conference Wild Card 66–36 vs.Cedar Rapids | |||
| 2017 | 2017 | IFL | United | 3rd | 12 | 4 | 0 | ||||
| Totals | 27 | 19 | 0 | All-time regular season record (2015–2017) | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | — | All-time postseason record (2015–2017) | ||||||||
| 27 | 20 | 0 | All-time regular season and postseason record (2015–2017) | ||||||||
| Name | Term | Regular season | Playoffs | Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | T | Win% | W | L | |||
| James Kerwin | 2015 | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 0 | 0 | |
| Billy Back | 2016–2017 | 23 | 9 | 0 | .719 | 0 | 1 | IFL Coach of the Year (2016) |