Edmonton Stallions Edmonton Stallions : Stallions History Stallions History 2001 - 2008 . The Edmonton Stallions were created in the fall of 2001 . The 2 originators were Ryan Bellerose and James Scott . Both were members of the now defunct Edmonton Icemen . After numerous attempts at making the Icemen successful ; yet failure at every turn , Ryan and James pulled 6 members from the Icemen to create a new team . Those members were Yuri Wishloff , Rob Rogers , Garin Mackay , Troy Snaychuk , Warren Caulkins and Byron Kay . All 8 decided to take on the new position of board members on a board run team . They quickly set up team rules , and put in place a strategy to recruit new players . Origionally the Stallions team colours were going to be the same as the New Orleans Saints , but in a meeting the colour of the Stampeders was presented and voted on . Thus the Red / Black / white colour scheme was born . And you can ' t have the Stamps colours without a horse theme . Therefore the original logo was to be the Indy Colts " horseshoe " Later the idea was passed to have the old Baltimore Stallions horse as the Stallions logo . In February of 2002 , Ryan and Garin drove to Calgary for the AFL ' s annual AGM and at this meeting . 2 expansion bids were made . 1 was by the Red Deer Buccaneers and the other by the Edmonton Stallions . Both clubs were sucessful in there expansion bids and were to begin play ( under a 1 year probation ) for the 2002 season . That year the AFL consisted of the Calgary Thunder ( 2001 AFL Champs ) , Calgary Wolfpack , Calgary Coyotes , Calgary Gators , Edmonton Icemen , Red Deer Buccaneers and the Edmonton Stallions . Shortly after the expansion news the Stallions roster started to officially fill up with such names as Matt Oberle ( QB ) , Yemi Adeniyi ( RB ) , Max Iribar ( LB ) , Brad Matheson ( LB ) Duane Gladden ( SB ) , Dave Graff ( DT ) , Terry Miller ( FS ) , Justin Smyth ( DB ) , Tim Lambkin ( DB ) , Don Tiemstra ( OL and Scott Wallace ( DT ) ; Shocklingly , Byron Kay wasnt able to committ to the Stallions and removed himself from the board , thus leaving it with 7 player / board members . The 2002 season had its ups and downs , plus a lot of learning curves . The Stallions budget was only $ 15 , 000 for the first season , and players were asked to supply there own tape and drive on there own for road games . The Stallions kicked off there existance with a 50 - 6 stomping of the Icemen . They defeated the Calgary Wolfpack 10 - 6 . Went into Red Deer and turned a game into a Natural rivalry by defeating the Bucs 30 - 0 and having a Bench Clearing Brawl . The Stallions then defeated the Coyotes and by doing so started the season 4 - 0 . Then the Stallions lost to the Calgary Thunder , tied the Calgary Gators on a last second Hail Mary pass for TD to then Receiver Chris Clouden , beat the Icemen again and lost the regular season finale to the Buccs 30 - 3 . The Expansion Stallions finished 5 - 2 - 1 , good enough for 3rd place and host a playoff game . Only they played the Veteran Gators and lost 49 - 6 . The offseason started off horribly for the Stallions as one of there own , Troy Snaychuk , died suddenly on Oct 9th . The Board and Team were in shock . Troy ' s funeral service was completely full as to the popularity of this bright young man . # 65 will forever be retired from the Stallions roster . Thus the Troy Snaychuk Heart and Soul award was created in memory of Troy . The 2003 season saw the addition of CIS calibre talent join the Stallions ranks but inner termoil at the coaching position made the Stallions spiral downwards from there previous season . This year the Stallions added former Eskimo draftee Guillaume Petit ( DE ) , Tim Siewert ( DE ) , Nathan Fung ( DT ) , Pat Sanders ( DB ) , Gord Schroder ( OC ) and Mike Oakley ( WR ) . Yet the head coach quit the team 1 / 2 thru the season after a tough loss to the Coyotes , in Calgary 17 - 7 . The Stallions finished the season 3 - 5 and looked at the offseason from a non playoff teams perspective . The Stallions 2004 team was arguablly the best Stallions team ( Talent wise ) . The key additions were former CIS allstars Nathan Connor ( RB ) , Mike Ebberts ( DB ) , Mike Plante ( DB ) and Tyler Tapp ( OL ) . As well Willie King ( U of Wyoming , former NFL draftee ) made his Stallions debut at QB . To go with these players the Stallions recruited heavily from the Edmonton Junior clubs to tip the roster at 50 + players . And to start the season off they played the 2003 AFL champ Wolfpack in Red Deer . The Stallions lost that game 63 - 19 but learned a few things along the way . They took the loss in stride and ended up going 8 - 1 and along the way having the AFL alltime rusher Nathan Connor run for 1257yrds on 128 carries . Plus 20Td ' s . QB Willie King also rushed for 553 yrds , giving the Stallions a multi headed attack on the ground which nobody was able to stop . This season the Stallions Offensively rushed for more than 2500yrds , lead the AFL in Special Teams yrds / return , Sacks , and were 2nd in Int ' s . There only stopping block between them winning the AFL title and representing the AFL in the National Championship game in Edmonton were the Calgary Wolfpack . The game has been dubbed & quote " the greatest AFL game Ever . The lead changed hands almost every series as the Wolfpack took a early 27 - 0 lead . The Wolfpack looked like they had the game wrapped but the Stallions had other ideas and came back to take the lead . By late in the 4th quarter the Stallions were hanging onto the lead 46 - 44 lead . Less than 2 minutes to play , 3rd and 1 on the Wolfpacks side of the field ( around 30 - 35 yrdline ) all the Stallions had to do was convert the 3rd down , something they had done all season , and they