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Sacramento Surge

American football franchise


Summary

American football franchise

FieldValue
nameSacramento Surge
bgcolor#00877Bfontcolor = #FDC82F
leagueWorld League of American Football (NFL Europe)
founded1991
closed1992
locationSacramento, California
colorsAqua, Light Gold, Black, White
recordRegular season: 11–9
Postseason: 2–0
league_champ_typeWorld Bowls (1)
league_champsWorld Bowl II (1992)

Postseason: 2–0

The Sacramento Surge was a professional American football team that played in the World League of American Football (WLAF) in 1991 and 1992. The team played its first season at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, and the second season in Hornet Stadium on the Sacramento State University campus. It was owned by Managing General Partner Fred Anderson and the General Manager was Michael F. Keller. In charge of Special Projects was Jack Youngblood, who also partnered with Joe Starkey and Ronnie Lott on Surge radio broadcasts on Sacramento radio station KRAK.

The team was coached by former Buffalo Bills quarterback–head coach Kay Stephenson. Charlie Sumner was the defensive coordinator and Jim Haslett was a defensive assistant coach.

The inaugural 1991 season was disappointing for the seven North American teams as none had a winning season, but 3-7 Sacramento managed to provide the only winning record over a Europe based team, 2-0 versus Frankfurt Galaxy, as this was the team they played twice, with the second win at the end of the regular season helping to eliminate Frankfurt Galaxy from the play-offs. Considered the WLAF's second best team, and having just won in Barcelona to secure the tie breaker, all 7-2 Frankfurt had to do was to beat the Surge at home in front of a sell-out crowd of 51,653. Yet, both the clouds and the Surge rained on the Galaxy parade into the semifinals. Two days later, the 9-0 London Monarchs dropped their home match against the Barcelona Dragons which made the Dragons clinch the play-offs instead. After winning the semifinals on US soil, both European franchises met again in Wembley for the World Bowl and a Monarchs shut-out over the Dragons.

The Surge won the World Bowl in 1992, the only United States based team to do so, as the WLAF was discontinued after 1992, returning in 1995 as NFL Europe. On this championship team were future professional wrestler Bill Goldberg and investor Pete Najarian.

After the WLAF ended its American presence at the end of the 1992 season, Anderson continued Sacramento's presence in professional football by acquiring a Canadian Football League expansion franchise for 1993. The new team was named the Sacramento Gold Miners; Stephenson and several Surge players were retained in the change, as were the team colors of aqua and yellow. After 1994, with new US-based CFL expansions, the franchise moved to Texas into the Alamodome. After the 1995 season the CFL presence in the US ended, and so did the San Antonio Texans.

Since 2021, the "Surge" name is used in a franchise for the "Stuttgart Surge" in the newly established "European League of Football" which sees itself as a continuation of WLAF and NFL Europe, having an agreement with the NFL to use "old" franchise names, logos and colors. With the Sacramento Surge having both a 3-0 all-time winning record against the "old" Frankfurt Galaxy name that was revived, and Surge being in line with the S alliteration of team names Stuttgart Scorpions and "Stuttgart Stallions" that were established in the early 1980s as amateur clubs, the Stuttgart fans and members haven chosen to use "Surge" in the EFL, and to continue as Scorpions in the national GFL.

Season-by-season

SeasonLeagueRegular seasonPostseasonWonLostTiesWin %FinishWonLostWin %Result19911992Total1190.550201.000
WLAF370.3003rd (North American West)
WLAF820.8001st (North American West)201.000World Bowl '92 champions

1991 season

Personnel

Staff

  • Managing General Partner – Fred Anderson
  • General manager – Mike Keller
  • Assistant to the General Manager – Cliff Dochterman
  • Special Projects – Jack Youngblood
  • Director of Community Relations – Doug Cosbie
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Bob Griffin
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Lannie Julias
  • Head coach – Kay Stephenson
  • Running backs/wide receivers – Bob Owens
  • Offensive line – Jim Criner
  • Offensive assistant – Mike Weston
  • Defensive coordinator/defensive backs – Charlie Sumner
  • Defensive line/linebackers/special teams – Jim Haslett
  • Defensive assistant – Bob Moran

