New England Surge

Continental Indoor Football League (2007-2008)

Tombstone

Born: November 21, 2006 – CIFL expansion franchise
Folded: Spring 2009

First Game:
Last Game:

CIFL Championships: None

Arena

The DCU Center
Opened: 1982

Marketing

Team Colors:

Mascot: Surgeo (the Leopard)

Ownership

Owner: Roy Lucas, Jr., et al.

Background

The New England Surge was a quixotic indoor football venture in the ramshackle Continental Indoor Football League. Team founder (and General Manager and Head Coach) Roy Lucas Jr. was a strength and conditioning trainer without any personal wealth or pro sports experience. He started the franchise with the assistance of a Football For Dummies paperback according to a 2007 local magazine profile (Pulse Magazine 2/7/2007).

Lucas set up shop in Worcester, Massachusetts at the DCU Center, formerly known as the Worcester Centrum. The building was something of a graveyard for minor league sports going back to the mid 1980’s, with series of failed promotions in pro basketball, box lacrosse and ice hockey. The casualties also included a previous indoor football attempt, the Massachusetts Marauders of the Arena Football League, in 1994.

The Surge’s home debut on April 14th, 2007 drew a respectable announced crowd of 4,724 (video below). Nevertheless, the team’s expenses vastly outpaced weak revenues and by the end of the Surge’s second season in 2008, the club was nearly $600,000 in the red, according to The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and up to its eyeballs in liens and small claims cases. The club folded before a third season could be launched, amidst squabbling between founder Roy Lucas and his minority shareholders, none of whom had any serious money.

Notable Surge players included former New England Patriots running back Harold Shaw and Tyler Grogan, son of long-time Pats QB Steve Grogan.

Trivia

The Surge’s mascot was a leopard named Surgeo, which was somewhat clever.