Ipswich Cardinals
| Ipswich Cardinals | |||
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| First season | 1986 | ||
| Head coach | Sandy Francis | ||
| Other staff |
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| Stadium | Northgate International Sports Centre (Capacity: 400) |
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| Field surface | Grass | ||
| Location | Ipswich, Suffolk | ||
| League | BAFANL | ||
| Conference | National division | ||
| Division | South East Conference | ||
| All-time record | 142–115–5 (.552) | ||
| Bowl record | 2–5–0 (.286) | ||
| Claimed nat'l titles | 2 | ||
| Division titles | 4 | ||
| Current uniform | |||
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| Colors | Burgundy and Gold |
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The Ipswich Cardinals are an American Football team from the United Kingdom based in Ipswich, Suffolk. The team plays in the National Division South East Conference of BAFANL – the second tier of the BAFA National Leagues.
Formed by Colin Cox, Mark LePorte and Don Laisure II in December 1985 at the Drunken Docker pub in Ipswich.
The club was formed by the players for the players, the club was owned by the players.
The name comes from one of Ipswich's most famous sons, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was Henry VIII's Lord chancellor (Chief advisor to the king). It is a clever play on the traditional name for some American sports teams, whereas theirs is generally a reference to the cardinal bird, their name is a tribute to a local historical figure.
The team's first training session was set for January 1986 at Gainsborough sports centre, Ipswich. Over 100 hopefuls turned up for tryouts – a lot of them went by the way, but there were a lot of hopefuls. Don Laisure put the hopeful players through their paces along with Gary McCartney. The committee approached Jack Garner who was the head coach of the Woodbridge high school team. He became the head coach until he was transferred to Holland – then, with the team coach-less, JJ Johnson was asked to help. JJ and Andy Melton took over the coaching roles, whilst Don Laisure stepped down and played instead.
Ipswich has a long-standing rivalry with the city of Norwich in all sports and American football is no different. The Cardinals and the Devils games are always fiercely contested with both teams stepping up their games.
It is an amusing accident that one of the league's biggest rivalries features teams with religious logos. With Ipswich being represented by an adaptation of Cardinal Wolsey and Norwich being represented with a depiction of a devil. Are there higher powers at work here? Probably not, but it all adds to the intensity of the games when these two teams face off on the field.
The Logo worn on the helmet was originally a cardinal's head, then the "Fighting Cardinal" (a representation of Cardinal Wolsey) which was designed by Mark Ayers, the first quarterback. Kevin Davies took it to an artist at the Port of Felixstowe to refine it.
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