×

Tyler Liger and the (almost underground) world of arena/indoor football

I was a weird kid growing up. In small town Iowa, I was “the” weird kid.

I was a walking paradox of sorts.

I hung on to my fandom of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, even when the craze had long died down, as appeal shifted to the likes of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Over the years, I was into Godzilla, Aliens versus Predator, Sonic the Hedgehog, pro wrestling, the electric Superman (the mid to late 90s was a different time)…all combined with my passion for sports.

I don’t know if some of those fandoms have really gone away, except for the electric Superman. That was pretty hokey, in retrospect.

Seriously, I possess all of the Godzilla films along with the movie posters hanging up in the living room. I’ll say it, I swear that my obituary (in the very far future, I hope) will take note of my love for a 400-foot tall, radiation breathing dinosaur.

The wide world of sports is a part of what I do today. I realized by fourth grade that I wasn’t going to become a professional athlete, but I could still be a fan.

One of those sports that I became a fan of was arena football. Around Iowa, many folks jumped on the bandwagon when the Iowa Barnstormers were formed in 1995, founded by the “father of arena football,” Jim Foster.

It might be hipster of me, but I was a fan of the sport before the Barnstormers began to take flight inside of the old Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

I can recall sitting in front of a big CRT television at a friend of my mother’s house late at night, and finding ESPN.

I was an avid watcher of the channel, mesmerized by SportsCenter and its hosts Stuart Scott, Rich Eisen, Dan Patrick and Kenny Mayne. Plus, ESPN was a hub of obscure sports — like professional roller hockey.

Sports that would later be “The Ocho” material.

I was allowed to flip through the channels, and automatically went to the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

That night in 1994, I came across the Orlando Predators against the Miami Hooters (yeah, they were owned by the restaurant). The Predators’ uniforms were the epitome of the ’90s, with the claw marks across a black helmet with ample amounts of red to give off a cool, yet intimidating look.

It was action packed, with a smaller field and more scoring. Football being played inside of an arena with the field being the size of a hockey rink? What a concept!

Added to this fire was a Sports Illustrated for Kids article, which highlighted “Touchdown” Eddie Brown of the Albany Firebirds.

Then, there were the Barnstormers.

Due to the floods of 1993 and the charitable efforts that went into aiding those affected by it, Foster decided to have an Arena Football League All-Star Game at Vets. The event was so popular that it convinced Foster to set up a franchise in Des Moines.

For those who were blessed to take in a classic ‘Stormers game at “The Barn,” it was a treat.

The uniforms are a modern classic. They never should have strayed away from this look in future iterations.

First, the colors were a healthy mix of red, gold and black (as Foster wanted to unite both Iowa and Iowa State fans). Pilot’s goggles on the helmets with Iowa along the bands, wings on the shoulders of the uniform, drop shadow numbers and propellers in the place of pant stripes.

Every weekend, Iowa would face teams like the Memphis Pharaohs (which got broadcasted on KCCI), Buffalo Destroyers (my first arenaball game), Grand Rapids Rampage, Houston ThunderBears, Milwaukee Mustangs and the Minnesota Fighting Pike. It was a revolving door of teams, which included the aforementioned Firebirds, San Jose Sabercats, New Jersey Red Dogs, Portland Forest Dragons, Tampa Bay Storm, Florida Bobcats and the New England Sea Wolves.

Speaking of my first arenaball game, I can remember the tailgates that took place in front of Vets, where you could enjoy live music, meet players before the game and partake in several activities.

I sat in the bleachers, and heard nothing but cowbells in a back-and-forth battle between Iowa and Buffalo. The Barnstormers won the game on a last second touchdown, by the way.

Everyone remembers Kurt Warner. He’s legendary in Iowa sports lore.

I (and many other diehards) remember guys such as Kevin Swayne, Aaron Garcia and Gary Howe. Speaking of Howe, he was inducted into the team’s hall of fame this past weekend.

Those Barnstormer teams were always good, too. Even though they had chances to capture an ArenaBowl title on two occasions, they went up against Jay Gruden’s Storm and an Arizona Rattlers team anchored by Hunkie Cooper.

