Springfield Stallions

The Springfield Stallions were an indoor football team that played their home games at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. They were a 2007 expansion member of the Continental Indoor Football League.

The Stallions were purchased by two Indiana businessmen, Justin Gettys of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Gettys was the majority owner of the franchise. Professional wrestler D'Lo Brown joined Gettys as minority owner. Another gentleman Chris Underwood was thought to be a minority owner, but the ownership agreement was never finalized between Underwood and Stallions majority owner Gettys. Gettys purchased the team from Herb Fullerton in October, 2006. Kevin Gade served as Head Coach. Jerry Lankin served as the teams General Manager and later Team Consultant. Gettys served as President, Chris Underwood served as Vice President of Football Operations and D'Lo Brown as Vice President of Media Relations for the Stallions Football Club. Justin Gettys was removed from the organization on May 2nd of 2007 over charges of financial mismanagement with $65,000 missing from team accounts. [http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/113684.asp] D'Lo Brown left the team before the fifth home game of the season. Corey Galloway took over as general manager in the middle of May. Jim Rychel took over as head coach as Kevin Gade became a player on the team. After the three owners walked away from the team, the team was officially folded by Vice President of Football Operations Chris Underwood and Head Coach Jim Rychel following a conversation with CIFL owner Jeff Spitaleri.

The Stallions played their home football games at the Prairie Capital Convention Center which is located in downtown Springfield. It has a seating capacity of 6500 for football games.

On October 17, the team announced they were going to play in the Continental Indoor Football League. [http://www.continentalindoorfootball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=26]

This was the inaugural season for the Stallions at the professional level. There was asemi-pro team in Springfield called the Stallions in 2006 which played for the 8FL. While the current Stallions ownership maintains the rights to the original franchise (and maintains several players from the semi-pro team) the current Stallions' history was not considered a continuation of the original team's. The new professional indoor football team in Springfield called the Shield, have no direct link to the Stallions except for former owner Jim Rychel and former head coach Kevin Gade.

The team was troubled on and off the field, not having won any games, and undergoing various travel/financial problems, which culminated in the team's failure to show up on June 16 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum to play the Marion Mayhem. The league was notified on Thursday June 14 before that road game at Marion by GM Galloway and VP Underwood that the team was ceasing operations effective at 5:00 p.m. that day. The league attempted to work with Underwood to finish out the season and make it to Marion that weekend, but the team still folded due to financial reasons on June 15. June 22 [http://www.continentalindoorfootball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=110&Itemid=26] .

Season-By-Season

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2007 || 0 || 12 || 0 || 8th Great Lakes || --
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2007 Season Schedule

External links

* [http://www.springfieldstallions.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.thestatguys.com/CIFL/SPR.HTM Stallions' 2007 Stats]