Minnesota Vixen
 |
|
| Founded | 1999 |
|---|---|
| League |
WPFL (1999-2007) NWFA (2008) IWFL (2009-2016) WFA (2017-present) |
| Team history | Minnesota Vixen |
| Based in | Minneapolis-Saint Paul |
| Stadium | Simley High School |
| Colors | Black & Red |
| Owner(s) | Laura and James Brown |
| Head coach | Brandon Pelinka |
| Championships | (0) |
| Conference titles |
(1) Eastern Conference (2016) |
| Division titles |
(2) WPFL Central Division (2000) IWFL Midwest Division(2016) |
| Mascot | B.A. Vixen |
(1)
The Minnesota Vixen is a professional women's football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The team has been known as the Minnesota Vixens and Minneapolis Vixens prior to being known as the Vixen (note lack of "s").
Established in 1999, the Vixen are the longest continuously operating women's American football team in the nation. The team plays full contact, tackle football following NCAA rules. The season is from April to June each year with playoffs in July. In April 2017, they will begin their 19th season.
In 2014, the Vixen's record was 6-2 with an invite to the inaugural Legacy Bowl in South Carolina. In 2016, the team went undefeated in the regular season winning the IWFL Midwest Division. They then faced the New York Shark for the IWFL Eastern Conference Championship, winning in double overtime and appeared in the IWFL World Championship Game in South Carolina against the Utah Falconz. In 2017, the Vixen changed leagues and joined the Women's Football Alliance (WFA)and will compete in the Great Plains Division.
In 2014, Brandon Pelinka was named full-time head coach. In 2017, the Vixen coaching staff includes Defensive Coordinator Damion Topping, Special Teams Coordinator Adam Griffith, Running Backs Coach Jeff Gehring, Wide Receivers Coach Danny Ekstrand, Defensive Backs Coach Darrion Branscomb and Line Coach Stefan Dahl Holm. Current owners are James and Laura Brown.
Vixen history dates back to 1999, when businessmen Carter Turner and Terry Sullivan decided to explore the feasibility of a professional women's football league by gathering together top female athletes from across the United States and dividing them into two teams for a nationwide series of exhibition game. More than 100 women attended tryouts. The teams were named the Minnesota Vixens and the Lake Michigan Minx, and the "No Limits" Barnstorming Tour featured six games in such locations as Miami, Chicago, and New York. The final exhibition game was played at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis (known worldwide as home to the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings). While the Vixens lost the game by a score of 30-27, the tour's success inspired the expansion of the Women's Professional Football League to 11 teams in 2000.
The success of the tour led Turner and Sullivan to form the Women's Professional Football League; although the Minx would not join the Vixen in the WPFL's first full season, the Austin Rage, Colorado Valkyries, Daytona Beach Barracudas, Houston Energy, Miami Fury, New England Storm, New York Galaxy, New York Sharks, Oklahoma City Wildcats, and Tampa Tempest would join the Vixen to form the WPFL's inaugural roster of teams. The Vixen would finish the regular season unbeaten at 5-0, clinch the Central Division title, and ensure home-field advantage throughout the American Conference playoffs. However, that playoff run would only last one game, as the Vixen lost the American Conference Championship Game to the eventual WPFL Champion Houston Energy by a score of 35-14.
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