I was at that game in 1999 where Orlando kept Iowa from its third ArenaBowl berth. Had they won, they would have hosted the ArenaBowl, which was then broadcasted on ABC.

Then, in 2001, the Barnstormers were gone.

The Arena Football League was growing at that time, and the Barnstormers couldn’t keep up with more modern venues and larger markets. Foster sold the team to Charles Wang, who moved the team to Long Island to become the New York Dragons.

I still believe, to this day, that it was where the AFL started to go downhill. It was the mix of large and mid-sized markets that made the league unique and exciting. You could have a team from Iowa square off against teams from markets as large as New York and Los Angeles to smaller markets like Albany, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I quickly subbed out the Barnstormers for the Quad City Steamwheelers of arenafootball2 (the AFL’s minor league), who had come off of a perfect championship season in 2001. I even caught a game between the Steamwheelers and the Tulsa Talons with my dad in Moline.

But with time, the interest waned. I’d watch a game on NBC on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but that was the extent of it.

I did possess both Arena Football games released by EA Sports. Those were fun, even if they were based off of Madden.

The Arena Football League would later dissolve in 2019.

The fire slowly returned to life when I moved to Amarillo, when I bought an authentic Amarillo Dusters jersey and later went to a game against the Oklahoma City YardDawgs. The Dusters then folded, and were revived and rebranded as the Amarillo Venom.

Oh man, I had a long history with the Venom.

Over time, I went from being a season ticket holder (at the tender age of 22!) to interning with the team in my junior year at West Texas A&M. When the Venom left the Indoor Football League and resided in the Lone Star Football League, I spent a season crafting press releases, game recaps and advances for the team and their ownership — the Tucker family.

Every Friday, I’d make the pilgrimage to the “Tucker House” by 10 a.m., smack dab in the middle of Amarillo and pump out press releases until 6 p.m. I’d run errands, and I even made a few appearances as Striker, the team’s mascot.

When a home game loomed on the horizon, we braced ourselves for “the crazy.” It went from setting up the locker room for the players, to drilling in the numerous posters onto the boards encircling the interior of the Amarillo Civic Center Coliseum.

I spent a lot of time working with Toby Tucker, and got to know Stephanie Tucker — who was the dynamo that made the business side of the organization go.

For releases, I had to call the turf “Coors Lights Field.” That still gets a chuckle out of me.

After college, I did some small projects with them from time to time. However, the team operated on a shoestring budget to make ends meet, so I was unable to work for them full-time.

In my early days of my journey in the journalism world, I covered the Venom for a season. I had the privilege of traveling with the team, befriending many of the players, having the coaching staff on speed dial and writing about an organization that I knew inside and out.

I also thought I was this “indoor football expert” and did power rankings of Champions Indoor Football, the league that the Venom had joined, on a weekly basis.

Amarillo battled its way to the Champions Bowl, their respective league championship, where they traveled to INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita. The Venom came up short against the Force, despite a hostile environment — even the public address announcer displayed his bias for the home side.

For a championship game, it was a pretty ugly one to watch — which wasn’t the Venom’s fault.

Then, I landed a sports editor position in Dumas, Texas. I attended a few games, even took pictures for a game between the Venom and the Dallas Marshalls, but nothing more.

After that, I moved back to Iowa. Also, the Venom were victims of the pandemic. After leaving the CIF, they were part of a four-team circuit called the Texas Series.

However, the mini-league fell flat and the Venom transitioned into the dustbin of sports history.

Nowadays, Stephanie is the Executive Director of the Canyon Economic Development Corporation (which is right in her wheelhouse) and Toby is the Athletic Director for Canyon Independent School District. They’re both doing very well.

Every now and then, I do get out to catch an arena football game. My last one was a CIF semifinal matchup between the Sioux City Bandits and the Omaha Beef.

Again, I could go into more details about my time in the world of arena and indoor football. The Indoor Football League is still going strong, while the CIF survives as a regional circuit.

Earlier this year, there were even reports that the Arena Football League is eyeing a return.

We’ll see. Someday, I’d like to jump back into that realm. Arena football, from watching that Predators-Hooters game on TV onward, has become a part of DNA.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $3.46/week.

Subscribe Today