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Sacramento Surge

{{Short description|American football franchise}}

{{for|the indoor soccer team|Sacramento Surge (MASL)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox American football team

| name = Sacramento Surge

| bgcolor = #00877B | fontcolor = #FDC82F

| helmet =

| logo =

| league = World League of American Football (NFL Europe)

| founded = 1991

| closed = 1992

| field =

| location = Sacramento, California

| colors = Aqua, Light Gold, Black, White{{cite web |title=Team Colors – WLAF|url=http://www.ssur.org/research/TeamColors/Football_Outdoor/WorldLeagueOfAmericanFootball/WorldLeagueOfAmericanFootball.htm |work=SSUR.org |access-date=January 16, 2010 }}
{{color box|#00877B}} {{color box|#FDC82F}} {{color box|#000000}} {{color box|#FFFFFF}}

| mascot =

| coach =

| record = Regular season: 11–9
Postseason: 2–0

| league_champ_type = World Bowls {{nobold|(1)}}

| league_champs = World Bowl II (1992)

}}

The Sacramento Surge was a professional American football team that played in the World League of American Football (WLAF) in 1991 and 1992. The team played its first season at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, and the second season in Hornet Stadium on the Sacramento State University campus. It was owned by Managing General Partner Fred Anderson and the General Manager was Michael F. Keller. In charge of Special Projects was Jack Youngblood, who also partnered with Joe Starkey and Ronnie Lott on Surge radio broadcasts on Sacramento radio station KRAK.

The team was coached by former Buffalo Bills quarterback–head coach Kay Stephenson. Charlie Sumner was the defensive coordinator and Jim Haslett was a defensive assistant coach.

The inaugural 1991 season was disappointing for the seven North American teams as none had a winning season, but 3-7 Sacramento managed to provide the only winning record over a Europe based team, 2-0 versus Frankfurt Galaxy, as this was the team they played twice, with the second win at the end of the regular season helping to eliminate Frankfurt Galaxy from the play-offs. Considered the WLAF's second best team, and having just won in Barcelona to secure the tie breaker, all 7-2 Frankfurt had to do was to beat the Surge at home in front of a sell-out crowd of 51,653. Yet, both the clouds and the Surge rained on the Galaxy parade into the semifinals. Two days later, the 9-0 London Monarchs dropped their home match against the Barcelona Dragons which made the Dragons clinch the play-offs instead. After winning the semifinals on US soil, both European franchises met again in Wembley for the World Bowl and a Monarchs shut-out over the Dragons.

The Surge won the World Bowl in 1992, the only United States based team to do so, as the WLAF was discontinued after 1992, returning in 1995 as NFL Europe. On this championship team were future professional wrestler Bill Goldberg and investor Pete Najarian.

After the WLAF ended its American presence at the end of the 1992 season, Anderson continued Sacramento's presence in professional football by acquiring a Canadian Football League expansion franchise for 1993. The new team was named the Sacramento Gold Miners; Stephenson and several Surge players were retained in the change, as were the team colors of aqua and yellow. After 1994, with new US-based CFL expansions, the franchise moved to Texas into the Alamodome. After the 1995 season the CFL presence in the US ended, and so did the San Antonio Texans.

Since 2021, the "Surge" name is used in a franchise for the "Stuttgart Surge" in the newly established "European League of Football" which sees itself as a continuation of WLAF and NFL Europe, having an agreement with the NFL to use "old" franchise names, logos and colors. With the Sacramento Surge having both a 3-0 all-time winning record against the "old" Frankfurt Galaxy name that was revived, and Surge being in line with the S alliteration of team names Stuttgart Scorpions and "Stuttgart Stallions" that were established in the early 1980s as amateur clubs, the Stuttgart fans and members haven chosen to use "Surge" in the EFL, and to continue as Scorpions in the national GFL.

Season-by-season

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center; width:65em"
rowspan="2" | Season

! rowspan="2" | League

! colspan="5" | Regular season

! colspan="4" | Postseason

Won

! Lost

! Ties

! Win %

! Finish

! Won

! Lost

! Win %

! Result

1991

| WLAF

| 3

| 7

| 0

| .300

| 3rd {{small|(North American West)}}

| –

| –

| —

| —

1992

| WLAF

| 8

| 2

| 0

| .800

| 1st {{small|(North American West)}}

| 2

| 0

| 1.000

| {{small|World Bowl '92 champions}}

colspan="2" | Total

! 11

! 9

! 0

! .550

!

