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Inaugural Season
The original Fort Wayne Freedom was founded by Richard
Coffey. Operating under Indiana Indoor Football, the Freedom joined the National Indoor Football League. Rich
Huff was named head coach and the team played its first game at the newly refurbished Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
on March 22, 2003. In front of a reported crowd of 9,162 the Freedom battled a fellow expansion team, the Evansville
BlueCats down to the wire for a hard-fought 41-40 victory. This was the first of two consecutive victories to open the
season for Fort Wayne, but soon found itself falling under .500 with three consecutive losses. Two of them at the hands
of eventual champion Ohio Valley and one to the Tenn. Riverhawks on the road. After the losses, Fort Wayne responded
by winning five straight in impressive fashion. The Freedom outscored their opponent's 301 - 98 during that
span to put themselves back in the playoff hunt with a 7-3 record. With four games remaining and the next three on the
road, Fort Wayne looked to be in solid shape heading to Sioux Falls and Myrtle Beach, both of whom had lost earlier
in the season to Fort Wayne. In both cases the Storm and Stingrays avenged their earlier losses by winning at home 51-49
and 50-41 respectively. Those losses put Fort Wayne in a position of needing to sweep Lexington over the final two
games. The Horsemen quickly ended any playoff hopes by downing Fort Wayne 59-43 in Rupp Arena. Fort Wayne
went onto beat Lexington the following week at home to finish 8-6.
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| The Fort Wayne Freedom introductions opening night. |
Top five
in tackles for 2003 Pat Cavanaugh
.....114 Rachman Crable....97 Lewis Carter..........91
Andrae Brooks......84
Bobby Petras........53
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| Opening night at the War Memorial Coliseum. |
Game-by-Game results
| Date | Opponent | Result |
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| Mar 22, 03 | vs, BlueCats | W 41-40 | | Mar 29, 03 | vs.
Fire Ants | W 57-22 | | Apr
12, 03 | vs. Greyhounds | L 41-54 | | Apr 19, 03 | at Riverhawks | L 48-65 | | Apr 25, 03 | at Greyhounds | L 42-48 | | May 03, 03 | vs. Storm | W 55-19 | | May 17, 03 | vs.
Stingrays | W 51-25 | | May
24, 03 | at BlueCats | W 62-33 | | May 30, 03 | at Night Train | W 59-06 | | Jun 06, 03 | vs. Riverhawks | W 74-15 | | Jun 14, 03 | at Storm | L
49-52 | | Jun 21, 03 | at Stingrays | L 41-50 | | Jun 26, 03 | at Horsemen | L 43-59 | | Jul
05, 03 | vs. Horsemen | W 76-62 |
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Head Coach - Rich Huff A graduate of Yale University where he starred in football earning
All-Ivy League honors, Huff comes to his first head coaching job after stints as an assistant at Plymouth State and Brown.
Huff also played in the World League and the AFL.
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| Andrae Brooks - DB from Eastern Michigan |
Fort Wayne averaged 7,760 fans per game. Freedom finished 2nd in overall attendence and had an opening night crowd of 9,162.
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| Fans welcome indoor football to Fort Wayne. |
Top Players Quarter Backs - Quarterback time was spilt between two very talented QB's
in Antoine Taylor and Julian Reese. Taylor played in eight games with a passer rating 103.12 and completed
94 of 160 pass attempts for 1180 yards and 30 TD's. Reese played in nine
games where he connected on 108 of his 187 attempts and 33 TD's. Julian also racked up 1375 yards through the
air and added 340 yards on the ground, including seven rushing TD's.
Running Backs - Rocky Harvey instantly became a crowd favorite playing all 14
games and rushing for a team high 807yards on 206 carries. With chants of "Rocky" reigning through
the air, Harvey scored 25 rushing TD's and added six more through the air.
Recievers - Jeremy Dutcher led all Fort Wayne receivers during his 14 starts with 68 catches
for 980 yards. Jeremy averaged 14.4 yards per catch with a long of 49 yards and 30 TD's
for a season average of 70.0 yards per game.
2003 Inaugural Season For complete stats and paticipation
for the 2003 season please click here.
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