Sudbury Spartans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sudbury Spartans are a semi-professional gridiron football team based in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. Established in 1952, it is the longest, continuously-operating sports organization in Sudbury. The Spartans have won more Northern Football Conference Championships (18) than any other team in the league.
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[edit] Range
The team plays in the Northern Football Conference, which also includes teams from Oakville, Oshawa, Milton, Mega City (Toronto Maddogs), Tri City, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Kingston, Markham's Toronto Raiders and Sarnia.
[edit] History
The Spartans began play in 1954 as Charter Members of the Northern Ontario Rugby-Football Union (predecessor to the NFC) Originally named "Hardrocks" to reflect the Sudbury's predominant mining industry, the moniker was changed to "Spartans" in 1967 by then rookie head coach Sid Forster. Forster, a member of the 1953 team who was inducted in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2001, felt the old name sounded more like a street gang than a football team.
[edit] Suspension of operations
Following the death of Forster in 1994, the team struggled to remain competitive. It faced several winless seasons in which it could not finish above .500. During this period, it fielded teams as small as 20 men. On May 14, 2007, the Spartans suspended operations due to an insufficient number of players to safely field a team. The team entered into a one year LOA from the NFC, but are scheduled to return (without needing to re-apply as a new franchise) to the league in 2008.
