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The 'Memphis ManiAX' was a short-lived springtime American football team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The team was part of the failed XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. Home games were played in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

Contents

History

Team Leaders

External links

History

The team's name and logo were designed to lead the team's fans into calling the team "The Ax", a shortened form of the word "maniacs". Regardless, the name and logo were roundly criticized by advocates for the rights of the mentally ill, believing that they were derived from a derisive term for a person suffering from mental illness, "maniac", and/or a depiction of a deranged axe-wielding murderer, despite that there was no picture of an axe in the logo.
The ManiAX Director of Player Personnel was Steve Ortmayer, who had become respected in the pro football world for helping to build the Super Bowl XVIII champion Los Angeles Raiders. Steve Ehrhart was General Manager. The head coach was Kippy Brown.
They were in the Western Division with the Los Angeles Xtreme, San Francisco Demons and Las Vegas Outlaws. They finished tied for 2nd place at 5-5 with the Demons but did not make the playoffs as the Demons had the better division record during the season. In comparison to the league, Memphis had a respectable home attendance mark (as it is a motif for Memphis non-NFL professional football), but the league failed Memphis, as is too often the case.
NBC dropped the XFL concept after one season (2001) due to dismal ratings, and when, somewhat to McMahon's surprise and disappointment the United Paramount Nework (UPN) followed suit, the league was then folded and the team disbanded.

Team Leaders

Rushing Yards: 528 - Rashaan Salaam (1994 Heisman Trophy winner)
Receiving Yards: 823 - Charles Jordan
Passing Yards: 1,499 - Jim Druckenmiller

External links

★ http://www.rememberthexfl.8m.com/teampages.html (scroll down)