The Fort Worth Cavalry was an Arena Football League team which operated for a single season, 1994 , in the National Conference. The league did not want to abandon the idea of having a franchise in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex , a major media market , after the demise of the Dallas Texans (1990–1993), and granted a new franchise to an ownership group in Fort Worth . The team was owned by Peter "Woody" Kern and led by head coach Michael Trigg . The team struggled with ticket sales and financial issues lead to the team being folded after the 1994 season.
23-644: In December 1993, the Arena Football League announced that Fort Worth would join the league as one of three expansion teams for 1994. The Fort Worth Cavalry franchise was owned by businessman and minor-league baseball team owner Peter "Woody" Kern. The Fort Worth franchise replaced the Dallas Texans as the Metroplex's Arena League representative. Kern folded the team after the 1994 season due to attendance and revenue problems then, in 1995, sold
46-763: A member of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team played for four seasons, and were relatively successful, making the playoffs three out of four seasons. They played their home games in the Reunion Arena , which they shared with the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association . In 1990, owner H. Lanier Richey brought the Arena Football League to the state of Texas for the first time. Richey named former Pittsburgh Steeler , Ernie Stautner as
69-595: A playoff home game, the Texans did not have the money in their budget to host a game and were forced to travel. The Texans traveled to Albany, New York to play the Firebirds, where they earned a 48–45 victory to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs. The Texans would lose the following week to the eventual champion, the Detroit Drive . In 1993, Young left the Texans to take a job as the linebackers coach with
92-577: A quarterback led the Detroit Drive to the 1989 and 1990 Arena Bowl championships. After Trigg retired as a player, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach at ETSU and three seasons as offensive coordinator for the AFL's Dallas Texans . After the financial collapse of the Cavalry after the 1994 season, Trigg moved on to become the head coach of the Milwaukee Mustangs in 1995. In his role as
115-762: A replacement facility, the league folded the team. Milwaukee was left without an arena football team until 2008, with the formation of the Milwaukee Bonecrushers of the Continental Indoor Football League , who played their home games at the U.S. Cellular Arena . A year later, the Milwaukee Iron began play in the Arena Football 2 League across the street at the Bradley Center. In January 2011, it
138-472: The Cowboys release him. In late April 1994, Fort Worth signed Steve Berry to play wide receiver and defensive back. Berry was one of 30 prospective players (along with quarterbacks Todd Hammel and Kyle Mackey plus wideout Robert Kirksey) in the Cavalry training camp and pre-season rosters. Before the regular season began, the roster was trimmed to the league maximum of 23 players. Ultimately, Mackey split
161-532: The Denver Broncos. Kramer hired former Drive and Firebirds assistant, Jerry Trice to be the team's new head coach. The Texans finished the season a disappointing 3–9, but still qualified for the playoffs, losing in the first round. In October, the Texans were dropped from the AFL due to being unable to meeting financial requirements. In 2000, Jerry Jones was awarded an expansion franchise in Dallas. Jones
184-568: The Milwaukee area, the Mustangs helped fill the void left by the Packers. The team never finished lower than eighth in seasonal attendance, regularly drawing in the 14,000's and 15,000's (at a time when average attendance was approx. 8,500). The Mustangs even led the AFL in attendance in 1996. After the 2001 season, the Mustangs lost their lease at the Bradley Center. When it was unable to find
207-535: The Texans had to replace head coach Stautner (who had left for a job with the Denver Broncos ), and did so by signing former Cowboys legend, Drew Pearson . Before the season began, the Texans traded Bennett to the Orlando Predators , after Bennett stated his displeasure with the Texans. The team replaced Bennett with former NFL running back, Alfred Jenkins. The Texans started off in the middle of
230-651: The Texans' first coach in franchise history. The Texans made a noise in May, when they traded 4 players to the Albany Firebirds , for former MVP Ben Bennett and former Ironman of the Year, Carl Aikens, Jr. Stautner lead the Texans to a 6–2 regular season record, and was named the AFL's Coach of the Year. The Texans made the ArenaBowl their first season of existence, falling to the Detroit Drive 51–27. In 1991,
253-427: The arena and a sideline advertisement urging Cavalry fans to "Call 1-800-NUDE BAR". On December 13, 1993, the Cavalry, Las Vegas Sting , and Milwaukee Mustangs participated in the 1994 AFL Expansion Draft. Fort Worth acquired 16 players, one in each round, including 9 former Dallas Texans . One of these, then-current Dallas Cowboys player Lincoln Coleman , was chosen in the 16th round to secure his rights should
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#1732786568515276-552: The end of the 1990 Arena Football League season . Milwaukee Mustangs (1994%E2%80%932001) The Milwaukee Mustangs were a professional arena football team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . The team was a member of the Arena Football League , playing from 1994 to 2001 . The owner of the Mustangs was Andrew Vallozzi. The Mustangs played their home games at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . The team
