Fort Wayne Freedom The Fort Wayne Freedom was a team in the Continental Indoor Football League , beginning play in the 2008 season . Like the original Freedom , the team retained a red , white , and blue color scheme , and played in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum . In September , 2008 , the Freedom announced that former Freedom Assistant GM Brad Harris ( who was with the original Freedom from 2003 – 2005 ) had been hired as GM . Head coach Matt Land also returned for the 2009 to coach the team for the full season . In 2008 , Land , who had been the team ' s head coach for the 2005 campaign , was asked by team co - owner William Fahlsing to lead the team for the final four games of the season when original head coach Willie Davis , Jr . was fired the morning of the May 17 game against the Chicago Slaughter . With only 15 minutes of practice , Land ' s second term began with a 41 - 33 loss to the Slaughter , despite a solid performance by the Freedom defense . In 2009 , the Freedom had success on the field but struggled financially . Toward the end of the 2009 season players were not paid promptly and then not at all . Team Co - owners Bill Fahlsing and Mark Chappius were forced to ask for public support to help get the team through the season . Despite the financial issue with salaries , the players continued to play for the Freedom and won the Eastern Conference Championship over the Marion Mayhem but lost the 2009 CIFL championship game to the Chicago Slaughter . Season - By - Season . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > = Current Standing Original Team . The original Fort Wayne Freedom was a professional indoor football team . They were founded by Richard Coffey , who had spent ten years as the General Manager of the Fort Wayne Fury of the CBA ( Continental Basketball Association ) , the development league of the NBA . They were most recently a member of the United Indoor Football league ( UIF ) , and played their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum . In 2004 , the Freedom set the single game record for attendance at 10 , 225 . In 2005 , the Freedom moved to the UIF after 2 years in the NIFL . The Freedom won the 2005 UIF Midwest Division Championship , went 14 - 2 in the regular season while clinching the # 1 seed in the playoffs , but lost 57 - 22 in the first round of the UIF Playoffs to the Tennessee Valley Raptors . Team history . The Freedom selected a new coach for the 2006 season , after Matt Land left the Freedom to coach Tri - State University in NCAA Division III . The Freedom selected one of their own as they signed Dan Pifer to be their new head coach . Pifer is also the offensive coordinator for NCAA Division III Tri - State under former coach Matt Land . He had worked previously as an assistant coach at the University of St . Francis , an NAIA institution , and NCAA Division II Hillsdale College in Michigan . Pifer also was a high school assistant and played quarterback at the University of California in Pennsylvania . After completing its fourth year of football , the assets of the Freedom were sold to Jeremy Golden , who moved the franchise to af2 . The Freedom joined the CIFL for the 2008 season . United Indoor Football did find an ownership group ( that included investor Bill Bean ) that also sought a lease with Randy Brown and the Memorial Coliseum . Brown opted to go with the af2 franchise . Rumored move to af2 . The team had been heavily rumored to move to af2 for quite some time , and Coffey sold the assets to Golden on November 10 , 2006 . Golden had already applied for and was awarded an af2 franchise , but because only the assets and not the Freedom ' s corporate entity were sold , the Fort Wayne Fusion af2 franchise is not a continuation of the UIF team . Fans . The Freedom Force is the official fan club of the Fort Wayne Freedom . Season - By - Season . ! Totals | | 35 | | 27 | | 0 2004 Season . Game - by - Game results . # = set single game indoor football attendance record with 10 , 225 fans . 2005 Season . The 2005 season was a season for the ages and , statistically , the best season the Freedom have had in franchise history . Finishing a league - best 14 - 2 , the Freedom had high hopes as they went into the first - round of the UIF playoffs . On the other hand , the Tennessee Valley Raptors had other plans . Considering the game was in Fort Wayne , the Freedom were heavily favored , and the Raptors didn ' t take that into consideration when they destroyed the Freedom 57 - 22 . A phenomenal season for the Freedom came to an end with a miserable showing in the first - round against a team that had more heart and more poise .