! 2

! 0

! 1.000

!

1991 season

{{Infobox NFL team season

| team = Sacramento Surge

| year = 1991

| record = 3–7

| division_place = 3rd

| coach = Kay Stephenson

| general manager = Mike Keller

| owner = Fred Anderson

| stadium = Hughes Stadium

| playoffs = did not qualify

| uniform =

| previous = none

| no_prevseason = true

| next = 1992

| no_seasonslist = true

}}

=Personnel=

==Staff==

{{NFLE staff

|Year=1991

|Team=Sacramento Surge

|BC1=#00877B

|FC1=white

|BDC1=#FDC82F

|Front Office=

  • Managing General Partner – Fred Anderson
  • General manager – Mike Keller
  • Assistant to the General Manager – Cliff Dochterman
  • Special Projects – Jack Youngblood
  • Director of Community Relations – Doug Cosbie
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Bob Griffin
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Lannie Julias

|Head Coaches=

|Offensive Coaches=

  • Running backs/wide receivers – Bob Owens
  • Offensive line – Jim Criner
  • Offensive assistant – Mike Weston

|Defensive Coaches=

  • Defensive coordinator/defensive backs – Charlie Sumner
  • Defensive line/linebackers/special teams – Jim Haslett
  • Defensive assistant – Bob Moran

|Strength and Conditioning=

}}

{{cite book |title=1991 Sacramento Surge Media Guide}}

==Roster==

{{WLAF roster

|Year=1991

|Team=Sacramento Surge

|BC1=#00877B

|FC1=white

|BDC1=#FDC82F

|Quarterbacks=

{{NFLplayer| 5|Ben Bennett}}

{{NFLplayer|10|Mike Elkins}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|11|Todd Ellis}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no| 5|Mickey Guidry}}

|Running Backs=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|28|Tony Burse|FB/TE}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|26|Victor Floyd}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|20|Paul Frazier}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|22|Leon Perry}}

|Wide Receivers=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|--|Sam Archer}}

{{NFLplayer|87|Paco Craig|d=American football}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|88|Chris Gaiters}}

{{NFLplayer|80|Derek Holloway}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|86|Carl Parker}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|87|Colin Sumner}}

|Tight Ends=

{{NFLplayer|81|Mel Farr, Jr.|FB}}

|Offensive Linemen=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|72|John Buddenberg|G}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|67|Jon Burman|T}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|54|Byron Forsythe|C}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|75|Mark Nua|T}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|76|Doug Robb|G}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|62|Richard Stephens|T}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|51|Curtis Wilson|C}}

|Defensive Linemen=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|65|John Dominic|NT/DE}}

{{NFLplayer|96|Nate Hill|d=American football|DE}}

{{NFLplayer|77|Shawn Knight|DE}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|71|Saute Sapolu|DE}}

|Linebackers=

{{NFLplayer|52|Anthony Henton|LB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|56|Tim Moore|OLB}}

{{NFLplayer|50|Pete Najarian|ILB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|58|Paul Soltis|ILB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|95|Steve Thompson|OLB/DE}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|59|Rick Zumwalt|OLB}}

|Defensive Backs=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|27|Mike Adams|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|33|Greg Coauette|SS}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|45|Tom Gerhart|FS}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|24|Mike Hall|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|29|Art Malone|DB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|21|Robert McWright|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|25|Mike Wallace|CB}}

|Special Teams=

{{NFLplayer|link=no| 2|John Nies|K/P}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|--|Kendall Trainor|K}}

|Operation Discovery=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|83 {{flagicon|BAH|size=12px}}|Ricardo Cartwright|WR}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|79 {{flagicon|GER|size=12px}}|Oliver Erhorn|DL}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|57 {{flagicon|FIN|size=12px}}|Matti Lindholm|ILB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|74 {{flagicon|FIN|size=12px}}|Juha Salo|OL}}