299-594: The franchise to concert promoter Doug Logan and purchased a majority stake in the rival Tampa Bay Storm . The team struggled to find buyers for season tickets . In addition to ongoing season-ticket sales, the club began selling single-game tickets for the 1994 season on May 2, 1994. To drum up regional interest in the team and the sport, the Cavalry's first pre-season game was played at the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City . The game
322-506: The pack going 3–2 through the first 5 games, before finishing the season 1–4 in the final 5 games. Their 4–6 record was not enough to qualify for the playoffs. On February 21, 1992, Richey sold the franchise to Kent Kramer and Greg Gibson. Kramer replaced Pearson at head coach with Texas Tech assistant coach, John Paul Young . The Texans finished the season 5–5, winning the Western Division , but due to Kramer not anticipating
345-956: The regular season started, the Cavalry signed local favorite Trey Weir as a replacement in late May 1994. Cut by the Colts in mid-June, Howfield returned to the Cavalry for the remainder of the season. Kelly Blackwell , a tight end for the Chicago Bears in 1992 and Dallas Cowboys in 1993, joined the Cavalry in June 1994. Blackwell has strong ties to the Fort Worth area having played high school football at Richland High School and college football for Texas Christian University . Wide receivers/Defensive backs Offensive/Defensive linemen Kickers 55 Anthony Bifano Exempt list Rookies in italics Roster updated May 23, 1994 16 Active, 0 Inactive → More rosters Todd Davis
368-471: The season with the lowest home attendance of any AFL team in 1994. On the field, however, they were somewhat successful, advancing to the playoffs after finishing one game under .500 in the regular season. They lost to the Orlando Predators in the first round of the playoffs and were disbanded shortly thereafter. Fort Worth hired Arena Football League veteran Michael Trigg as its head coach. Trigg played college football at East Texas State University and as
391-559: The starting job at quarterback with Hammel who had played for the Texans under coach Michael Trigg the previous two seasons. Mackey was injured during a July 1994 game against the Albany Firebirds . After the Cavalry shut down, Hammel followed Trigg to the Milwaukee Mustangs for the 1995 season. After veteran kicker Ian Howfield departed for the Baltimore Colts of the Canadian Football League just before
414-515: The team's general manager, Trigg hired NFL veteran Tate Randle as defensive coordinator, Marshall Foreman as special-teams coach, and Terry Gray as coach of the offensive and defensive lines as well as director of player personnel. Controversy erupted when fans found out that one of the team's largest advertisers was Club Legends, a "totally nude" female strip club in neighboring Arlington . The strip club's promotional efforts included having its female employees wearing Club Legends T-shirts around
437-795: Was announced that the Milwaukee Iron, now of the Arena Football League would be changing its name to the Milwaukee Mustangs. In 2018, the Milwaukee Mustangs' intellectual properties were acquired by Counterbalance Sports & Entertainment, LLC, the sports-entertainment division of Counterbalance Group Inc. Additionally, Counterbalance Sports began using the Milwaukee Iron / [Second] Milwaukee Mustangs branding in 2021. Wide receivers/Defensive backs Offensive linemen/Defensive linemen Kickers Rookies in italics [1] updated January 21, 2013 28 Active, 0 Inactive, 0 PS Note: These players' numbers were retired by
460-626: Was considering using the nickname "Texans" but ultimately choose the Dallas Desperados , playing from 2002 to 2008. The most recent (but now also defunct) Dallas Vigilantes franchise was an expansion team unrelated to either the Texans or Desperados. Wide Receivers/Defensive Backs Offensive Linemen/Defensive Linemen Kickers Rookies in italics Roster updated July 25, 2013 33 Active, 0 Inactive, 0 PS → More rosters The following Texans players were named to All-Arena Teams: Note: Statistics are correct through
483-592: Was founded in August 1993, when Andrew Vallozzi was approved by the league for expansion. The city of Milwaukee became football hungry, after renovations to Lambeau Field led to speculation that the Green Bay Packers would soon stop playing games in Milwaukee, something they'd been doing since 1933. Later that year, the Packers would confirm the rumors and announced that their December 1994 contest at Milwaukee County Stadium would be their last. For many in
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#1732786568515506-614: Was one of four exhibition games played by AFL teams in non-AFL cities in 1994. Halftime festivities included a tribute to longtime Oklahoma Sooners football coach Barry Switzer , then recently named as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys . The Cavalry played their regular season home games at the Tarrant County Convention Center . All but the final home game were played on Monday nights due to other events tying up more lucrative weekend dates. They ended
529-638: Was the color analyst for the team's gameday radio broadcasts. Home Sports Entertainment broadcast two of the Cavalry's regular season games: their home opener on May 23 against the Milwaukee Mustangs and the July 9th road game versus the Albany Firebirds . HSE also aired a weekly news program titled Fort Worth Cavalry Weekly Report each Friday at 6:30pm during the season. Dallas Texans (Arena) The Dallas Texans were an Arena football team based in Dallas, Texas . The Texans were founded in 1990 and were
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