Duke City Gladiators
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| League/conference affiliations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
*Champions Indoor Football (2015–2019)
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| Team colors | Silver, black, white | ||
| Personnel | |||
| Owner(s) | Gina Prieskorn-Thomas[1] | ||
| Head coach | Dominic Bramante | ||
| Team history | |||
| *Duke City Gladiators (2015–present) | |||
| Championships | |||
| League championships (2) | |||
| Conference championships (2) | |||
| Division championships (0) | |||
| Playoff appearances (3) | |||
| * 2017, 2018, 2019 | |||
| Home arena(s) | |||
| *Tingley Coliseum (2015–present) | |||
The Duke City Gladiators are a professional indoor football team based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They began play in March 2015 as members of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. The Gladiators play their home games at Tingley Coliseum.[2][3] After winning back-to-back CIF championships in 2018 and 2019, the Gladiators left the CIF for the Indoor Football League (IFL) in the 2020 season.
The Gladiators are led by head coach Dominic Bramante.
History[]
The team was formed in February 2015 by an ownership group called Duke City Sports Entertainment Group, Inc. a New Mexico corporation consisting of several investors, which also included Gladiators founder and general manager Matt Caward, along with co-founder and head coach Dominic Bramante, and director of media relations Andres Trujillo.[4][5][6][7] The Gladiators joined Champions Indoor Football (CIF) in the league's inaugural season after the Rio Rancho-based New Mexico Stars cancelled their entry into the league shortly before the season began.[8][9][10] (In April 2015, the Stars announced that they would instead join the North American Indoor Football for 2016.)[11] The Gladiators had originally looked to join the X-League Indoor Football but geographical and financial considerations as well as the sudden availability of the CIF franchise slot led the team to change directions.[12][13]
In 2015, the Gladiators played an abbreviated 11-game CIF schedule in 2015, as a direct replacement for the New Mexico Stars, but with some modifications and non-league games because of prior scheduling maneuvers and arena availability.[13][14][10] The team opened training camp on March 15.[15] Their first indoor practice session was March 24.[3] Regular season promotions included Hispanic Heritage Night on March 28 and Public Service Day on April 26.[16]
The Gladiators won the 2018 CIF championship. In February 2019, it was announced the Gladiators had been sold to Gina Prieskorn-Thomas, one of the former co-owners of the Gladiators.[1] The team then won its second CIF championship. After the season, the CIF granted the Gladiators petition to be released them from their commitment to play the 2020 season.[17] The team joined the Indoor Football League on August 20, 2019.[18]
Roster[]
| Duke City Gladiators roster | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
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Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen
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Linebackers
Defensive backs
Special teams
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Reserve lists
Roster updated April 25, 2018 | |||
Season-by-season results[]
| 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 | CIF | 5th | 7 | 4 | 0 | |||
| 2016 | 2016 | CIF | Southern | 4th | 6 | 6 | 0 | ||
| 2017 | 2017 | CIF | South | 4th | 7 | 5 | 0 | Lost Conference Semifinal (Amarillo) 41–70 | |
| 2018 | 2018 | CIF | South | 1st | 10 | 2 | 0 | Won Conference Semifinal (Wichita) 44–39 Won Conference Championship (Texas) 41–28 Won Champions Bowl (Sioux City) 31–27 | |
| 2019 | 2019 | CIF | South | 1st | 9 | 3 | 0 | Won Conference Championship (Amarillo) 70–62 Won Champions Bowl (Salina) 35–29 | |
| Totals | 39 | 20 | 0 | All-time regular season record (2015–2019) | |||||
| 5 | 1 | — | All-time postseason record (2015–2019) | ||||||
| 44 | 21 | 0 | All-time regular season and postseason record (2015–2019) | ||||||
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Professional Arena Football Team, Under New Ownership, Prepares to Bring Championship Trophy Back to Albuquerque". Duke City Gladiators. February 6, 2019. https://www.dukecitygladiators.com/single-post/NewOwnership.
- ↑ Christ, Bob (February 23, 2015). "Gladiators plan to call Tingley home in maiden season". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/545775/sports/gladiators-plan-to-call-tingley-home-in-maiden-season.html. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Christ, Bob (March 26, 2015). "Tingley getting ready for Gladiators’ home debut". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/560323/sports/tingley-getting-ready-for-gladiators-home-debut.html. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- ↑ "Duke City Gladiators Professional Indoor Football presents to Albuquerque, NM, entrepreneurs | 1MillionCups.com". 1MillionCups.com. https://www.1millioncups.com/presentations/duke-city-gladiators-professional-indoor-football-13162.
- ↑ "This is Albuquerque: Duke City Gladiators" (in en). alibi. https://alibi.com/business/50729/Duke-City-Gladiators.html.
- ↑ "Duke City Gladiators Professional Indoor Football" (in en-us). https://www.newmexico.org/listing/duke-city-gladiators-professional-indoor-football/250/.
- ↑ Christ, Bob (February 25, 2015). "Owner of Gladiators made things happen in a hurry". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/546384/sports/owner-of-gladiators-made-things-happen-in-a-hurry.html. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
- ↑ Christ, Bob (February 22, 2015). "NM Stars owners pull plug on season". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/545100/sports/nm-stars-owners-pull-plug-on-season.html. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
- ↑ Jones, Darlene (February 22, 2015). "New Mexico Stars will not play the CIF 2015 season". Champions Indoor Football. http://gocif.net/news/639-the-champions-indoor-football-cif-regret-to-announce-that-the-new-mexico-stars-stars-will-not-play-the-cif-2015-season.html. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Christ, Bob (May 23, 2015). "Arena of the absurd: Local indoor football has had funny bounces". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/589357/sports/arena-of-the-absurd.html. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
- ↑ Christ, Bob (April 18, 2015). "Stars announce plans to play in upstart indoor league in 2016". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/571398/sports/stars-announce-plans-to-play-in-upstart-indoor-league-in-2016.html. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- ↑ Herron, Gary (February 25, 2015). "New football team comes to Albuquerque". Rio Rancho Observer (Rio Rancho, NM: RR Community Publishing LLC). http://www.rrobserver.com/sports/article_1dfeedda-bc82-11e4-94ae-fbd97d6d98c9.html. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Christ, Bob (March 3, 2015). "Gladiators will compete in Champions League". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM). http://www.abqjournal.com/548895/sports/gladiators-will-compete-in-champions-league.html. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
- ↑ "CIF Enjoys Relief and Balance with Replacement Team in New Mexico". Champions Indoor Football. March 4, 2015. http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=4933886. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
- ↑ Walker, Amy (March 19, 2015). "Duke City Gladiators begin spring training". Albuquerque, NM: KRQE-TV. http://krqe.com/2015/03/19/albuquerque-has-its-own-professional-indoor-football-team/. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
- ↑ Tate, Van (March 25, 2015). "Gladiators ready for home opener". Albuquerque, NM: KRQE-TV. http://krqe.com/2015/03/25/gladiators-ready-for-home-opener/. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
- ↑ "Duke City Gladiators Leaving the CIF". July 25, 2019. https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/duke-city-gladiators-leaving-the-cif/n-5526571.
- ↑ "Duke City Gladiators Join IFL". August 20, 2019. https://goifl.com/sports/fball/2019-20/releases/20190820ma6svb.
External links[]
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