Frankfurt Universe
 | |
| Founded | 2007 |
|---|---|
| League | German Football League 2 |
| Based in | Frankfurt |
| Stadium | Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion (Capacity 12,542) |
| Colors | Purple and Orange |
| Owner | AFC Universe Frankfurt e.V. |
| Head coach | Brian Caler |
| Championships | EFL Bowl: 2016 |
| Division titles | GFL2 South: 2015 |
| Cheerleaders | Frankfurt Universe Cheerleaders |
| Mascot | Franky |
| Website | frankfurt-universe.de |
| Uniforms | |
 | |
The Frankfurt Universe are a German American football team from Frankfurt, Hesse.
The club, formed in 2007, won promotion to the German Football League 2, the second tier of league football in Germany, in 2011. The team rebranded itself as "Frankfurt Galaxy" ahead of the 2015 season and won promotion to the first division German Football League Süd (South) at the end of this season. It was renamed again as Frankfurt Universe in 2016.
History
[edit]Frankfurt Universe was formed in 2007, after the demise of the NFL Europa team Frankfurt Galaxy, by fans of the latter. Initially the club was hoping to use the Galaxy name but was prevented from this by the fact that the naming rights lay with the National Football League.[1][2]
The Universe entered the tier five Landesliga Hessen in 2008, finished runners-up in the league and was promoted to the Oberliga for 2009. In the Oberliga the team remained unbeaten all season and moved up to the third tier Regionalliga Mitte, where it played in 2010 and 2011. The first season saw it finish fifth with an even record while, in the second year, it finished runners-up and won promotion.[3]
From 2012 onwards the Universe played at national level in the southern division of the second tier German Football League 2. In its first two seasons the team finished runners-up behind the Allgäu Comets while, in 2014, it came third in the league.[3]
In late 2014 the club announced that it had purchased the rights for the Galaxy name, would separate the first team from the club and field it under the Galaxy name and play from 2015 onwards in the Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion, home ground of association football team FSV Frankfurt.[2][4] In the official 2015 table of the German Football League however the team is still listed as Frankfurt Universe.[5] The team won the GFL2 south in 2015 with a perfect season and nearly 400 points Touchdown-point differential and earned promotion to the GFL after the eighth placed GFL team, the Franken Knights, withdrew from the promotion/relegation round.
In April 2016, Samsung were announced as the main sponsor of German Football League team Frankfurt Universe. Frankfurt lost the season opener to defending GFL South champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns in 2016.
Honours
[edit]The team's honours:
- German Bowl
- Runners-up: 2018
- Eurobowl
- Runners-up: (2) 2017, 2018
- EFL Bowl
- Champions: 2016
- BIG6 European Football League
- Participations: (2) 2017, 2018
- German Football League – Southern Division
- Runners-up: (4) 2016–2019
- League membership: (4) 2016–present
- German Football League 2 – Southern Division
- Champions: 2015
- Runners-up: 2012, 2013
German Bowl appearances
[edit]The club's appearances in the German Bowl:
| Bowl | Date | Champions | Runners-Up | Score | Location | Attendance |
| XL | October 13, 2018 | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | Frankfurt Universe | 21–19 | Berlin | 15,213 |
- Champions in bold.
Eurobowl appearances
[edit]The club's appearances in the Eurobowl:
| Bowl | Date | Champions | Runners-Up | Score | Location | Attendance |
| XXXI | June 10, 2017 | New Yorker Lions | Frankfurt Universe | 55–14 | Frankfurt | 7,693 |
| XXXII | June 9, 2018 | New Yorker Lions | Frankfurt Universe | 20–19 | Frankfurt | 3,122 |
- Champions in bold.
Recent seasons
[edit]Recent seasons of the Universe:[3]
| Year | Division | Finish | Points | Pct. | Games | W | D | L | PF | PA | Postseason |
| 2012 | GFL2 (South) | 2nd | 19–9 | 0.679 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 284 | 226 | — |
| 2013 | 2nd | 19–9 | 0.679 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 358 | 249 | — | |
| 2014 | 3rd | 16–12 | 0.571 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 289 | 222 | — | |
| 2015 | 1st | 28–0 | 1.000 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 601 | 204 | — | |
| 2016 | GFL (South) | 2nd | 24–4 | 0.857 | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 546 | 173 | Lost QF: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (3–10) |
| 2017 | 2nd | 24–4 | 0.857 | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 588 | 125 | Won QF: Dresden Monarchs (26–16) Lost SF: New Yorker Lions (21–23) | |
| 2018 | 2nd | 24–4 | 0.857 | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 504 | 143 | Won QF: Berlin Rebels (6–5) Won SF: New Yorker Lions (20–17) Lost GB: Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns (19–21) | |
| 2019 | 2nd | 22–6 | 0.786 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 478 | 252 | Won QF: Hildesheim Invaders (28–7) Lost SF: New Yorker Lions (18–36) | |
| 2020 | No season played because of the COVID-19 pandemic | ||||||||||
| 2021 | 7th | 4–16 | 0.200 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 117 | 496 | — | |
| 2022 | 8th | 0–20 | 0.000 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 124 | 556 | Lost RR: Ingolstadt Dukes (withdrawal) | |
| 2023 | GFL2 (South) | 6th | 8–12 | 0.400 | 10 | 4 | – | 6 | 227 | 313 | — |
- RR = Relegation round
- QF = Quarter finals
- SF = Semi finals
- GB = German Bowl
References
[edit]- ^ Aus Universe wird Galaxy (in German) football-aktuell.de, accessed: 27 April 2015
- ^ a b Frankfurt Galaxy vor Auferstehung Archived 2015-04-27 at archive.today (in German) Hessischer Rundfunk, published: 4 September 2014, accessed: 27 April 2015
- ^ a b c Historical American football tables & results from Germany Archived 2017-09-28 at the Wayback Machine (in German) football-history.de, accessed: 27 April 2015
- ^ Touchdowns am Bornheimer Hang Archived 2014-09-11 at the Wayback Machine (in German) Frankfurter Neue Presse, published: 10 September 2014, accessed: 27 April 2015
- ^ 2015 GFL 2 table Archived 2016-09-10 at the Wayback Machine (in German) German Football League website, accessed: 27 April 2015
External links
[edit]- (in German) Official website
- (in German) Frankfurt Galaxy website
- (in German) German Football League official website
- (in German) Football History Archived 2017-09-28 at the Wayback Machine Historic American football tables from Germany