Fort Worth Sixers


The Fort Worth Sixers were a professional indoor football team founded as 2007 expansion franchise of the National Indoor Football League. The team struggled on the field during its single season in existence, and franchise folded with the league at the end of the shortened 2007 season.

History Of Team Challenges

The Sixers were merged after a meeting with the NIFL league president. The team had a name but neither players nor staff. Will Williams became the head coach and general manager/president of the Sixers. He also owned the Regulators, who played under both names and in two leagues, the APFL and NIFL. The NIFL struggled to stay afloat entering the season, and was simply spread too thin after ownership changes and reorganization attempts. before the start of the season.
Obtaining home dates was one of the team's biggest problems, as most dates were taken for other events, leaving the team to book dates on mostly Sundays with a couple of other undesirable options. Sunday dates were considered suboptimal for teams traveling from out of state. Teams proposed by the league in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas never materialized, also causing travel issues as teams were spread out nationwide, and all had issues preparing for the season. The Beaumont Drillers was the only other Texas team, playing the Sixers twice. Both teams also played the Conroe Storm, members of the APFL and an affiliate NIFL member.

Season-by-season

The Sixers were coached by Will Williams. Roderic Boatman was the director of player personnel. Larry Hendrix served as defensive back coach and coordinator l. The team consisted of only two experienced indoor players and played under the Sixers/Regulators name, playing in two leagues at the same time as members of the NIFL and the APFL. Hendrix and Boatman went on to coach with the expansion CIF Mesquite Bandits. Williams’ production company went on to video the Arena Football League’s Dallas Desperados players’ combine at Texas Stadium and top 50 prospects invite at the Dallas Cowboys practice bubble in Valley Ranch. Williams, a TV Sports Broadcaster and minor league sports team owner at the time, had also been involved with the first arena football team to play in Fort Worth - the Calvary of the AFL league. He had been host and producer of the pre game weekly TV show Fort Worth Calvary Weekly before that team relocated to Florida becoming the Tampa Bay Storm. Williams’ company also conducted practice and game video production for the Arena Football League’s Dallas Vigilante.