Cleveland Gladiators : A Brief History
Cleveland Gladiators has set their foot hold on the Arena Football League in East Rutherford, New Jersey in the year 1997 with the name New Jersey Red Dogs. The home arena of the Cleveland Gladiators team is Quickens Loan Arena and it is in the Eastern division of the Arena Football League. The ownership of the Cleveland Gladiators in 1997 was held by Burke Ross, a New Jersey radio entrepreneur along with former NFL players like Carl Banks, Harry Carson and Joe Morris. The Red Dogs had a very good and competitive team in its initial year at the AFL and had won 8 of their first 9 games.
The Red Dogs ownership changed hands in the year 2001 as Joe Ferraro, a Miami lawyer bought the team and from then on the team was named as New Jersey Gladiators which was again shifted to Las Vegas for the new 2003 season. The Cleveland Gladiators were called Las Vegas Gladiators for the 2003 season as it moved to Las Vegas and the home games were played at the Thomas and Mack Center. At present the Gladiators have shifted and are now are located at Cleveland, Ohio with Mike Wilpolt as the head coach. The Cleveland Gladiators have not disturbed the team color of red, black and silver.
The notable players who have represented Cleveland Gladiators are Joe Douglas, Mark Lewis, Junior Lord, Larry Ray Willis, Matt Kinsinger etc. The type of form showed by the team in their debut season is on the lower side as the years have gone by with the team winning only 5 games in 2006 and 2 games in 2007 season. The 2008 season for the Cleveland Gladiators kicks off on March 3rd and they have matches lined up till the end of June 2008.