}}

=Schedule=

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center;"
rowspan="2" | Week

! rowspan="2" | Date

! rowspan="2" | Opponent

! colspan="2" | Results

! rowspan="2" | Game site

! rowspan="2" | Attendance

Final score

! Team record

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 1

| Saturday, March 23

| Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks

| W 9–3

| 1–0

| Hughes Stadium

| 15,126

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 2

| Saturday, March 30

| at Birmingham Fire

| L 10–17

| 1–1

| Legion Field

| 16,432

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 3

| Sunday, April 7

| at San Antonio Riders

| L 3–10

| 1–2

| Alamo Stadium

| 6,772

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 4

| Saturday, April 13

| Frankfurt Galaxy

| W 16–10

| 2–2

| Hughes Stadium

| 17,065

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 5

| Monday, April 22

| at New York/New Jersey Knights

| L 20–28

| 2–3

| Giants Stadium

| 21,230

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 6

| Saturday, April 27

| Barcelona Dragons

| L 20–29 (OT)

| 2–4

| Hughes Stadium

| 19,045

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 7

| Saturday, May 4

| Montreal Machine

| L 23–26 (OT)

| 2–5

| Hughes Stadium

| 17,326

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 8

| Saturday, May 11

| at Orlando Thunder

| L 33–45

| 2–6

| Florida Citrus Bowl

| 20,048

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 9

| Saturday, May 18

| London Monarchs

| L 21–45

| 2–7

| Hughes Stadium

| 21,409

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 10

| Saturday, May 25

| at Frankfurt Galaxy

| W 24–13

| 3–7

| Waldstadion

| 51,653

1992 season

{{Infobox NFL team season

| team = Sacramento Surge

| year = 1992

| record = 8–2

| division_place = 1st

| coach = Kay Stephenson

| general manager = Mike Keller

| owner = Fred Anderson

| stadium = Hornet Stadium

| radio = KFBK

| playoffs = World Bowl '92 champion

| uniform =

| previous = 1991

| next = none

| no_nextseason = true

| no_seasonslist = true

}}

=Personnel=

==Staff==

{{NFLE staff

|Year=1992

|Team=Sacramento Surge

|BC1=#00877B

|FC1=white

|BDC1=#FDC82F

|Front Office=

  • Managing General Partner – Fred Anderson
  • Partner – Dave Lucchetti
  • Partner – Jim Anderson
  • Partner – Bill Pullum
  • Partner – Dick Baker
  • General manager – Mike Keller
  • Assistant to the General Manager – Cliff Dochterman
  • Director of Marketing Operations – Jack Youngblood
  • Director of Community Relations – Doug Cosbie
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Bob Griffin
  • Player Personnel Consultant – Lannie Julias

|Head Coaches=

|Offensive Coaches=

  • Running backs – Bob Owens
  • Wide receivers – Bob Moran
  • Offensive line – Jim Criner

|Defensive Coaches=

  • Defensive coordinator/linebackers – Jim Haslett
  • Defensive line – Jim Niblack
  • Defensive backs – John Fontes
  • Defensive assistant – Rick Mueller

|Strength and Conditioning=

}}

{{cite book |title=1992 Sacramento Surge Media Guide}}

==Roster==

{{WLAF roster

|Year=1992

|Team=Sacramento Surge

|BC1=#00877B

|FC1=white

|BDC1=#FDC82F

|Quarterbacks=

{{NFLplayer|18|David Archer|d=quarterback}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no| 5|Mickey Guidry}}

{{NFLplayer|11|Lee Saltz}}

|Running Backs=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|28|Tony Burse}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|40|Doug DuBose|FB}}

{{NFLplayer|23|Mike Pringle|d=gridiron football}}

|Wide Receivers=

{{NFLplayer|85|Stefon Adams}}

{{NFLplayer|88|Eddie Brown|d=Canadian football}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|89|Anthony Green}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|86|Carl Parker}}

{{NFLplayer|82|Mark Stock|d=American football}}

|Tight Ends=

{{NFLplayer|83|Paul Green|d=American football}}

|Offensive Linemen=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|72|John Buddenberg|G}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|54|Byron Forsythe|G/C}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|52|Terry Gray|G}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|76|Jarrod Johnson|OL}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|74|Tom Rehder|G}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|70|Ernie Rogers|T}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|62|Richard Stephens T}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|51|Josh Taotoai|OL}}

{{NFLplayer|61|Lance Zeno|C}}

|Defensive Linemen=

{{NFLplayer|93|George Bethune|d=American football|DE}}

{{NFLplayer|73|Bill Goldberg|DT}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|79|Vance Hammond|DT}}

{{NFLplayer|96|Nate Hill|d=American football|DT}}

{{NFLplayer|75|Michael Sinclair|d=American football|DE}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|77|David Westbrooks DE}}

|Linebackers=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|95|Corian Freeman|OLB}}

{{NFLplayer|55|Mike Jones|d=linebacker|MLB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|52|Paul Liggett|MLB}}

