About Us

Formation

Ipswich Cardinals was formed in 1985 by two American football enthusiasts

at a meeting in the Drunken Docker pub in Ipswich .

The club was formed by Colin Cox and Mark LaPorte both of whom played for

pre-exsisting clubs (Colchester Gladiators & Grays Saxons)

What's in a name?

The name comes from one of Ipswich's most famous sons, Cardinal Thomas

Wolsey, who was Henry VIII's Lord chancellor (Chief advisor to the king). It is a

clever play on the traditional name for some American sports teams, whereas

theirs is generally a referance to the cardinal bird, ours is a tribute to this local

historical figure.

The Birth of a Legend

The teams first training session was set for Jan 1986 at Gainsborough sports centre, Ipswich over a 100 hopefuls turned up for tryouts, a lot of them went by the way but there were a lot of hopefuls. Don Laisure put the hopeful players through their paces along with Gary McCartney. The committee approached Jack Garner who was the head coach of the Woodbridge high school team he became the head coach until he was transferred to Holland, then with the team coach-less JJ

  Johnson was asked to help, JJ and Andy Melton took over the coaching roles Whilst Don

  Laisure stepped down and played instead.

   The Modern Era

  Currently the team plays in the BAFACL Division 1 South East Conference (The second tier of

  the sport). It's head Coach Ian Girling has a very long connection with the club which stems right

  back to the clubs creation. Not only was he one of the founding members of the club, but he

  has served as player (at QB and WR), as offensive coordinator and now finally (as of the start of

  the 2010 season) head coach.

  The club currently has a mix of ages, sizes and experiance within its ranks all of whom are

  commited to driving the club forward and hopefully recreating, and indeed improve upon, their

  successful 2007 season which saw the Cardinals make it to the Britbowl final only to be beaten

  on the day.

  Cardinelles

  Another exciting edition to the Cardinals organisation is the formation of an official cheerleading

  squad. Under the leadership of head coach Kerrianne Crane the squad is rapidly growing and it

  is hoped that they will not only cheer for the Cardinals but will also compete in regional and

  national cheerleading events as well as local appearances and performances, all of which will

  help boost the clubs profile in the community.

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