Frankfurt Universe

Frankfurt Universe
Founded 2007 (2007)
League German Football League
Based in Frankfurt
Stadium Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion (Capacity 12 542)
Colors

Purple and Orange

         

Owner(s) AFC Universe Frankfurt e.V.
Head coach Markus Grahn
Championships EFL Bowl: 2016
Division titles GFL 2 South: 2015
Cheerleaders Frankfurt Universe Cheerleaders
Mascot Franky
Uniforms
Website http://www.afc-universe.de/

The Frankfurt Universe are a German American football team from Frankfurt, Hesse.

The club, formed in 2007, experienced its greatest success in 2011 when it won promotion to the German Football League 2, the second tier of league football in Germany, where it plays today. The team rebranded itself as "Frankfurt Galaxy" ahead of the 2015 season and won promotion to the first division GFL Süd (South) at the end of this season. They are scheduled to play in the first division for the 2016 season. It was renamed again as Frankfurt Universe in 2016.

History

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 GFL 2 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.

Frankfurt Universe vs. Nürnberg Rams 2015

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

The team's honours:

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the Universe:[3]

Year Division Finish Points Pct. Games W D L PF PA Postseason
2012 GFL 2 (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)

References

  1. ↑ Aus Universe wird Galaxy (German) football-aktuell.de, accessed: 27 April 2015
  2. 1 2 Frankfurt Galaxy vor Auferstehung (German) Hessischer Rundfunk, published: 4 September 2014, accessed: 27 April 2015
  3. 1 2 3 Historical American football tables & results from Germany (German) football-history.de, accessed: 27 April 2015
  4. ↑ Touchdowns am Bornheimer Hang (German) Frankfurter Neue Presse, published: 10 September 2014, accessed: 27 April 2015
  5. ↑ 2015 GFL 2 table (German) German Football League website, accessed: 27 April 2015
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