{{NFLplayer|50|Pete Najarian|MLB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|56|Basil Proctor|OLB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|58|Randy Thornton}}

|Defensive Backs=

{{NFLplayer|link=no|45|Tom Gerhart|S}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|44|Derrick Kelson|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|link=no|21|Robert McWright|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|24|Tracey Perkins|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|42|Louis Riddick|S}}

{{NFLplayer|22|Junior Robinson|d=American football|CB}}

{{NFLplayer|27|Herb Welch|S}}

|Special Teams=

{{NFLplayer|15|Cary Blanchard|K}}

{{NFLplayer| 3|John Nies|K/P}}

|Operation Discovery=

  • Vacant

}}

=Schedule=

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center; width:66em"
rowspan="2" | Week

! rowspan="2" | Date

! rowspan="2" | {{Tooltip|Kickoff|All times local}}

! rowspan="2" | Opponent

! colspan="2" | Results

! rowspan="2" | Game site

! rowspan="2" | Attendance

Final score

! Team record

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 1

| Saturday, March 21

|

| Birmingham Fire

| W 20–6

| 1–0

| Hornet Stadium

| 17,920

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 2

| Sunday, March 29

|

| at Ohio Glory

| W 17–6

| 2–0

| Ohio Stadium

| 37,837{{cite news |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1992/03/30/around-the-league-5/ |title=Around the league |date=March 30, 1992 |newspaper=Orlando Sentinel |access-date=April 19, 2012}}

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 3

| Saturday, April 4

| 2:00 p.m.{{cite news |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SB&p_theme=sb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0D9D1F5056196&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s |title=Machine at Surge |date=April 4, 1992 |newspaper=The Sacramento Bee |access-date=April 19, 2012}}

| Montreal Machine

| W 14–7

| 3–0

| Hornet Stadium

| 21,024

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 4

| Saturday, April 11

|

| San Antonio Riders

| L 20–23 (OT)

| 3–1

| Hornet Stadium

| 20,625{{cite news |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SB&p_theme=sb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0D9D44ADADA77&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s |title=Riders top Surge in overtime |date=April 12, 1992 |newspaper=The Sacramento Bee |access-date=April 19, 2012}}

bgcolor="#FFDDDD"

! 5

| Saturday, April 18

|

| at Birmingham Fire

| L 14–28

| 3–2

| Legion Field

| 20,794

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 6

| Sunday, April 26

|

| at London Monarchs

| W 31–26

| 4–2

| Wembley Stadium

| 18,653

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 7

| Sunday, May 3

|

| at Montreal Machine

| W 35–21

| 5–2

| Olympic Stadium

| 21,183

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 8

| Saturday, May 9

|

| Frankfurt Galaxy

| W 51–7

| 6–2

| Hornet Stadium

| 22,720

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 9

| Saturday, May 16

|

| Ohio Glory

| W 21–7

| 7–2

| Hornet Stadium

| 21,272

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! 10

| Saturday, May 23

|

| at San Antonio Riders

| W 27–21

| 8–2

| Bobcat Stadium

| 19,273

colspan=8 | Postseason
bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! Semifinal

| Sunday, May 31

|

| Barcelona Dragons

| W 17–15

| 9–2

| Hornet Stadium

| 23,640

bgcolor="#DDFFDD"

! World Bowl

| Saturday, June 6

| 8:10 p.m.{{cite news |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-06-06/news/9202130161_1_eagles-quarterback-coach-world-league-david-archer |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203130741/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-06-06/news/9202130161_1_eagles-quarterback-coach-world-league-david-archer |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 2013 |title=QB Archer seeks 2nd NFL shot |date=June 6, 1992 |newspaper=Orlando Sentinel |access-date=June 6, 2012}}

| Orlando Thunder

| W 21–17

| 10–2

| Olympic Stadium

| 43,789

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

  • [http://www.footballdb.com/teams/wlaf/sacramento-surge/stats/1991 1991 Sacramento Surge stats on FootballDB.com]
  • [http://www.footballdb.com/teams/wlaf/sacramento-surge/stats/1992 1991 Sacramento Surge stats on FootballDB.com]

{{Sacramento Surge}}

{{NFLE}}

{{Sacramento Gold Miners}}

Category:NFL Europe (WLAF) teams

Category:American football teams established in 1991

Category:American football teams disestablished in 1992

Category:American football teams in Sacramento, California

Category:Defunct American football teams in California

Category:1991 establishments in California

Category:1992 disestablishments in California