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Lincoln Lightning
Lincoln Lightning
Founded 1998
Folded 2006
Home arena Pershing Center
City, State Lincoln, Nebraska
Conference National
Division Midwest
ArenaCup championships None
Indoor football championships None
Division titles 1999 (IFL), 2002 (NIFL)
Playoff berths 1999 (IFL), 2000 (IFL), 2002 (NIFL)

The Lincoln Capitols were a professional indoor football team that played their home games at Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. They originally planned on becoming the Nebraska Knockout, but the name was scrapped. From 1999 to 2000, they were the Lincoln Lightning of the Indoor Football League before the IFL was bought out. The Lightning then played in the Arena Football's farm league during the 2001 season, before leaving the league and joining the NIFL as the Capitols. However, after only one season, the franchise folded. During their four-year run, the franchise's most prominent player was a former Nebraska Cornhusker running back named Damon Benning and the franchise's owner was Scott Atkins.

This team in Lincoln has been a pushover for most of the team's history, despite being successful in the regular season. They are the only team to lose in two shutouts, a rarity in the NIFL

The league, hoping to kill off their APFL competition and make the Capitols better, talked with the St. Joseph Storm of the APFL and interested them in merging with the Lincoln Capitols and becoming the St. Joseph Storm. The team was still bad and was later bought by the league and made a traveling team. The end result was prospective owners saw NIFL as a league to avoid which was a major factor in the league's problems in 2007.

Season-By-Season[]

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties

Season W L T Finish Playoff results
Lincoln Lightning (IFL)
1999 7 5 0 1st Southern Lost Semifinal (Green Bay)
2000 10 4 0 2nd Southern Lost Round 1 (Sioux City)
Lincoln Lightning (af2)
2001 6 10 0 7th NC Midwestern --
Lincoln Capitols (NIFL)
2002 10 4 0 1st Pacific Northern Lost Round 1 Billings 54, Lincoln 51
2003 9 5 0 2nd Pacific Northern --
2004 3 11 0 4th Pacific Northern --
2005 1 13 0 5th Pacific Western --
Lincoln Capitols/St. Joseph Cyclones
2006 0 14 0 3rd Pacific Western --
Totals 46 69 0 (including playoffs)

External links[]

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