would advance to the CMFL final . Unfortunately the run by Connor was stopped and the Wolfpack took over . Leason lead the Pack down field and with 17 seconds left scored the winning TD . Not this season . In 2005 the Stallions added to there OLine with the addition of former NCAA OT Travis Matlock , LB Real Bouchard and former U of Waterloo QB Jordie Holton . These additions were key to the Stallions success as they went 9 - 0 this year . Running the ball was no longer Nathan Connor , as he and Willie King moved onto the European Theatre to play pro football . Now it was former Edmonton Huskies RB Kent Turner . Turner almost broke Connors ' rushing record of 1257 yrds by rushing for 1251 yrds . However this season the Stallions Offence was more level as they had a legitamite passing attack from Holton . Jordie passed for 2739 yrds and 29 td ' s , leading the AFL to a 1st place finish . And thru the playoffs to eventually host the AFL final against the Calgary Wolfpack , again ! And again it was a close game but by the 4th quarter the Wolfpack had a solid lead , eventually winning 42 - 28 . Not this season . In 2006 the Stallions kept most of there key players , veterns included and managed to go 6 - 1 - 1 ( tieing the Lloydminster Vandals 10 - 10 ) . Good enough for 2nd place . Statistaclly the Stallions offence was just average as QB Holton threw for only 1793 yrds , and HB Yemi Adeniyi rushed for only 500 yrds ( good for 6th in league rushing yrds ) . However the Stallions defence was able to stop just about everybody , thus leading the way in 2006 . Guillaume Petit led the league with 7 . 5 sacks . The Stallions were 2nd in sacks , Int ' s and Fumble recoveries . While being 1st in blocked kicks . The Defence was known for creating 2 and out situations for opposing offences and this allowed the Stallions offence more time on the field . The Stallions had a early exit from the AFL playoffs in ' 06 , when they hosted and lost to the Calgary Gators . Not this season . At the Stallions AGM in February 2007 , then club President Gord Schroder made a bold promise to all . We will win the AFL Championship this season and go out east and play for the National Championship . Our camp started the last weekend of April with a ton of new and familiar faces . RB Manny Gordon , former Winnipeg Rifles leading rusher , CB / K Grant Shaw , former 2 time PJFL and 1x National Champion in the CJFL with the Edmonton Huskies , OT Zach Nordin from the Victoria Rebel of the BCJFL all joined the club . Former AFL allstar DE Tim Siewert was back . As was AFL Allstar WR Landon Klassen . Other past Stallions also came back in the likes of CB Chris Kercher from the BCJFL and OT Tyler Tapp . Everything was set in place for the Stallions to take a run at the title . After the first game against the Vandals the Stallions looked pretty thin at Oline . They lost 1 player for the game another for 1 / 2 the season and a 3rd for the season . To top it off they lost the game . Week 2 wasn ' t any easier as they lost to Grande Prairie and lost another 2 OL for the season . So going into week 3 they dressed 2 new Olinemen . They tried to convert DL Garin Mackay to play OT and Coach Bernie dressed to play OG beside Garin , thus Bernie gave some much needed leadership to the now patched OLine . The result was a Stallions victory against a weak Seahawks squad . The Stallions were now playing with confidence . Bernie never played again that season but the OLine of Gord Schroder , Tim Mottershead , Luc McCabe , Garin Mackay , Zack Nordin and Bruce Theroux gelled enough to give the Offence much needed confidence . The Stallions ended up going on a 5 game winning streak beating even the highly touted Gators and rival Buccaneers . Then the Stallions played the Wolfpack with a depleated defence and lost there last regular season game 44 - 17 , putting the Stallions in 5th place . This meant that they had to play a 1 / 4 final game for the first time since 2002 , and on the road in Vandal land . The 1 / 4 final was a completely defensive battle , with only 1 TD being scored by either team , on a INT by the Vandals . The Stallions ended up with the ball deep in there own end with 1 : 30 remaining . Down 9 - 8 the Stallions drove the length of the field and with 1 . 9 seconds remaining Grant Shaw kicked a 40yrd FG to give the Stallions the win . The Stallions semi final game was on the road in Grande Prairie to face the # 1 Drillers . This game was played in a wet field full of Pig sh1t . However this didn ' t stop the Stallions Offence as they went on to score 32 points and the Defence stoned the Drillers all game long . Final was Stallions 32 - 0 , and onto the AFL final in Calgary against the much favored Gators . The Gators had former NFL RB Ronney Jenkins on there roster , but he wasnt able to rush anywhere on this day as the Stallions Defence stoned him cold all game . The Stallions offence was up to the challange as RB Manny Gordon had his best game as a Stallion rushing for over 100 yrds , and QB Holton threw for over 250 yrds . The Stallions ended up winning the game 21 - 16 . We did it the hard way , 3 road wins against 4th , 1st and 3rd place teams . And after starting the season 0 - 2 with the string of Injuries . We had finally done it . 2007 AFL CHAMPIONS . Up next was the Sault Ste . Marie Steelers in the Nationals in Oshawa , Ontario . Unfortunately the Stallions lost in the CMFL final 59 - 10 , but alot has been taken in thru last season , so the Stallions know what they need to do to repeat as AFL Champions and what they need to do too win the National Championship in 2008 . Past Presidents . 2001 - 2002a : Ryan Bellerose 2002b - 2003 : Garin Mackay 2004 - 2008 : Gord Schroder 2009 - 2010 : Garin Mackay Current : Jeremy Mann