Roster

Schedule

WeekDateOpponentResultsGame siteAttendanceFinal scoreTeam record12345678910
Saturday, March 23Raleigh–Durham SkyhawksW 9–31–0Hughes Stadium15,126
Saturday, March 30at Birmingham FireL 10–171–1Legion Field16,432
Sunday, April 7at San Antonio RidersL 3–101–2Alamo Stadium6,772
Saturday, April 13Frankfurt GalaxyW 16–102–2Hughes Stadium17,065
Monday, April 22at New York/New Jersey KnightsL 20–282–3Giants Stadium21,230
Saturday, April 27Barcelona DragonsL 20–29 (OT)2–4Hughes Stadium19,045
Saturday, May 4Montreal MachineL 23–26 (OT)2–5Hughes Stadium17,326
Saturday, May 11at Orlando ThunderL 33–452–6Florida Citrus Bowl20,048
Saturday, May 18London MonarchsL 21–452–7Hughes Stadium21,409
Saturday, May 25at Frankfurt GalaxyW 24–133–7Waldstadion51,653

1992 season

Personnel

Staff

  • Managing General Partner – Fred Anderson
  • Partner – Dave Lucchetti
  • Partner – Jim Anderson
  • Partner – Bill Pullum
  • Partner – Dick Baker
  • General manager – Mike Keller
  • Assistant to the General Manager – Cliff Dochterman
  • Director of Marketing Operations – Jack Youngblood
  • Director of Community Relations – Doug Cosbie
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Bob Griffin
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Lannie Julias
  • Head coach – Kay Stephenson
  • Running backs – Bob Owens
  • Wide receivers – Bob Moran
  • Offensive line – Jim Criner
  • Defensive coordinator/linebackers – Jim Haslett
  • Defensive line – Jim Niblack
  • Defensive backs – John Fontes
  • Defensive assistant – Rick Mueller

Roster

  • Vacant

Schedule

WeekDateKickoffOpponentResultsGame siteAttendanceFinal scoreTeam record12345678910PostseasonSemifinalWorld Bowl
Saturday, March 21Birmingham FireW 20–61–0Hornet Stadium17,920
Sunday, March 29at Ohio GloryW 17–62–0Ohio Stadium37,837
Saturday, April 42:00 p.m.Montreal MachineW 14–73–0Hornet Stadium21,024
Saturday, April 11San Antonio RidersL 20–23 (OT)3–1Hornet Stadium20,625
Saturday, April 18at Birmingham FireL 14–283–2Legion Field20,794
Sunday, April 26at London MonarchsW 31–264–2Wembley Stadium18,653
Sunday, May 3at Montreal MachineW 35–215–2Olympic Stadium21,183
Saturday, May 9Frankfurt GalaxyW 51–76–2Hornet Stadium22,720
Saturday, May 16Ohio GloryW 21–77–2Hornet Stadium21,272
Saturday, May 23at San Antonio RidersW 27–218–2Bobcat Stadium19,273
Sunday, May 31Barcelona DragonsW 17–159–2Hornet Stadium23,640
Saturday, June 68:10 p.m.Orlando ThunderW 21–1710–2Olympic Stadium43,789

References

References

  1. "Team Colors – WLAF". SSUR.org.
  2. "1991 Sacramento Surge Media Guide".
  3. "1992 Sacramento Surge Media Guide".
  4. (March 30, 1992). "Around the league". [[Orlando Sentinel]].
  5. (April 4, 1992). "Machine at Surge". [[The Sacramento Bee]].
  6. (April 12, 1992). "Riders top Surge in overtime". The Sacramento Bee.
  7. (June 6, 1992). "QB Archer seeks 2nd NFL shot". Orlando Sentinel.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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