LITTLE ROCK — Call it an old new name.
The Arkansas Twisters announced Thursday their new name will be the Arkansas Diamonds.
While it’s a new to the Twisters, the name Diamonds might be familiar to football fans in central Arkansas.
The Arkansas Diamonds played in the Continental Football League in 1968-1969 and existed as a team in 1966-1969, playing as an independent for the first two years.The Diamonds played at War Memorial Stadium in 1968 before moving to Little Rock Central High’s Quigley Stadium for the 1969 season.
The CFL folded after the 1969 season.
“It’s a name that has some history here in Arkansas, but it’s the one that our fans asked for overwhelmingly,” said Troy Thompson, the Diamonds’ director of operations.
They asked for it via e-mail and Facebook when the team announced last Friday that it needed to change names and asked for suggestions.
Thompson said that the team received more than 1,000 e-mails and the vast majority of them suggested Diamonds.
“We asked the people of Arkansas for a name that they could be proud of, and I think they delivered,” Thompson said.
The team was forced to switch names after Arena Football 1 bought the assets of AF2 and the Arena Football League out of bankruptcy inDecember. Those assets included the trademark to the name Twisters, the team’s logo and mascot.
The Twisters played in AF2 for 10 seasons. The Diamonds will play in the Indoor Football League.
Thompson and team owners Jim Smith and Jeff Everett tried to negotiate an agreement to buy the rights to the name Twisters from AF1, but the sides couldn’t settle on a price.
And, with the IFL season scheduled to kick off Feb. 28when the team travels to Corpus Christi, Texas, the team needed a name quickly, so Thompson asked for help.
“It was a lot of sleepless nights, but we pulled it together and I think we did a good job,” Thompson said.
The team’s mascot is an unnamed diamond miner, but the Diamonds plan to get some help with that, too. Thompson said the team is working with area elementary schools to create a contest for schoolchildren to come up with a nickname for the team’s mascot.
Thompson also announced the Diamonds have 28 players under contract, including a couple of Arkansans. Former Warren and Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Bret Smith and former Little Rock Central and Arkansas-Pine Bluff running back Dedrick Poole are under contract. Poole also spent three years at Arkansas.
The Diamonds’ first home game is scheduled for March 12 at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
Sports, Pages 25 on 02/05/2010